We’ve all had customers who browsed our site and added items to their cart — then left without purchasing. Now, there’s a popular marketing strategy that’s proven to work in bringing them back: Remarketing.
In fact, remarketing generates high conversions for cart abandonment, with nearly 30% of clicks ultimately leading to a purchase, according to SocialMediaToday.
How does remarketing work?
A common and popular form of digital marketing, remarketing is the practice of serving targeted ads to people who have already visited your website.
When you set up a remarketing campaign, you’re showing ads to past visitors as they browse other sites on the Google Display Network. The goal is to boost brand awareness and remind these visitors to make a purchase.
Remarketing can be used to promote a specific product or offering or to reach a conversion goal like lead generation. For example, if you have an e-commerce store, remarketing can be used to reduce shopping cart abandonment.
While the terms “remarketing” and “retargeting” are often used interchangeably, they mean different things. Remarketing works by collecting user information and creating lists that are later used to send sales emails, whereas retargeting focuses on serving ads to prospects based on cookies.
Remarketing is beneficial to small businesses in a number of ways:
- Allows you to stay connected with your audience and turn one-off visitors into leads.
- Increases brand recall.
- Increases repeat visitor rates and engagement.
- Increases reach.
- Increases the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
- Maximizes personalization.
- It’s affordable and available on multiple platforms and channels.
- It helps to capitalize on lost website traffic.
All of these can lead to better conversions for your business, as visitors who are targeted with display ads are 70% more likely to convert.
5 remarketing best practices to increase your bottom line
Target the right users
It may sound obvious, but you must focus your remarketing efforts on the right users, including:
- Those who have previously searched your website
- High value and frequent users of Google
- Those who have converted to Google
Some 97% of website visitors leave without making a purchase, never to return to a website, according to Meazy, which is why remarketing is an essential tool to your digital marketing strategy.
Generate a personalized audience on social media
Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram allow you to create different audiences for your ads.
On Twitter, custom audiences target your existing followers and customers to create remarketing campaigns to reach highly specific groups of people.
The three types of custom audiences include:
- Lists: Allows you to upload lists of existing customers using email addresses or social media handles.
- Website activity: Target those who have recently visited your website.
- App activity: If you have an app, reach those who have taken a particular action your app.
Similarly, you can set up a custom audience from lists, website visitors or from people who use your app on Facebook. Doing so can help you create ads that are more relevant to where your potential customers are at in their customer journey.
Once you’ve created your custom audiences on Facebook, if your Instagram Business profile is connected to your Facebook, you can then repeat this process for Instagram.
Launch remarketing campaigns in Google Search
Google Ads has a feature, remarketing lists, which allows marketers to create search ads specifically for users who have already visited their website or a particular landing page.
You’ll need to install the Google remarketing tag on the target page and wait to collect data. As soon as you have the list, you can incorporate it into your search campaigns.
Segment your remarketing lists
Your remarketing lists should be segmented based on the user’s onsite activities. Google Ads recommends five remarketing lists, which starts with your broad user base and narrows down to the most precise list to target:
- Homepage viewers
- Category page viewers
- Product or offer page viewers
- Cart abandoners
- Past converters
Be sure to differentiate between different pages as you’re setting up your remarketing tag. For example, if you’re running an e-commerce shoe store, separate users who have visited “running shoes” and “casual sneakers” to provide a more personalized experience.
Schedule your ads at the appropriate time
Your remarketing efforts will only be effective if you’re targeting the right people on the right platform at the right time. Make sure you understand where your target demographics are geographically so your ads are shown when they are online.
In addition to location, also take your audience’s generation into consideration. For example, millennials are online almost constantly, typically on a mobile device, whereas 40% of baby boomers consume most of their online content in the morning between 5 a.m. and 12 p.m.
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Key takeaways on remarketing
With remarketing, losing a lead doesn’t mean that you’ll lose them forever. A solid strategy is all it takes to get those leads back in order to convert them this time around. Following the above steps will help to boost your conversion rates and grow your business.
There are many reasons why your visitors didn’t convert while they were on your website previously. Perhaps the offer didn’t impress them, they got distracted and left without remembering to come back or they were simply browsing and it wasn’t the right time for them to make a purchase.
Whatever the reason, remarketing is one of the best ways to keep your brand at the front of consumers’ minds. Remind these potential leads about your business and your offerings, and before you know it, you’ll be on your way to generating more leads, conversions and sales!
