How to retarget your users in the right way? 💵

You leave money on the table if you aren’t using retargeting ads. It is as simple as that. Now that I have got your attention - let’s understand in simple terms what retargeting is.

Retargeting is using ads to target prospects who interacted with your website and, in most cases, added something to their cart but later abandoned it.

Do you remember seeing related ads about the item, that you browsed for on Amazon but did not buy? That is retargeting. We will now see some practical aspects of retargeting.

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🧐 Right audience - Right ad

Marketing has a rule of six or seven, i.e. a user sees six or seven ads of a particular product before buying it. But repeatedly showing the same ad can annoy users and even creep them out. You need to mix it up. The trick is to show the ad based on the stage of the funnel your user is in. 

Looked at your home page - Create "social proof" ads. Share testimonials, customer reviews, case studies, etc. More branding ads to boost your credibility. 

Viewed a product - Retarget them with an ad showing a specific product's photos, USP, and reviews.

Added a product to the cart - Add a discount code for the product to push them to complete their order. Add scarcity: "Only 5 left in stock", "Offer ends in 3 days!".

Placed an order - Show them an upsell offer, "frequently bought together" items, a prolonged guarantee, added-value service, and VIP discounts on a new product.

Read your Sales Page - Users have definite interest but just didn't take action yet. We can serve them a follow-up sales page, case study, article or discount.

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🤔 Challenges in Retargeting

Privacy settings are the biggest challenge for retargeting. From the time Apple’s iOS 14 came, users had the option not to share their device data. As per estimates, 70% of the users have not consented to share their data. In such cases, web retargeting becomes the best option.

Instead of directly taking the users to the app store, take them to a landing page where they can share their email address to receive the link for the app download. Or send the app signup email to Facebook and start retargeting the user with the email. Ad interactions are also a good way to capture these signals.

TLDR; Privacy settings can be a challenge to retargeting efforts but there is always a way out and retargeting isn’t dead. 

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💡 How to create retargeting ads that convert?

Messaging: The best retargeting ads’ pitch is not the same as the person’s first encounter (or touchpoint) with the original ad. It is all about providing additional context. Even deeper, it is subtle objection handling w.r.t price and social validity. 

Segmentation: Create the right audience segments and show the retargeting ad most suited to them. For example, a person is browsing a free course on the website and dropped off, then the retargeting ad can contain a free e-book or guide they can download for free. Test different segmentations of the audience and retargeting efforts: retargeting emails to cold audiences, audience who have placed an order x days back - show ads on related items etc. 

Frequency: While the audience needs to see your ad 6-7 times, they don’t need to see all 7 ads in 2 days. Keep relevant gaps between the retargeting ads and play with the duration. 

For retargeting ads to convert, the design has to be attractive, and the copy has to be compelling. Blindly retargeting can lead to ad fatigue and even cause the CAC with retargeting campaigns to be even higher. 

Right segmentation of your audience and showing the right messaging is key for your retargeting campaigns to convert.

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Did you know?

Aim to send reminders to customers 1 to 3 days after they abandon their e-commerce carts in order to boost sales. Retargeting too soon could have the opposite effect and negatively impact your sales figures. 

Note: This advice does not apply when employing pricing promotions or scarcity tactics (e.g. "only 2 days left") in your retargeting efforts. If utilizing discounts, exercise caution to avoid conditioning customers to merely wait for such offers.