What is retargeting? How do retargeting ads work? (2024)

Most people don’t buy anything after their first visit to your site.

E-commerce stores only convert 5.2% On average, your traffic will decrease, and without a strategy to get your website visitors back, you’re wasting revenue. That’s where retargeting comes in.

Learn how retargeting works and discover tips and apps to create ads that stick in your customers’ minds and are profitable.

What is retargeting?

Retargeting is a type of online advertising advertisement It targets users who have previously engaged with your brand in some way: visiting your brand’s website, clicking on a product, or abandoning a shopping cart.

“Retargeting ads are shown to people who have already visited your website,” says Daniel Patricio, founder of Bull and Cleaver. “These ads are intended to bring them back to your website and get them to buy your product.”

Retargeting and Remarketing

Retargeting and Remarketing These are often used interchangeably, but they are different strategies with separate goals and channels.

The benefits of retargeting ads

Several 96% of people People who come to your website aren’t ready to buy yet. A retargeting campaign is like dating: you don’t meet someone for the first time and fall in love. It usually takes a few interactions before they commit.

Retargeting ads have several advantages:

• It’s personalized. Retargeting ads reference past interactions with your brand, reminding customers of the products they viewed, liked, and added to their cart.
• It’s effective. By precisely segmenting your customers by their behavior, you can deliver more relevant ads with higher click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates (CVR).

How retargeting works

Retargeting works across a variety of channels, including paid search, email, social media, etc. There are two common approaches to retargeting.

Pixel-Based Retargeting

this Paid advertising This technique allows marketers to display targeted ads to visitors who have already visited their website. This is achieved by placing a “pixel” or code on the site.

These pixels install cookies on shoppers’ browsers, Google AdsTikTok and Meta can track users’ online behavior and show relevant ads as they browse.

Here’s how it works for shoppers:

1. Customers browse your website, scroll through your best-selling items, and maybe even add items to their cart.
2. They will leave your website without purchasing.
3. Users see retargeting ads while they are reading an article, scrolling through Facebook, or watching YouTube.
4. Customers will remember the great products that were in your store and will come back to purchase more.

Retargeting helps build brand awareness and increase conversions by serving relevant, targeted ads to interested customers. Plus, it lets you automate your advertising while you focus on other aspects of your business.

List-Based Retargeting

List-based retargeting campaigns use data about your potential or existing customers to deliver ads to them. These campaigns require two steps:

1. Share the list of email addresses on social platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn.
2. The platform then finds people with matching email addresses and serves them your ad.

List-based retargeting is less common than pixel-based retargeting, but it can be effective at re-engaging past customers and prospects.

Because your lists are made up of known contacts, you can create targeted, customized ads that convert. This strategy works well if you have a lot of data and can cross-sell and upsell to the potential customers on your list.

💡 Want to set up an email retargeting campaign for your store? Download the Klaviyo Email Marketing & SMS App Now.

Best practices for creating retargeting ads

To get the most out of your retargeting campaigns, follow these best practices:

1. Use ads to grow your audience

While it’s tempting to focus on getting that first sale from a new customer, Reza Khadjavi says you’re more likely to retain them by getting them to sign up for your newsletter. Performance Marketing agency Shoelace.

“Don’t feel the need to constantly get someone to buy something,” advises Reza, “You can use retargeting campaigns to get them to sign up for your email list, so you can always reach out to them for free.”

2. Think beyond the inbox

Growing your email list isn’t a magic bullet, and Reza has experienced firsthand that email marketing is most effective when combined with a retargeting campaign.

“Email is always a great channel,” says Reza, “but sometimes even if people sign up for your list, your email will show up in the promotions tab and people won’t see it.

“Even if people receive and open your email, there’s a lot of value in reinforcing that message through retargeting, because they might see the email but forget to take action because they’re on the go. Then later on they might see an Instagram video ad with the same message and think, ‘Oh, that’s what I was thinking about buying.'”

