The general rule of thumb is that only 2% of people that visit your website will actually follow through with a purchase. That leaves an enormous pool of people that know who you are and are interested in your product or service, but haven’t made a purchase yet. Ad Retargeting aims to shrink that pool. It gives you the opportunity to reach out to that 98% – so you can focus your resources on the most promising customers, without spending on people that have no current interest in what you offer.
The science behind this strategy is simple. When a visitor comes to your website, a cookie is added to their browser. This cookie follows them around the web and is able to trigger specialized ads depending on their viewing history at your site. So they will be on a completely different site and your ad will show up. Depending on your retargeting efforts, this ad could be as simple as your logo or as specialized as a specific product or service you know they were considering.
You can now retarget your visitors not only on google searches and personal websites, but also social media sites like Facebook
As ad retargeting has grown, so has its reach – you can now retarget your visitors not only on google searches and personal websites, but also social media sites like Facebook. Many companies are even taking this a step further by partnering with each other to target customers interested in relevant and complementary products. So imagine you are a travel agency – why not partner with a boutique hotel at your favorite destination? They will have an opportunity to advertise their hotel to your customers and you will be able to advertise your services to theirs.
Retargeting has shown to be very effective for most companies that employ this strategy. According to CMO.com, retargeting can boost your ad response by up to 400%. It’s important to realize, however, that most retargeting campaigns can only help you reach customers that first visit your site. It will not drive new traffic to your site or introduce your brand to new customers. So if you are struggling to get visitors to your site, you may want to wait before investing a lot of your budget into retargeting ads. But if you have a lot of visitors with very few sales, retargeting efforts could be exactly what you need.
The biggest benefit of ad retargeting for companies is clear: Increase your earnings by focusing your resources on the highest potential customers. But are there any benefits for the customer? Somewhat. For customers, there is a decrease in irrelevant ads that they have no interest in. Their internet experience as a whole becomes more personalized. But this can also be a turnoff when not done properly. When ad retargeting becomes too obvious, some customers can feel that their privacy has been compromised. They feel followed and watched. This is one reason why it is important to put thought into what type of ad retargeting your company should employ.
In the end, there is clear proof that ad retargeting has a positive effect on ad click-through rates. It will bring customers back to your site. The rest is up to you. If you pair ad retargeting with an offer that your customers can not refuse, your bottom line will reap the rewards.