Did you know that 96% of website visitors don’t buy or subscribe on their first visit?
Moreover, 97% of website visitors who leave a site never return.
The point is, your SEO, social media campaigns, Google Ads, and emails can bring your customers to your website. But what happens after they leave?
Well, there’s a way to reach out to potential customers who’ve already seen what you’re offering, but didn’t make a purchase. This is known as remarketing or retargeting.
When you retarget a website visitor, they’re 43% more likely to make the purchase. So how can small businesses use remarketing to boost their sales and brand recall in 2021? Read on to find out!
What is Remarketing?
Business is all about relationships.
Start-ups and SMBs focus on developing personal relationships with their clients early on, while the more established corporations seek long-term relationships with their clients. And retargeting helps you achieve this.
Remarketing or retargeting leverages technology to show personalized ads to people who previously showed interest in your company, product, or niche. This can be a Google search, website visit, or an app download.
By using the all-too-famous “cookies”, you can track your site’s visitors wherever they go on the web.
You will have an idea of how retargeting works if you showed interest in a product or service online, and then saw ads popping in your inbox or social media feed.
A bit spooky? Perhaps. Highly effective? Absolutely!
Remarketing Statistics at a Glance
Here are some statistics from last year that demonstrate the power of this marketing tactic:
Almost 88% of marketers prefer website retargeting
70% of marketers prefer retargeting for brand awareness
68% of agencies offer remarketing as a service
Among the best platforms for retargeting are email and Facebook. More than 65% of remarketers prefer Facebook Exchange. LinkedIn has also emerged as an effective retargeting platform, offering a click-through-rate (CTR) of 30% on average.
Overall, retargeting is an effective marketing technique to reach out to potential customers who previously interacted with your brand. 37% of customers are likely to click a retargeted ad.
These are a few of the reasons why retargeting beats traditional ad placement with a 1,046% efficiency rate.
Let’s go over the basics of an effective remarketing strategy for SMBs.
Remarketing Tips for Small Businesses
Here are five crucial tips to effectively retarget your audience:
1. Know Your Audience
You can’t just display ads all over the place. You need to know your audience and personalize your remarketing campaign likewise. Otherwise, you will just waste your marketing budget.
So, who to retarget?
For a service-based business, you can retarget visitors who visited a specific page on your website.
For example, a wellness provider can retarget different people on the pages they visit the most. So, one set of ads can retarget people who want to lower their stress levels, while another can focus on positive thinking.
Remember, the average consumer compares several websites before signing up for a service. And the more targeted your ad, the higher your chances of standing out among competitors.
On the other hand, if you have an e-commerce website, your best bet is to retarget visitors who bounce off the check-out page.
These are visitors who searched for your product, proceeded to make the purchase, but abandoned the cart. Maybe it was the price tag that turned them off, in which case, you can retarget them with ads that promote discounts on selected products.
Sometimes people abandon the cart because they had second thoughts about the product. Or maybe they get distracted by something. In these scenarios, retargeting gives them a gentle reminder.
For instance, if you have an online clothing store, and one of your visitors clicked on a linen shirt but didn’t buy it, the appearance of the same shirt on his Facebook feed can push them to return to the cart and even go through with the purchase. And you can offer a discount or free shipping to further entice them.
The bottom line is that you should know the person you are remarketing to. Learn more about buyer personas here.
2. Personalize Landing Pages
It’s not enough to customize retarget ads according to your visitors’ preferences. You also have to personalize the landing page.
Consider the example above. If you retarget the ad that offers a 10% discount on a linen shirt, make sure it links to the relevant landing page. If someone clicks on the ad and is taken to your homepage or products page, chances are the visitor will bounce.
So make sure your landing pages are consistent with the retarget ads.
3. Measure Performance
There are several remarketing platforms out there. However, not all of them will perform for your specific brand. So, once your remarketing campaign generates sufficient data, look at the highest and lowest performing platforms.
This way, you can save your ad spend by reducing or eliminating ads from websites that perform poorly and channel the funds towards high-performing platforms.
4. Don’t Be Pushy
Let’s face it, retargeting can come across as creepy. And the last thing you want is to push away potential customers with an aggressive advertising campaign.
That’s why you should go easy on the ad frequency. The best platforms allow you to adjust the ad frequency for your remarketing campaigns easily.
And once your ad manages to convert some visitors, the rule of thumb is to quit showing ads to them. You can easily do this by installing a tracking pixel on the conversion page. Once a visitor completes the conversion process, they will be removed from the remarketing campaign.
However, many businesses would still want to target buyers for upsells, upgrades, and renewals. For instance, if a customer subscribes to your 3-month wellness program, you can retarget them to renew their subscription.
5. Keep Testing
Finally, it’s crucial to test your remarketing campaigns to see what works and what doesn’t. Otherwise you will lose both your advertising dollars and potential customers.
That’s why, consider A/B testing ad sizes, designs, CTAs, and even landing pages. Sometimes, minor tweaks to your CTAs or creatives can significantly improve CTR. Carefully decide the metrics to test the effectiveness of your campaign.
Ultimately, you want to provide your audience a smooth and hassle-free process from the moment they see your ad till they enter their credit card and check out. So make sure that the landing page is consistent with the ad and there are no broken links.
Also, test your checkout process to get rid of any bottlenecks that render your (re)marketing efforts useless.
Common Remarketing Mistakes You Should Avoid
As with any marketing tactic, there are some pitfalls with remarketing. Here are some common ones:
Not segmenting properly
A visitor who bounced from your product page and a visitor who just visited your homepage are in two very different places in the purchase funnel. A properly segmented remarketing campaign connects with both visitors in different, more effective ways.
Showing too many or too few impressions
Too many impressions can annoy your audience. While you will slip out of your target’s mind with too few impressions. Your digital marketing manager needs to find the sweet spot for your business/campaign.
Not refreshing your creatives
Seeing the same ad for 5 months can slash CTR by 50%. Don’t make the mistake of having your remarketing creatives go stale. Keep refreshing to avoid performance dips.
Not utilizing the power of promotions
Suppose your remarketing campaign also focuses on a user who left your cart with a pricey/high-margin product. This is a golden opportunity to incentivize this prospective buyer by offering a discount with the retargeted ad.
How to Write Ads and Landing Pages for Remarketing
Whether you are launching a new marketing campaign or retargeting your visitors, ad and landing page copy plays a crucial role in making your efforts successful. And that’s why you should give some thought before writing ads and landing pages. Here are a few tips to help you out:
Keep them short (even shorter than the max. character limit)
Use words that sell
Include a CTA
For best results, hire professional writers to manage your retargeting copy. Over to you!