A beginner’s guide to retargeting ads
Love to boost your digital marketing success rate? Find out how to turn people who leave your website into customers by retargeting ads.
Rejection is inevitable for any online business. It comes in all forms, starting with click captures. From the moment your ad campaign goes live, you’ll have visitors click on your PPC advertisement, only to leave the page. This is the bounce rate.
The bounce rate is predominantly the most daunting and discouraging figure you will evaluate when reviewing your campaign analysis. We know that online businesses thrive on targeting and obtaining traffic, but what happens when those visitors don’t convert?
Simple: don’t take “no” for an answer.
Retarget your ads and turn those potential customers into paying customers.
What is ‘retargeting’?
Essentially, retargeting is a method of advertising used to remain visible to your bounced visitors. Also known as remarketing, retargeting uses cookies to keep your website apparent and appealing to those who have clicked away or even those who have opened one of your emails. These retargeted ads can show up anywhere you wish – Facebook, search engine result pages (SERPs), and even on other websites.
This method is effective for several reasons. Primarily, you know that these visitors were both intrigued and interested in your site. By maintaining a presence throughout their future browsing endeavors, you create familiarity and trust.
It’s also a great branding strategy that not only promotes potential conversions, but the conversions are much more likely to become repeat customers.
Revisit your opinion on bounce rate
Because bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who leave your website after visiting just one page) is such a major aspect in common retargeting practices, it is time to confront the rejection. And you can start by transforming your outlook on bounce rate.
Bounce rate doesn’t simply have to be viewed as rejection. Instead, view those “no’s” as “not yet’s”. Think about online shoppers, for example. If you are shopping for a new kitchen table, the chances are you might shop around and compare prices.
Better yet, you may find a really appealing table that you are strongly considering, but you click out of your browser to think on your decision before purchasing. So just because someone clicks off your site doesn’t mean they won’t buy from you eventually.
What to do when retargeting ads
As an online advertiser, you want to do everything you can to essentially remind your potential customers that your business is still an option.
Whether you use a PPC marketing agency or DIY, there are different routes you can take to run a retargeting campaign. You can retarget ads from something as simple as an email service, to the commonly known practice of bounced PPC advertisement clicks. Here are some tips to help you.
1) Cap it
Your goal is to never let bounced visitors or potential prospects lose sight of your services or products. However, you don’t want to bombard these bounced visitors either. Moderation is key with retargeting ads.
To avoid overwhelming these clickaways, it is important to set a frequency cap on your retargeting campaign. This cap puts a limit, or “cap”, on the amount of times your ad will be displayed on a bounced visitors’ screen.
2) Apply a burn code
Just as you want to avoid bombarding people with too many ads, you also don’t want to annoy those who have converted into customers. By adding a burn code to your transaction pages, you are essentially deleting these customers from your retargeting campaign – or at least minimizing the amount of ads they see from you.
You don’t want to annoy your customers, they already made a purchase. The trust has already been established.
3) Acknowledge the billboard effect
Also, it is important to realise that there may be a billboard effect, and retargeted ad campaigns may not necessarily result in higher click/conversion rates.
It’s very common for retargeted ads to have lower click numbers than their original PPC counterparts. Don’t be alarmed if this occurs. Instead, you may be obtaining more credibility by simply maintaining this presence, thus, building your brand as a whole. Customers may see your ads enough to know to deliberately search for your website when they are ready to buy something. In other words, you gain their trust.
Your retargeting options
There are so many different portals you can use online to regain contact with potential customers. We’ve briefly mentioned them, but let’s dive in a little deeper so you can really learn about your options.
1) PPC ad bounces
You work so hard on your PPC campaigns, why not extend them a bit more. After all, only about 2% of your PPC clicks will actually convert – at first. You can take this opportunity to capture more of the remaining 98%.
When people click on your PPC ad, you know that you captured their interest. When they click away, you can use your campaign to drop an anonymous cookie to allow a follow up ad to reappear. You can chose where this ad reappears, whether it appears on a future Search Engine Results Page, a different website, or even on their social media feed.
2) Opened emails
You have a list of customers who already gave you their emails. They may have even purchased from you in the past. You can successfully retarget and remarket your business by using this list to your advantage.
You can send out a single email that drops a cookie whenever it is opened. By sending the email, you are already pushing your business back into the minds of your existing customers. You extend that familiar relationship by pushing retargeted ads to pop up while they browse the internet. It’s a simple yet effective way to enhance your email campaign.
3) Display on Facebook
There are billions of facebook users today, and the average person spends almost an hour of every day on this social network. This is big. This is both an ideal location to post primary advertisements and retargeting ads.
We’ve all seen it, it’s as if the advertisements are tailored to fit our desires. Ever wonder how facebook “knows” what to show you in advertising?
Cookies. Or, ad retargeting methods.
Whether people click on one of your PPC ads, browse one of your web pages, or open up one of your emails, you can code your campaign to drop a cookie when they partake in one of these actions. Then, when they are spending almost one full hour of their day on facebook, your ad can effectively present itself.
4) Display on SERPs
A SERP page is the page the you see when you search google, and a list of links are given. SERP’s are nearly an inevitable part of internet browsing. After all, the only way people can really avoid SERP’s is by directly typing in a URL.
Regardless of where you drop cookies, you can always resort to the first-glimpse marketing space – SERP’s. Just like regular PPC ads, retargeting ads on an SERP is a great way to capture customers early in their search. Before they even occupy themselves with other websites, your ad can present itself and give these individuals an opportunity to revisit your site.
5) Display on banner space on other websites
Similar to PPC marketing, many other websites often offer ad space on their pages. Dependent on the service you use, you can randomly or strategically place your retargeted ads onto other web pages.
This is often in the form of a banner. Though it can often result in the billboard effect, you can still increase your business by subtly appearing on these other websites.
Retargeting ads – the takeaway
Retargeting is about building a trusting relationship with potential customers and branding yourself. Whether you are aiming to capture more customers from the bounced 98% or you are extending your business to existing customers, retargeting effectively promotes business sustainability and growth.
If you want to get the most out of your campaign, it’s wise to consult a pay per click marketing firm, as they’re experts in internet advertising. After all, it’s better to do it right on your first attempt than waste your time and money on failed attempts.
Want to find out more about how retargeting ads can help you? Contact bestppc, a pay per click marketing firm, for more information.
