Retargeting is simply described as the process of advertising to people who have already visited your website and who are already familiar with your product(s). By using social media, the integration between Facebook’s pixel and a company’s website allows businesses to retarget prospective customers from their very first interaction with a brand, all the way to website checkout.

Your website visitors can be segmented by pages they’ve visited, time spent on a specific page, and almost any other behavior or action taken on their path to purchase. With the ability to track user behavior at such a detailed level, retargeting strategies have evolved to become more sophisticated, making them even bigger revenue drivers for businesses.

What is Facebook retargeting and why does it work?

Facebook retargeting allows you to reach prospective customers who have shown an interest in your business or product, based on their online activity. This can range from something as passive as a like on Facebook to actions with a high purchase intent like clicking ‘Add to Cart’ on your website.

If you have website traffic and are not running retargeting ads of any kind, there’s a good chance you’re missing out on potential sales. Whether you want to warm up your latest followers or remind past website browsers about the products they were interested in, retargeting can play a pivotal role in most marketing strategies.

Making the most of your creative for retargeting

One of the best ways to continue optimizing your campaigns for better results is to experiment with creative formats, like videos, photos, and ad copy.

While segmenting your audience properly will set your retargeting campaigns up for success, itis equally important to make sure that the actual ads your potential customers see are converting.

Dynamic product ads

If you’ve seen a retargeting ad while on social media or while browsing the internet lately, it likely took the form of a dynamic product ad. A dynamic product ad (DPA) pulls website images, titles, prices, and descriptions directly from websites you’ve visited to create a carousel of products you might be interested in.

These types of retargeting ads are very effective at bringing website browsers back to their cart or checkout to complete their purchase. The Facebook algorithm personalizes which products are shown to only include ones the person has viewed or is likely to purchase based on their past behavior.

In order to create dynamic product ads, you will need to upload your product catalogue toFacebook. Once this is done, you can create a campaign with the Catalogue Sales objective and start targeting your audiences with DPAs.

Using photos and videos

While DPAs make great advertising creative for retargeting, you should also test using creative that goes beyond static website photos. Other creative contents worth integrating into your retargeting strategies are:

●   Photos that are taken by customers or influencers using your product
●   Videos demonstrating how your product looks or functions
●   Videos answering frequently asked questions from customers
●   Any new products you’ve launched lately that they may not have seen on your website

After testing multiple creative formats, it is likely that your overall Facebook retargeting strategy will include a mixture of DPAs for lower-funnel retargeting audiences, and informative videos for those who haven’t yet made it to a product page.

Copywriting techniques for retargeting

Aside from the media used in your retargeting strategies, it is important to also write a copy that will speak to questions customers have during the consideration phase of their purchasing journey.

If a customer hasn’t yet converted on your website but has shown interest in your brand or product, what can you say to convince them that the purchase is worthwhile?

Here are some top pre-purchase concerns and how you can reassure customers.

Price:

●   Highlight the value (quality, number of uses, etc.) of the product
●   Offer a discount code to first-time customers to sweeten the deal

Shipping and returns:

●   Do you offer free shipping on orders over a certain value? Call it out in the copy
●   If you have an easy return and exchange program, consider surfacing it here

Quality:

●   Feature a customer quote that addresses any concerns a prospect might have around the quality of the product
●   Talk about the materials and/or process used to create your product to give customers peace of mind

“In our middle-of-the-funnel retargeting, our copy aims to showcase our unique selling propositions or brand origin story in a succinct, easy-to-digest way,” says Jake Newbould, Head of Digital Marketing at Piglet, “We’re trying to persuade already-engaged customers why you should buy Piglet products over our competitors.”

The best creative for retargeting both reminds and reassures customers about your brand and your product. In addition to showing them relevant products through DPAs, use the post copy as an opportunity to fill in the blanks for them whether it be through social proof or highlighting your customer service.

Facebook retargeting: Turn more browsers into buyers

A strong retargeting strategy will allow your ads to reach the right people with the right message at the right time. Timing plays such a key role in the decision-making process that you should structure your entire strategy around segmenting your customers based on their user history.

