Audience Retargeting. What is it and why is it important to your business?
Imagine you were at your local shopping centre and browsing in one of your favourite shops. The shop assistance asks “how is your day going?” then with the standard follow up question “is there anything I can help you with?” You respond, “no thanks, just browsing for now“. Two minutes later you get a call or text message (i.e. distracted) and you leave the store without purchasing something.
The shop assistance looks bleakly as you walk out the door after another lost opportunity (
).
You continue to wander through the centre and begin to see ads popping up on the electronic advertising boards suggesting products from the very store you just left but with an offer to “buy now!”. After finishing the call or responding to the text you remember what you were doing before you got distracted. You return to the store and buy what you were looking at with the potential of getting it cheaper on your return. Now, wouldn’t all bricks & mortar businesses love to be able achieve that!
As compelling as this scenario sounds, the technology nor capability is quite there yet. However, through your website it is very much achievable. Welcome to the world of Audience Retargeting.
Audience Retargeting encourages potential customers/clients back to your website with the aim to a) provide you with some personal detail (e.g. minimum first name, last name & email address) through an enquiry form or b) purchase something. Note, Audience Retargeting doesn’t always have to be about purchasing something straight away but importantly it is designed to keep your business “top-of-mind” when a customer/client is showing an interest to purchasing something that you have to offer.
It’s very likely that you have experienced audience retargeting many times…You visit a business online > browse through the various products/services > get distracted or decide not to buy > go to another website or your social pages then start to see ads from the very business you were just looking at popping up on your feed – that’s not a coincidence, that’s Audience Retargeting!
The reality of the digital world today is that everywhere you search or visit is tracked using “cookies”. Figuratively speaking it’s like walking around eating a cookie and dropping the crumbs everywhere you go, essentially leaving your digital “cookie crumbs” as a trail to where you are now. Additionally, you may have seen more recently notifications popping up when you visit websites asking you to “accept” that the site you are viewing is tracking your engagement to improve content and analyse traffic – like this example:
These notifications have been introduced to provide consumers choice as to whether they want to be tracked or not i.e. improve privacy – Know why website wants to accept cookies.
Why Audience Retargeting is important.
In essence, it helps build awareness for your brand, your business and increase your conversion of prospects into customers/clients.
Here are some key stats:
- Only 2% of website visitors convert during their first visit.
- The average CTR (‘Click-Through Rate’) for retargeted ads is 0.7% compared to 0.07% for display ads.
- 74% of Australian marketers report retargeting campaigns increase online conversions—55% have seen an increase in mobile conversions.
- Retargeted visitors are 70% more likely to convert on a website compared to those who aren’t targeted for the second time.
Source: 99firms.com, keap.com
What are your options?
Essentially, Audience Retargeting can be executed in two ways, Pixel-based or List-Based.
- Pixel-based retargeting is the most common approach to retarget an audience. In short, a “pixel” is a piece of code that is placed on your website. When a prospective customer views your website, the pixel puts a “cookie” on their browser, that “cookie” then leaves “cookie crumbs” everywhere that person visits after they leave your site. The thing to remember is that pixel-based retargeting is mainly anonymous, therefore you don’t know who they are until they give you some personal information e.g. name and email.
- List-based retargeting is based on retargeting customers or contacts already in your database (aka CRM). The cool thing with this approach is that you already have their contact information, therefore you could retarget them with an email and not just ads (saving ad spend on known contacts).However, there is the chance that they may have provided a different email address on your website to the one that they use for their social account thus reducing percentage of conversion.
Quick tips on Audience Retargeting:
- First-time visitors
- Repeat customers
- Recent Visitors
- Cart Abandonment
When is the right time?
- Immediately (List & Pixel-based)
- Special occasions (List-based i.e. using known information to retarget accordingly)
- Before offers expire (List & Pixel-based)
How to get started?
You can set up your retargeting campaign on the various platforms in the marketplace. At www.dovetaildigital.com.au we use Perfect Audience which was recently acquired by SharpSpring (CRM and Marketing Automation platform). An industry leading tool, Perfect Audience is seamlessly integrated into SharpSpring using SSO (single-sign on). This “dovetails” beautifully with SharpSpring’s broad reaching CRM and Marketing Automation tools at no additional cost.
Retargeting your known or unknown audience is critical to help drive the “top of funnel” opportunity and to help move prospective customers/clients through the decision making process. Audience Retargeting ROI potential is unmatched with other tactics such as Google Adwords or simply banner ads.
If you would like to learn more, please get in touch via our website or [email protected]
