Retargeting is a sure-fire way to keep your brand front of mind after potential customers have left your website, so why not use your content to lure them back?
Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a form of online advertising that uses cookie-based technology that allows you to anonymously follow your audience and serve them ads across the web.
In an ideal world, you might hope every customer that ends up on your website would follow a simple path to making a purchase however, we know that’s rarely the case.
Studies have shown that people need to see a message at least seven times before it sinks in, so retargeting helps to remind people of your product or service after they’ve left your site.
You can also boost your retargeting efforts by using articles and other content already sitting on your site to encourage people back to your business.
Don’t worry if you’ve never used retargeting before — this article will explain how the advertising technique works and then how to best leverage your content.
How retargeting works
A retargeting strategy starts with placing a JavaScript tag in the footer of your website, so when someone visits the site, an anonymous retargeting “cookie” is added to their browser.
When those people leave your site and browse the web, your retargeting provider will serve your ads to those people while visiting other sites to bring them back to your business.
Keep in mind there are two different approaches to retargeting: pixel-based retargeting and list-based retargeting.
The most common type is pixel-based retargeting because it re-displays your material to any anonymous site visitor, while list-based retargeting works after you have already gained someone’s contact information.
Retargeting can be done through a range of marketing activities, including digital advertising, social media advertising and email campaigns.
For example, let’s say you’re selling products online and someone leaves your site but they’ve left an item in their shopping cart.
You could retarget that customer with an ad linked to a product catalogue featuring the item in their shopping cart, as well as similar products, to encourage them to buy the product.
Or you could serve them a special offer or coupon code in a retargeted ad to bring them back to the site.
Using your own content
A retargeting plan often serves digital ads to your website visitors, but there is a lot of value in presenting them with your blogs or website articles instead.
Content marketing is a powerful tool in your marketing mix that can build trust with your customer, strengthen your website ranking and help generate sales leads.
A more advanced retargeting strategy might serve a digital ad to one of your website visitors and then follow up by showing them an article on the topic.
People absorb messages in different ways too, so you could mix up your content formats and retarget them with an article followed by a video.
Using your content acts as a soft sell and is a more sophisticated approach than just bombarding your potential customer with the same ads over and over again.
You can push your articles through Facebook, Twitter and other social media, or through online search options like Google Ads.
Email is another option, where you can email subscribed contacts an article relating to a product they have looked at on your website.
Need help with retargeting?
At Assemblo, we recommend retargeting as part of your marketing fundamentals, which make up the day-to-day activities of your strategy.
While retargeting sounds easy enough, there are many steps to think about such as establishing goals, creating specific articles, setting up campaigns and tracking your progress.
As a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne, we know how to best integrate retargeting into your broader strategy and take advantage of your existing content to help grow your business.
To find out more, give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or drop us a note via the contact form below.