The combination of these efforts is called a multi-touch campaign, which delivers a consistent message to your target customers across a variety of touchpoints.

3. Start small and understand your profit margins

The best way to learn is to get in the game and run some ads, which is why even seasoned pros will start small when running a new campaign and see how it goes. Growth Crew First, my Profit rate This is to ensure you don’t exceed your budget.

“There are a lot of variables when running Facebook ads,” he says, “so make sure to start off with a small daily or lifetime budget, with a conversion goal. Many marketers also set a bid cap per conversion, but to do this, you need to know what your margins are.”

“If your average cart size is $60, how much are you willing to pay to capture that order? It takes some time to figure out the sweet spot. You want to maximize conversions without overpaying. Maybe it’s $10 per conversion, maybe $20. It’s different for every retailer.”

To implement Brent’s advice, look at your company’s budget and determine your profit margins.

4. Capture attention with product page retargeting

Product page retargeting is the easiest way to make money from your advertising efforts by getting people who visit your store, see your products in action, and then buy them.

These ads are more effective the shorter the time period: for example, someone who visited a particular page in the last 3 days is more likely to make a purchase than someone who visited it in the last 30 days.

5. Test retargeting ads on your homepage and collection pages

A common retargeting strategy is to show ads to users who have visited your homepage or collection pages. These ads are different from product page ads because the viewer hasn’t seen the product before.

Rather than focusing on the benefits of their product, these ads emphasize why they are a great brand to do business with.

These ads are beneficial in the following ways:

• Remind potential customers that you exist
• It builds trust by letting potential customers know that other customers prefer to buy from you (“social proof”).
• Create positive brand perception among your targets
• Showcase your products and encourage clicks
• Make a strong call to action

Check out how Cindy Joseph’s BOOM! approaches advertising on their homepage and collection pages to demonstrate social proof.

How to create a retargeting ad

Several platforms offer retargeting ads functionality. Here’s how to implement retargeting ads on the most popular platforms:

Facebook and Instagram

Set up Facebook Retargeting Once you’ve set up your Shopify store, campaigns are easy Shopify’s Facebook and Instagram channels Your product has been synced with Facebook.

Here’s how to set up a Meta campaign using Facebook as an example:

1. At Shopify, marketing.
2. click Create a campaign.
3. click Facebook Dynamic Retargeting Ads.
4. Enter a name for your activity and ad text.
5. Set a budget.
6. Set the start date and time, and optionally the end date and time.
7. click Public Activities.

Shopify Apps Like AdRoll We help you deliver and optimize your retargeting ads on Google and other advertising platforms Social media platform.

Tick ​​tock

Also, TikTok AdvertisingLike Facebook, TikTok Pixel Place ads on your website and complete the setup in TikTok Ads Manager. TikTok gives you the option to create custom audiences based on criteria such as:

• Customer file upload
• People who viewed or engaged with your content
• People who visited the TikTok shop
• People who visited your website

💡Advertising Tips: Install the TikTok app You can automate the creation of ads in your Shopify store and have a shopping tab on your TikTok profile in some countries.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn allows you to retarget your audience based on activities such as company page visits, lead generation form responses, RSVPs for LinkedIn events, etc. To collect website visitor information, LinkedIn Insights Tagprovides real-time insights into visitors’ professional characteristics and content preferences.

LinkedIn retargeting is perfect for B2B brands looking to re-engage qualified buyers with their products and services.

Pinterest

of Pinterest Ads The platform also supports dynamic retargeting campaigns. Upload a catalog To enable Pinterest Tags On your website.

Tags are made up of a base code and an event code, and come in several different types: Base codes are unique to your Pinterest account and allow you to build retargeting campaigns based on your site activity.

Event codes are for pages that track conversions, carts, signups, etc. For example, you can add a checkout tag event code to your “Thank you for your order” page to flag the purchase.