By creating a retargeting funnel that works from the first interaction a customer has with your brand all the way down to their final decision to click Checkout, you can make sure no potential sales are left on the table.

Even better, if you can pair together creative that addresses any questions and concerns while providing social proof and a frequent reminder of what they viewed, your retargeting strategy can persuade passive visitors to become enthusiastic shoppers.

Source: Shopify Blog 

In the coming months, businesses are going to become more reliant than ever on their digital strategy. Without wanting to sound too alarmist, in many cases it will be the deciding factor in whether they make it through the tough times ahead.

The unprecedented, almost-total disappearance of all channels related to live events and conferences, and the increasing barriers on face-to-face business, pose an enormous challenge. Key to resilience is the development of ongoing contingencies to mitigate against this loss.

B2B companies, in particular, rely on the annual circuit of trade shows and exhibitions to network and build customer relations. In industries that are not digital-native, they may also be less sophisticated in their digital growth and customer relations strategies. For smaller businesses especially, used to getting new customers through word-of-mouth referrals or on the strength of a hard-won reputation, their loss is coming as a shock. 

Larger companies are also now finding themselves in the position of having potentially lost millions through cancelled events. They won’t claw back the hours of time and expense spent on preparations for this year, but insurance and flexible cancellation policies will leave them with marketing budget to reassign. Digital is likely to be the clear winner here, and companies – including ones that may not so much as had a Facebook page before – will need to move into social marketing, content marketing, SEO and influencer-led campaigns.

Of course, this means there’s opportunities out there for the taking, if you are a B2B supplier in an industry that has been slow to adapt to digital marketing. A key factor in resilience is adaptability. If it’s standard in your industry to go out and meet new customers face-to-face before you do business, adapting may mean opening new channels over web or social media platforms where introductions can be made and relationships fostered. In the coming months, your prospective clients are going to be less open to the idea of letting you walk through the door and shake their hand – and no-one really has any idea how long this will last and whether this will lead to longer-term change.

As Scott Jones, CEO of 123 Internet Group, is quoted saying, “We are in uncertain times, but with the increase of remote working and a collaborative approach, companies are turning to digital channels and embracing the transformation. We have seen a real spike during the last few weeks from companies wishing to create or update websites, launch new e-commerce channels and create social media campaigns focused on home-workers and a real focus on using influencers and SEO to reach new audiences.”

Being confined to the office – or even the home – rather than on the road on sales visits or at events, means marketers have more time to develop digital strategies. This means researching where your customers can be found online, and how different approaches and tactics might impact your success. If your organization previously put token efforts into digital channels – because like a lot of other businesses, you had built your networks offline and that had always seemed to work – now is the time to revisit them. That could be as simple as giving your website and social pages a refresh, or a more innovative approach.

Ratnesh Singh, head of global business at events technology agency Buzznation said that he found out quickly that clients did not want to lose the networking opportunities provided by the conference circuit. On top of this, they are looking for new ways to spend their remaining marketing budgets. He said, “With our corporate clients, events often consume 50 to 60 per cent of their marketing budgets. They still want to spend that money and they are open to trying something new.

“There’s a window of opportunity here – when things are back to normal budgets will be going back into live events and that’s what they will be spending their time on.

“But if they see the benefits and opportunities that digital channels can offer, this will become part of their long-term marketing contingency plans.”

As well as offering immersive 3D virtual events, Buzznation has also found that businesses want to become more sophisticated in their use of live social platforms. Singh said “Clients are turning to Facebook or LinkedIn Live. Often these are platforms they have dabbled with in the past but never fully integrated into their marketing strategy. Now they see value in partnering with companies like us that know how to help them make the most of these channels, to achieve better production values and more targeted campaigns.”

It’s certainly true that the coming weeks, or months – or however long this situation lasts – will be a challenging time for any company that isn’t ready to think about how they will replace the opportunities that have been lost.

As long as businesses approach the shift to digital marketing strategically, there’s no reason why it should just serve as an emergency fill-in, but could carry on providing long-term value when the world eventually gets back to normal. And of course, it would make companies more resilient to deal with any future pandemics.

Source: Forbes.com