How Does A Remarketing Campaign Work?

Not every website visitor is going to become a loyal customers, but more visitors are worth chasing than you might think. A recent study from Episerver revealed that 92% of customers who visit a business’s website don’t have intentions to make a purchase, but these customers can be converted with time. The right ads and content can follow these customers down the buyer’s journey and reach them when they are finally ready to buy. If you aren’t using remarketing campaigns as a part of your strategy to bring back website visitors, you’re missing out on a large opportunity.

Remarketing campaigns allow businesses to offer former visitors more chances to visit their website and make a purchase, and more businesses are finding that these campaigns are extremely successful. Half of marketers plan on increasing their remarketing budget in the next six months. But how does remarketing increase conversions and generate more revenue in the first place?

Before we walk you through the remarketing process, let’s talk about why so many marketing professionals are saying that remarketing is one of the most underrated marketing strategies.

The Benefits Of Remarketing

The journey from first-time website visitor and loyal customer isn’t completed in a day. Your business has many opportunities to reach out to former visitors and bring them back to your website for a second, third, or fourth time. Remarketing can move customers through the buyer’s journey at different points and accomplish many tasks, including:

Build Brand Awareness

Customers may not remember your brand name or products if they have only visited your website once. Retargeting allows you to introduce yourself a second or third time to former website visitors.

Don’t worry about showing up more than once on a customer’s news feed. A report from eMarketer revealed that 30% of consumers actually enjoy seeing retargeted ads. Only 11% of participants had a negative reaction to retargeting campaigns. Most consumers (59%) feel neutral.

Remind Customers of Abandoned Shopping Carts

We’ve all been shopping online and abandoned our shopping carts. Online shoppers abandon their carts for a variety of reasons, and most will return to finish the purchase if they are given a gentle reminder. Remarketing campaigns can be tailored to eCommerce customers who are only clicks away from making a purchase. Customers who abandon their carts are 26% more likely to purchase after seeing a retargeted ad.

Reach More Interested Customers

If someone has taken the effort to visit your website, shop around, or even add items to their cart, they are already far long the customer journey. Remarketing allows you to focus in on customers who are more likely to buy than expanding your efforts to reach potentially disinterested people. Retargeted customers are three times more likely to visit your website than customers who have never heard of your business before.

Many social media platforms offer remarketing campaigns that expand their reach to “lookalike audiences.” These are potential customers that are similar to your current customers and share demographic information like location or age. Facebook and Pinterest, for example, can set up ads for lookalike audiences alongside other remarketing campaigns.

Reach Competitors’ Customers

Remarketing is still an underrated and underused marketing strategy. When surveyed, 11% of marketers said their primary goals for remarketing were to acquire competitors’ customers. Don’t let your competitors get ahead of you; learning how to retarget customers can keeps you ahead of the race and can even put you further in the lead.

Where Do Remarketing Ads Appear?

Remarketing can target audiences as they browse online or through any of their social media networks. Currently, Facebook is the king of the remarketing universe, but remarketing campaigns can focus on social media networks or websites that are more appropriate for your customers.

Remarketing through social media provides another benefit to businesses. If customers have exclusively interacted with your website, retargeting allows you to introduce customers to your social media profiles. Inviting customers to visit these pages can strengthen your relationship and provide you with even more data to use for future marketing campaigns.

How Does A Facebook Remarketing Campaign Work?

If you want to reach customers with remarketing, Facebook is an excellent place to start. After all, over 51% of Australia’s population has an account. Facebook provides code to marketers that makes remarketing campaigns personalized and painless. Retargeting campaigns can be set up entirely in the Ads Manager with the Facebook Custom Audience Pixel.

What Is A Facebook Pixel?

