If you run a small business and sell products online, you must know how crucial advertising is to drive people to your website. But what happens if they’re not ready to buy the first time they visit your store? Or if they get distracted before making a purchase?
According to one report, 96% of people who visit a website for the first time leave without making a purchase, and most of them won’t return on their own. That’s where retargeting comes in.
It’s one of the most powerful and cost-effective marketing strategies available today, especially for brands trying to win back potential customers who didn’t make a purchase the first time.
Want to know more? This article will help you explore seven tips you can use for customer retention, and more.
What Is Retargeting?
Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a type of online advertising that displays ads to individuals who have already visited your website, app, or brand. These users might have visited specific product pages, abandoned their carts, or just browsed without taking action.
Instead of letting those potential customers disappear forever, retargeting helps you re-engage them with targeted ads across other websites, social networks, and mobile devices.
Why Are Retargeting Campaigns Crucial?
People rarely make a purchase the first time they visit a website. The buyer’s journey is complex, often involving multiple touchpoints before making a decision.
Retargeting campaigns give your brand a second (or third) chance to make an impression by showing the right message at the right time.
By analyzing user behavior, you can display highly relevant ads that match what the visitor was initially interested in. For example, if someone browses your e-commerce store and looks at a specific pair of shoes, you can create dynamic retargeting ads to show them that exact product later.
That level of personalization significantly improves the chance they’ll come back and buy.
Different Types of Retargeting Ads
There are various formats and tactics you can use when you create retargeting ads. Each type serves a different purpose depending on where users are in the conversion optimization process.
Let’s explore different types of retargeting campaigns.
Display Ads
If you browse the internet and view ads for products you just saw on other websites, that’s retargeting.
These retargeting display ads, often shown as text ads or visual dynamic banners, are a remarkable way to remind prospects of what they are missing out on.
Display ads help combine targeted messaging and tailored placement, which is perfect for your brand visibility.
Email Retargeting
According to one report, 70% of shoppers abandon their carts without checking out.
Have you ever left a shopping cart full of products without buying, only to get an email that reminds you the products are selling out quickly? That’s email retargeting.
Similar to display ads, serious marketers and advertisers use retargeting emails to attract customers to a website, ask them to leave reviews, or remind shoppers to buy.
Search
Picture this: You’re the owner of a French bulldog named Piper. Piper is a special pup with special dietary requirements and needs hypoallergenic pet products. While searching on Google for these kinds of products, you notice an ad for grain-free kibble at the top or bottom of the page.
This tailored online advertising is created through Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSAs), a search retargeting feature in Google Ads that uses users’ past internet activity.
Social Media
Social platforms like Instagram and Facebook provide brands with a direct link to customers, and social media retargeting ads leverage this connection.
Various features of social media platforms, such as comments, likes, and shares, help expand the reach of your ads even more, optimizing exposure and engagement with your target audience.
Note: You can also create retargeting ads specifically for users who engaged with your posts, watched a video, or visited your page.
Mobile
People spend, on average, 6 hours and 40 minutes daily on screens.
Although this habit is detrimental to your thumbs and eyesight, it presents an excellent opportunity for businesses, especially for mobile retargeting.
Numerous data show that brands that use mobile app retargeting see a 38% boost in conversion rates.
How to Create Retargeting Ads: 7 Actionable Tips That Actually Work
Creating a retargeting ad isn’t just about showing your product to someone again, it’s about showing the right message to the right person at the right time.
Listed below are the seven killer tips to create retargeting ads that convert.
Identify Your Campaign Goals
You can use retargeting for a range of purposes other than conversions and sales increases. Here are a few retargeting campaign goals you may include:
- Building brand awareness
- Encouraging existing customers to build brand loyalty
- Winning back abandoned carts
- Encouraging email subscription
- Requesting additional customer reviews
Make sure you understand the goals of your retargeting campaign and the analytics you will use to monitor success. This will help guide the implementation and structure of the campaign.
Based on whether you wish to build brand awareness, recover abandoned shopping carts, or boost email subscriptions, the success measure of your campaign may be significantly different.
Segment Your Audience
Next, determine the target audience. Who are you aiming for? Existing or potential customers? Where does your target audience spend most of the time? What exactly motivates them?
