5 Effective Ways to Optimise Your Retargeting Strategy

Retargeting can be a powerful tool for converting browsers into buyers by serving them with relevant and customised ads based on where they are in the buying cycle.

Whilst retargeting can boost your brand’s visibility, there is more to retargeting than simply serving ads across the display network to everyone who visits your website.

To get a great ROI, you need to optimise your retargeting campaign to go beyond simple segmentation and bidding tactics.

SMART USE OF CONTENT TO ENGAGE COLD PROSPECTS

Some visitors who come to your website may be unwilling to part with their email address even when presented with quality content or offers.

Should you let go of these cold prospects right away? Not too fast. Retargeting them with more content can help bring these prospects to the funnel without needing them to give up their emails.

For example, when a visitor comes to your website, you could retarget them with an ad for a related article. You could then retarget the visitors to a landing page and then to a bigger piece of content that may compel them to provide their email address.

So, you do not always need to advertise products for users to buy upfront. You can indeed bring them to the funnel and nurture them further down with highly captivating content.

LEVERAGE CUSTOM COMBINATION LISTS

It does take quite some effort to sift through data to understand user behaviour to be able to serve your list with the most relevant ads, at the right time. Even then, deep segmentation of your target audience will give a better ROI than basic segmentation.

Use both Google AdWords and Analytics to create customised lists of the web visitors you want to target based on user behaviour as shown by Google Analytics data.

You can create custom lists on just about any factor including the number of times a person visits your website, the goals they complete on the site, how deep into the website they search, visitors who reach the landing page, those who convert, those who bounce, those who purchase certain products etc.

You may find that one custom list could spawn into many more lists, allowing you to go deeper with your segmentation and retargeting strategy. For example, you may deduce from your data that people who arrive at your landing page are closer to making a purchase and this could warrant a custom list targeting people who visited a certain product page before reaching the landing page.

 UPSELL OR CROSS SELL WITH TARGETED ADS 

Your retargeting campaign does not have to end once someone makes a purchase. Done well, retargeting could be used to market products or services related to those your customer bought from your website.

As you create custom lists, do not just focus on retargeting warm or cold visitors. Those who have already shown a clear interest in your business may be more willing to click through the ads you serve them for related products.

The numbers do not lie either: In their book, Marketing Metrics, Paul Farris and Neil Bendle  point out that the probability of an existing customer coming back to buy from you is 60-70% while the probability of a new customer buying from you is just 5-20%.

GET SMART WITH YOUR BIDDING STRATEGY

Let’s face it, any ad campaign is as good as the return it brings against the budget spent. Retargeting campaigns aren’t any different.

Your goal here is to target the right people at the right time within a given budget. Optimal visibility is important so it makes sense to set higher bids to get maximum exposure.

But, don’t just place high bids blindly without looking at what the data is telling you. For example, is there a product that is showing great potential for higher conversions? You could set a higher bid to retarget those who visit this product page.

You could also deem it fit to place a higher bid for ads targeting visitors who did not make a purchase or those who abandoned their shopping carts etc.

Your data will give you a blueprint on the lists that require higher bidding and those that do not.

COMBINE EMAIL WITH DISPLAY AD RETARGETING

Email remains one of the most potent marketing tools in terms of engagement, conversion and overall ROI.  Econsultancy figures show that three quarters of companies surveyed said email offers ‘good’ to ‘excellent’ ROI.

Incorporating retargeting strategies into your email marketing game can be a powerful way to consistently bring back prospects to the funnel.

You may find that there are people on your list who never open your emails and others may open but never engage with these emails.

Retargeting them with relevant ads across the Display Network can be a great way to keep your email list engaged and make your brand visible again without bombarding them with more emails and risking outright unsubscribes.

Retargeting Strategy

Retargeting is undoubtedly an innovative strategy for brands wanting to stay visible. A lot goes into ensuring that your campaign delivers the highest possible ROI and this includes aggregating and filtering through data to keep track of audience behaviour, understanding their needs and identifying areas in your overall strategy that need improvement.