Most people who visit your store will not make a purchase on their first visit to your store. They will look around your store add something to their cart and then get distracted. Then they are gone for good. Retargeting is how your online store can win these customers back to your store. It is one of the ways to get a good return on investment in digital marketing today for your online store.
What Is Retargeting?
Retargeting means showing ads, emails or messages on your website to people who have already visited your store looked at a product added something to their cart or made a purchase before from your store. This is done to bring them back to your store and make a sale from your store. Retargeting is different from prospecting which targets people who have not visited your store before. Retargeting works with people who already know your brand and because of this retargeting often gets two to three times clicks and sales than regular ads for your online store.
How It Works
Retargeting uses technology to track what people do on your website. When someone visits your site, a small piece of code called a pixel is triggered. This pixel logs what the person does on your site like looking at a product or adding something to their cart. Then the person is shown ads or emails that’re relevant to what they did on your site. For example if someone visits your site the pixel is triggered the person is put into a group. Then they are shown ads or emails that are relevant to what they did on your site. These ads or emails are shown to them on websites in their email or on your site. The results of these ads and emails are then used to make them better for your store.
Main Types of Retargeting
1. Display and Social Ad Retargeting. This is when ads are shown to people who have already visited your site. These ads can be on websites or on media for your online store.
2. Dynamic Product Retargeting. This is when ads show the products that someone looked at or added to their cart from your store. This type of retargeting is very effective for your store.
3. Email Retargeting. This is when emails are sent to people who have abandoned their cart or have not visited your site in a while from your store.
4. On-Site Retargeting. This is when messages are shown to people while they are on your site. These messages can be pop-ups or banners for your store.
5. Cross-Channel Retargeting. This is when ads, emails and messages on your site are all coordinated to show a message to people about your store.
6. Lookalike Retargeting. This is when retargeting data is used to find people who’re similar to your existing customers of your online store.
Why It Matters
Recovers Lost Sales. Retargeting helps to get back people who did not buy anything on their visit to your store.
Improves Return On Ad Spend. Retargeting helps to make the most of your ad budget by targeting people who’re already interested in your store.
Shortens The Path To Purchase. Retargeting helps to remind people about your store and bring them back to make a purchase from your store.
Builds Loyalty. Retargeting helps to build loyalty with your customers by showing them ads and emails about your store.
Best Practices
Segment Your Audience. Divide your customers into groups based on what they did on your site like what products they looked at or what they added to their cart. This helps to show them ads and emails that are relevant to them and your online store.
Personalize Your Ads. Show people the products they looked at or added to their cart from your store.
Manage How Often You Show Ads. Do not show people ads or they will get annoyed with your online store.
Time Your Ads. Show people ads at the time like a reminder within an hour of them visiting your site.
Respect Peoples Privacy. Make sure you are not tracking people without their permission and always follow privacy rules for your store.
Test Your Ads. Always test your ads to see what works best for your store.
Real-World Patterns
A fashion store that sends emails to people who abandoned their cart and also shows them ads on websites can recover sales than just sending emails. An electronics store that divides its customers into groups based on what they did on the site can show them ads. A beauty store that sends emails to people when they are likely to run out of a product can turn them into repeat customers of their store.
Things To Track
Return On Ad Spend. How money you make from your ads compared to how much you spend on ads for your online store.
Conversion Rate. How many people make a purchase after clicking on an ad about your store.
Click-Through Rate. How many people click on an ad about your store.
Cart Recovery Rate. How many people who abandoned their cart come back to make a purchase from your store.
Cost Per Acquisition. How much it costs to get one person to make a purchase from your store.
Frequency. How times someone sees an ad about your online store.
Average Order Value Lift. Whether retargeting increases the amount people spend on your store.
Common Mistakes
Showing the ad to everyone regardless of what they did on your site, which can be annoying for your store.
Showing ads many times, which can also annoy people and hurt your online store.
Not paying attention to people who have already made a purchase from your online store.
Not excluding people who have already converted which can waste money for your online store.
Not following privacy rules, which can get your online store in trouble.
Not checking how well your retargeting is working, which can hurt your online store.
Quick-Start Checklist
Install and verify tracking pixels on your site for your online store.
Divide your customers into groups based on what they did on your site like what products they looked at or what they added to their cart.
Plan when to show ads to each group and make sure to time them right for your online store.
Create ads that show the products people looked at or added to their cart from your store.
Limit how times someone sees an ad so you do not annoy people and hurt your online store.
Do not show ads to people who have already made a purchase from your online store.
Make sure you are following privacy rules and always respect peoples privacy for your online store.
our online store.
Check how well your retargeting is working every month and make changes as needed for your online store.Retargeting is very important for your store because it helps to get back people who did not buy anything on their first visit to your store. It is one of the ways to get a good return on investment in digital marketing today for your online store.