In order for Facebook to know what users to target and how far they are in the buyer’s journey, you will have to embed a Facebook Pixel into your website. The Pixel is a piece of code that runs when a specific webpage is open, which Facebook refers to as an “event.” Different advertisements can be shown based on which “events” have been reached. These “events” include the moment a Facebook user:

• Opens a product page or product detail page
• Searches for a product
• Adds a product to their wishlist
• Adds a product to their shopping cart
• Starts, but does not complete, the checkout process
• Adds payment information but does not complete the checkout
• Makes a purchase

Pixels will run whether the user is on a mobile device or a desktop; specific ads can be run for visitors who have interacted with your app or website. The data collected through the Facebook pixel can be used to send out personalized ads through Facebook, Instagram, or Facebook’s audience network. Some ads, like Dynamic Product Ads, are only available to customers who have reached certain events. By using specific events and other data, customers can see the exact items they were searching for, or were close to purchasing, as they check their Facebook account. You can also adjust your settings to reach customers who visited your website within a certain period of time.

How Do AdWords Remarketing Campaigns Work?

Remember, remarketing campaigns are not limited to Facebook. If you want to specifically target customers through Twitter, Pinterest, or other sites where your customers spend more time, you can set up a remarketing campaign that hits those sites.

Instagram and Facebook are linked, but other social media platforms have individual remarketing processes. Data can be used for remarketing campaigns with a Pixel similar to what we discussed for Facebook, or uploaded from lists collected on your website and social media channels. Currently, remarketing campaigns on Twitter must be manually uploaded. Pinterest allows businesses to use personal data to set up remarketing campaigns with the help of third party marketing developers.

A few of these remarketing campaigns can be set up through Google AdWords. If you are currently using AdWords marketing Auckland to reach customers, you can set up retargeting ads that appear on:

• YouTube
• Gmail
• Google

Google Remarketing is similar to Facebook marketing Auckland, but offers more metrics for targeting users. Businesses can reach customers based on websites that they did (or did not) visit, how long they spent on the website, or specific demographics. Google also allows users to target customers based on a combination of different metrics.

There are different advantages to using Facebook, Google, or any other remarketing platform to reach out to former website visitors and bring them back to your site. Base the channels you use for remarketing on your customers and what will help you reach your business goals.  

Before You Start a Remarketing Campaign…

Set Remarketing Goals

Measurable goals are key to determining the success of any campaign. Facebook and other social media platforms give businesses a lot of different options for retargeting campaigns, but campaigns will be most successful when they have a clear focus. Sit down with your marketing team and discuss the following:

• What type of customers are you trying to reach?
• Where have they interacted with your business before? (Website, social media, shopping pages, etc.)
• When was the last time these customers interacted with your business?
• What social media platforms do they use the most?
• What are the top reasons customers abandon their shopping carts?

By creating a specific focus for your remarketing campaign, you can easily test and track your progress.

Optimize Your Website

If a customer is visiting your website for the first or the fourteenth time, their experience using the site will have a big impact on whether or not they decide to make a purchase. Before you start a remarketing campaign, check through your landing pages and product pages to ensure that each user can navigate through the site easily and find other products that they may be interested in purchasing. Remarketing campaigns frequently encourage customers to put additional items in their cart before purchasing, further increasing revenue and remarketing ROI.

Use Data for Feedback and UGC

The data you collect for remarketing campaigns can still be used after the campaign is over. Distribute surveys and other feedback forms to discover what motivates customers to abandon their shopping carts, and what brought them back for their final purchase. Use this information to receive feedback on the campaign and improve your efforts for future remarketing efforts.

Remarketing can be used alongside other digital marketing strategies to maximize conversions and increase sales. Optimize your online efforts by partnering with a top digital marketing agency Auckland and SEO authority. The team at Digital Squad can combine the forces of remarketing, AdWords marketing services Auckland, and Facebook marketing Auckland to reach interested customers as they are browsing online.

Megan Okonsky is a copywriter and content marketing specialist with Digital Squad. She is originally from Philadelphia but has landed in Melbourne after traveling for eight months in Southeast Asia and New Zealand. She also teaches vinyasa yoga online. 

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