Instead of using a one-size-fits-all remarketing strategy for all buyers, ensure your audience list is segmented. After all, you don’t want the buyers to get irrelevant ads or annoy shoppers who have already purchased with repetitive ads.
You can divide your audience based on the following criteria:
- New and repeat customers
- Customer behavior (what pages of your site they’ve visited or whether they’ve interacted with your business on social media platforms)
- Customer lifetime value estimate
- Where are they in the marketing funnel
- Cart status (empty vs. abandoned carts)
- Products in view
- Past purchases
- Demographics
- Geographic location
Personalize Your Ads
Generic ads don’t work anymore. Use your audience data to personalize ads based on what each visitor was interested in. For example:
- Show them the exact product they viewed
- Offer a discount on items left in the cart
- Highlight similar or complementary products
Dynamic retargeting ads are perfect for this. These ads automatically pull in product details, including images, prices, and names, from your catalog and display them to the right users.
Select Your Marketing Channel(S)
Now it’s time to decide where to place ads, such as on email, social media, or elsewhere. Your choice will be based on your budget, resources to create ads, and the goals of your campaigns.
Pro tip: You can save your time and money with a marketing platform. They help you manage everything related to your campaigns across various channels.
Plan Your Communication Sequences
Seeing the same ad repeatedly or getting identical emails is increasingly frustrating. To fix this, you should use sequences. They can build a wide variety of retargeting ads with different content and rotate them.
Here are some ideas to get started:
- Offer a free shipping coupon
- Provide 15% off or other incentives
- Show a testimonial in favor of your brand
- Promote a five-star rating for an abandoned product
- Utilize a countdown timer for a sense of urgency
- Show a suggested best-sellers list
- Utilize persuasive ad copy to build FOMO and urgency
- Cross-sell or upsell recently checked-out customers
- Show appreciation to current customers for their support and loyalty
Find Your Communication Timing and Frequency
Ever feel creeped out by retargeting ads that stalk you wherever you are? With no frequency caps, retargeting ads can turn intrusive at the drop of a hat.
We suggest capping the same ad creative up to twice. Anything more, and your ad will start to feel stale or irritating. You should blend your retargeting campaigns with various images, copy, and messaging to keep them fresh and engaging.
If you’re retargeting with emails to recover your abandoned shopping carts, make sure to send them quickly after the shopper exits your site (preferably within an hour).
One study found that retargeting emails that are sent within 3 hours after the cart abandonment see a 40% open rate and a 20% click-through rate (CTR). That said, conduct your analysis to determine optimal timing for your business.
Track and Optimize
Finally, use analytics tools like Google Ads, Audience Manager, and Facebook Ads Manager to monitor your retargeting campaigns. Make sure to look at:
- Click-through rates (CTR)
- Conversion rates
- Cost per acquisition (CPA)
- Performance by device or demographic
Use these insights to refine your retargeting strategy and get better results over time.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
While retargeting can be incredibly effective, many businesses run into problems that reduce the impact of their campaigns. Let’s look at some common mistakes marketers make and how you can avoid them.
- Targeting Too Broadly: Without segmentation, your ads may feel generic or irrelevant. Make sure to tailor your ads to different parts of the retargeting list.
- Overexposure: Bombarding users with too many ads can feel invasive. Limit the frequency and use ad rotation.
- Poor Ad Creative: Bland, confusing, or generic ads won’t catch attention. Focus on compelling ad copy and engaging visuals.
- Ignoring User Intent: Not every visitor is worth retargeting. Prioritize users who visited specific pages or took meaningful actions.
- Failing to Test: Like any online advertising campaign, A/B testing different messages, formats, and audiences is crucial.
Conclusion
Retargeting ads are one of the best ways to turn missed opportunities into real revenue. Instead of constantly chasing new leads, you’re reconnecting with people who already know your brand and have shown interest. It’s cost-effective, highly targeted, and customizable.
If you’re not using retargeting yet, you’re leaving money on the table. Start small, test often, and keep optimizing. Those “lost” customers might just need a little reminder to come back, and retargeting is the perfect way to deliver it.
Need help creating powerful retargeting or marketing campaigns? JUNGLE is a full-service agency in Jersey City that specializes in guerrilla marketing and brand storytelling. We craft bold strategies and engaging content to help your brand stand out and grow.
