Targeting the right audience is tricky, but retargeting them can be even trickier. These are some of the retargeting hacks we've learned over time which really pay off:
Facebook retargeting is the process of finding people who've visited your website and then using their data to find their Facebook profiles. You can then run advertising campaigns to target those people and convince them to head back to your website
So why focus on retargeting? Retargeting helps you reach audiences that are already interested in your business & products, therefore helping sway those undecided visitors in the direction of entering their payment info and actually making a purchase. Not everyone is sure who to retarget or how exactly, so here it goes:
SHOPPING CART ABANDONERS
Targeting shopping cart abandoners can make all the difference because they're already interested and all they need is just the right nudge. They have told you that you provide something that they like, and the price may be right. there are a million reasons someone might not finish a transaction, maybe they need to okay it with a partner, maybe they had a phone call they couldn't put off. You just don't know.
So, retarget them!
They liked you enough to nearly buy, and the right messaging and placement can absolutely seal the deal. To do this, you will want to create a custom audience through Facebook and put the audience pixel in the header of your shopping cart. There are several ways to make sure that the right product is shown in the ad, but regardless, make sure you are retargeting them with the product they nearly bought.
Again, we want to target these "near misses” because they have proven they are interested in your product, and the price was either right, or just barely off.
One cool tip we use to push customers over the edge is to add a bonus or a small discount through your retargeting, something that doesn't steal much from your bottom line, but incentivizes them to finish what they started
TARGET ADS FOR SPECIFIC PRODUCTS BASED ON USERS VISITING THOSE PRODUCTS
Using the same process, we can target users who already bought products with ads for other products in a similar category or a complementary one, like if the customer bought a lipstick, target them with ads for lip gloss or mascara. We do this using Facebook pixels in product pages, to build an audience of the visitors of these product pages, so that we can retarget them using Facebook custom targeting. To take this one step further, you can even choose to only target visitors who have visited a particular product more than once! This way, you are isolating people who are in a decision making phase and have elected you as one of their main choices, and may be vacillating between a couple of options.
TARGET USERS WITH PRODUCTS IN A CATEGORY SIMILAR TO A PRODUCT THEY HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED
Imagine you're selling a product that has several parts that can be complimented. A customer may initially buy a starter kit, which comes with certain parts or features, Assuming the initial purchase goes off without a hitch and they like the product, packaging and fulfillment, you now have a satisfied customer.
This customer is now a huge opportunity for retargeting. So, what you need to do is create an audience based on what product they have bought. Our ad creative will now promote a product which compliments what your customer has already purchased from you. So for your retargeting to this particular customer, you can retarget them with ads for a complimentary part/feature/product.
TARGET SALES/OFFER PAGE VISITORS
Assuming you're having a sale, using Facebook pixel on the sales page, you'll pick up on users who visit the page and you can now retarget them with ads giving them an incentive to come back and finish the purchase before the sale ends, or even give them an additional bonus or percent off. One more cool trick, make the countdown to the end of your sales a part of the advertising creative to drive urgency.
RECONNECT WHEN CONSUMABLE PRODUCTS EXPIRE
You're selling courses or learning packages, or whatever product/service that has a duration and will expire afterwards. Target audiences who have purchased this package with a follow up package when theirs expires. Run ads targeting people with the next step, or the next course that will get them where they want to go. Set audiences based on timeframes for the sale, so if someone buys in January and users typically "complete" your product in 2 months, wait until February to run retargeting ads with creative that invites them back for "the next step".
PROMOTE ADD-ONS FOR PRODUCTS THAT CAN BE ENHANCED
You're selling products like maintenance tools or DIY kits. Something people can physically use. The basic model you sell comes with a simple set of tools. However, through your site you sell add ons which enhance the kit for the more intensive users and enthusiasts. build an audience of your customers who bought the basic set. Now, run retargeting ads that sell the enhancement accessories which fit into their current kit. Your creative can reference something they already own and enjoy, while teasing the next upgrade. Give them the basic to premium campaign.
RETARGET USERS WITH SUBSCRIPTIONS WITH ADS FOR BENEFITS OF HIGHER LEVEL SUBSCRIPTIONS
If your product is subscription based like a program or an online tool or stock site for example, you may have higher levels of the subscription with more features, better service etc. This is another thing we can promote via retargeting. Build custom audience of your users at each level of service, go ahead and target your customers with creative that sells the value of the higher level subscriptions. Once users click through, bring them to an easy upgrade page where they can enhance their subscription. If you are in a promotional season, consider doing seasonal upgrade bonuses and discounts, these make good ad copy because they are seasonal, and your customers expect to see special offers and are conditioned to take them at certain times in the year.
RETARGET YOUR HIGHEST VALUE CUSTOMERS
Devote higher resources to your big spenders or users you identify as more likely to buy. A lot of us run our advertising on a tight budget, so do a little research and build a buyer persona for your visitors and customers who are typically your big spenders. You can check audience lists from your product pages with the pixel on them and make a list of users who have purchased the most regularly, or with the highest prices, or spent the largest amount of money in a given period of time, etc. Once you identify who these people are and how they act on your website, set up a custom audience targeting these big spenders. you can then confidently give this group a bigger slice of your advertising budget and expect a better ROI as they outspend your average customer.
SERIAL RETARGETING
Target users with a series of sales pieces, or videos, pages, etc so that your ad creative changes every single week with the new content. once someone is on your retargeting list, they may see the same ad for a month at a time, and after a few impressions, may tune it out. This way, your potential customers will see what you've got going on and that you are putting out new content weekly. It lets your audience know you are an active and engaged advertiser and that they can expect to see new and exciting content from you regularly, that's the kind of business people want to learn more about AND if your first message doesn't entice them enough to click through and engage with you, you have more opportunities as your promotion changes each week.
"RETARGETING ONLY" PROMOTIONS
Customers are getting more savvy to retargeting, so this opens up a good opportunity for us to provide medium specific incentives. When they click through the ad, you can take them to a special landing page which has promotions that are only available to people who engaged with your retargeting ads. A benefit of this, is that it trains your customers to pay attention to your retargeting ads, which can pay off big time when you are launching a new product and need a high engagement rate to jump start things.
If you read through these and feel a little overwhelmed, that's okay. Just pick one or two of these to get started with and you'll see big returns. Each one of these strategies alone will be enough to pump up the ROI on your retargeting campaigns.