The average website converts only 2% of its total traffic into sales. That means 98% of customers reaching your site are a missed sales opportunity.
What if you could reach that 98% after they leave your website and head elsewhere on the web?
Retargeting achieves this goal and helps you continue the marketing conversation with those potential buyers even after they leave your website. Those ads that seem eerily prescient, displaying content from sites you’ve recently visited, is the work of retargeting.
How Does Retargeting Work?
Retargeting uses simple JavaScript code to anonymously "follow" visitors of your website once they leave your site and travel elsewhere on the web. This cookie-based technology starts when you place a small, unnoticeable piece of code called a pixel onto your site. When a new visitor arrives on your site, the code drops an anonymous cookie on their browser. It doesn’t affect your site performance or their browser. As site visitors go about their day and visit other websites, the cookie tells retargeting advertising providers when to serve ads. This ensures that people who previously visited your site will see your ads.
As an example, let’s imagine that you’re a golf lover. You’ve researched new golf clubs but left the website without purchasing anything. You now have moved on to check the weather for tomorrow’s tee time. There on the Weather Channel site is an advertisement for that gorgeous set of clubs you just looked at. That’s retargeting in action.
How Effective Is Retargeting?
Marketers consider retargeting essential to their digital advertising programs. If you’re not using retargeting, the effectiveness of these ads should persuade you to give them a chance.
- 70% of site visitors experiencing retargeted ads will purchase products
- 25% of people enjoy seeing retargeted ads
- Three out of five people remember seeing retargeted ads and eventually make a purchase
- Click-through on retargeted ads is 10x higher than for traditional ads
In addition to the quantifiable benefits listed above, there are additional marketing benefits from using retargeting:
- Build your brands. By providing an ad that links back to your company’s website, you’ll continue to build brand awareness among your target audience.
- Display ads to viewers already engaged in your brand, products and services.
- Increase conversion rates.
- Collect data on site visitors.
- Align editorial content to your site visitors to continually improve engagement.
Retargeting: Get in the Action
One of the biggest platforms for retargeting ads is Facebook. Facebook has 2 billion daily active users, which means that 2 out of every 7 people worldwide are exposed to advertisements on the site every day. Facebook’s platform offers robust retargeting potential.
Once you’ve selected your target customers, consider where they will land once they click your ad. Do you need to set up a unique landing page to thank them for clicking the ad or otherwise incentivize them to make a purchase? Should you direct them to a specific page on your website? Or do you send them to an established promotional page?
Next, you’ll need to set up the retargeting data in the platform of your choice. The code for the cookie needs to be dropped onto your website, and then the campaign launches. Some companies offer discounts or free shipping, for example, to reward customers for responding to their retargeting ads and marketing campaign. The choice is yours on what message you would like to deliver to your target customers.
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