Convert Visitors to Customers with Retargeting Campaigns

For most e-commerce platforms, one of the major concerns is the high bounce rate and the low conversion rate from website visitors. Some studies show that 98% of visitors leave a website without converting. This means there is a very high percentage of users who have interacted with your website, but have not made a purchase on their first visit. The best way to attract these visitors back to your website and convert them is through ‘Retargeting’.

What Are Retargeting Ads and Why Should You Use Them?

Retargeting ads are 76% more likely to get clicks than regular display ads. They have the ability to make or break an online business. If you invest extensively in bringing traffic to your website, the effort and spend will be in vain if the visitors do not convert.

This is where retargeting helps. It is a strategy to bring back ‘window shoppers’ by re-capturing their interest. Each time your ad is displayed to customers, brand recognition increases while maintaining product memory. After Google brand search ads, retargeting is the most important ad campaign that you can run. Building an effective drip marketing strategy is impossible without retargeting ads.

Retargeting works by adding JavaScript code to your webpages. Every time a visitor comes to your site, it drops an anonymous browser cookie which then tracks the user as they browse online. Whenever this user lands on another website with the same ad network provider as you, they start seeing your retargeting ads. You can have different snippet codes and tailor your ads based on the action taken by the user. This will significantly increase the chances of conversion. Criteo is a top-notch retargeting platform that can be leveraged to deliver a personalized shopping experience.

What Are the Best Practices for Retargeting?

1) Timing is key: There are a couple of factors to consider based upon the stage of the customer journey –

• Time between the first visit and the first ad
• Frequency of ads

For instance, if customers add a product to the shopping cart and do not complete the transaction, they could be immediately retargeted with coupons as the intent to buy is stronger. You also have to consider category behavior. People shopping for travel can be targeted almost immediately. Whereas, those browsing luxury products can be targeted at a later stage because the consideration stage is more drawn out. 

You must also set a frequency cap to avoid overexposure. Make sure you avoid displaying too many ads which could end up annoying potential customers.

2) Structure your campaigns based on engagement level: The first step in segmentation is to define your goals – whether it is awareness or conversion. This depends on where the visitor is in the marketing funnel.

• Awareness campaigns – This goal can be a precursor to conversion campaigns, directed at those that have had minimal interaction with your website. Focus on communicating the value you offer as a brand. The key metrics here would be impressions and engagement.
• Conversion campaigns – Ensure that users are provided with all the information required to make a decision. This can be done with a clear call-to-action that directs them to a specific landing page. For example, if someone visited the product page earlier, it shows a certain level of interest. Highlight the key benefit in the retargeting ad and elaborate on how it caters to user needs on the landing page. The success of conversion campaigns is defined by more specific actions such as website clicks, form submission or cost-per-lead.

Once you define your goals, you can segment users based on behaviour. Use data such as age, gender, interests and location to build user profiles and narrow your targeting and optimize ad spends.

3) Target existing/old customers: Google provides you with a window to target users up to 540 days after their last visit to your website while Facebook provides a window of up to 180 days. You can utilize this window to re-engage with old visitors or customers for new product launches, time-sensitive offers, and shopping events. For example, when you are conducting clearance sales or launching an upgraded version of an older product, you can target consumers who have already purchased your products in the past and would have a greater brand affinity.

4) Know when to stop: Retargeting a user who is not interested in your product is a waste of your time and marketing budget. Also, customers who have completed a purchase can be moved to a separate campaign with other goals such as upselling or cross-selling to avoid spending ad dollars on already achieved actions. To pause ads for such visitors, we use a burn snippet, which eliminates converted users as well as those who did not click on the ad after a pre-defined number of impressions.

Retargeting ads offer website owners an opportunity to make hyper-focused, data-driven decisions to convert casual browsers into customers. Not doing retargeting is like leaving money on the table. As with every marketing strategy, retargeting ads must be in sync with the overall digital plan.

Kiran Patil is the founder and CEO of Growisto, an E-commerce marketing and technology company based out of Navi Mumbai. He has 16+ years of experience in e-commerce, phone commerce, and digital marketing. Growisto helps brands & private labels grow their businesses on platforms such as Amazon and their own website.

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