How To Get The Most From Your Retargeting Campaign

When Retargeting was first rolled out, it was a fairly straightforward process.  A visitor goes to your website, you drop a cookie on the person, follow that person around the web and show your ad, the person comes back to your website and converts.

But, as with all things digital, it is constantly evolving, just as the customer path to conversion is constantly evolving with it.  An Adobe study found that the average consumer goes through at least five touch points before converting, so assuming that the same ad shown over and over again is going to get people to convert, probably isn’t going to work.  All you are going to do is succeed in annoying the very person you are trying to cultivate as a new customer.  What do they mean by “touch points?”  That could be any number of interactions that a consumer goes through before deciding to purchase including doing a Google search, going to competitors websites to do comparisons, doing research on-line about your product or service, to picking up a phone and calling you.

So, what are the best ways to win a customer through Retargeting? We recommend following these steps for a successful Retargeting Campaign:
Use Frequency Caps.   A frequency cap is a piece of code placed on your website that limits the number of times a person will be shown your ad as they are surfing the web.  We recommend a monthly limit of 20-25 times, enough to keep your business top of mind without annoying the consumer.
Use Conversion Tags. Also a piece of code placed on your website, but this code “kills” the retargeting after someone converts.  Did you ever buy something online and then continue to see an ad for that product asking you to come back and purchase?  Really annoying…big waste of digital impressions and budget.
Create Ads Specifically For Retargeting.  Are you showing the same ad to brand new consumers who have never visited your website as well as to your retargeted visitors?  Don’t!  Your ads targeted to brand new potential customers needs a call-to-action focused on “learn more” whereas retargeted visitors know who you are – they are further down the sales funnel.  They now need to see ads with a strong call-to-action for whey they should come back – like “buy now” and special offers.
Segment Your Audience And Ad Creative.  Separate your website visitors according to what page/products/services they visited.  Your ad could feature an offer specific to the page they were interested in on your website.  You don’t have to run the same ad to everyone you are retargeting.
Rotate Your Ad Creative. When you are showing an ad to someone 20-25 times in a month, it makes sense to have different versions of your ads, even if they are subtle, to combat “banner blindness.”  You know those billboards on the way to work that you stop noticing because you pass them every day?  The same thing can happen with digital ads.  Keep it interesting!

And don’t forget to use View Through Pixels as well to make sure you are tracking EVERYONE who comes back to your website after seeing an ad, not just the ones who click.