Business owners around the world are always looking for ways to add new leads to their email lists and convert potential prospects who are on the verge of a purchase.
Retargeting pixels, also known as cookies, is a way to market your products to customers who visit your website and leave.
Social media is a common platform for targeting customers.
What are retargeting pixels?
Retargeting is a way to market your products and services to customers who visit your website, then decide to leave before completing their purchase. Think about the last time you visited an eCommerce storefront and added something to your cart, but didn’t check out. Chances are, not long after your potential purchase, you started spotting ads for the product and brand you were looking at all over social media and on other websites.
This process is possible when business owners or marketers add a retargeting pixel to their website. These pixels are more commonly known as tracking cookies. When a consumer visits a website with a retargeting pixel, the site drops the cookie on the user’s browser and only removes it when a purchase is made. The result of this technique is that customers will see your ads across various platforms and decide to come back and place their order.
Picking a platform
There are various platforms where you can use retargeting pixels to reach potential customers. The most common platform for getting generating leads and converting customers is social media. Research shows that 87% of businesses that use social media see increased exposure by putting themselves on various platforms. Your retargeting ads could lead the customer to check out your social media page before making a purchase, thus improving your odds of converting them on-site.
Social media retargeting usually appears throughout the user’s newsfeed naturally, but the type of content you use in your ad may determine whether or not they complete their purchase. For instance, many businesses offer a 10 to 20% discount to customers who click the retargeting ad link and complete their purchase.
Similarly, you can place targeted ads on Google, Bing and Yahoo that will produce sponsored results based on a customer’s current and previous search history. This method allows you to reach out to an audience that may otherwise never come back to your website.
Another popular way to convince your audience to stick around and sign up for your email list, or make a purchase, is by using retargeting pixels on your website. When businesses operate with pixels on their website, certain behaviors trigger a response from your website. Some examples include the ability to encourage readers to sign up for an email list with a popup if they’ve viewed multiple articles, or you could trigger a chatbot to pop up and help customers who linger on a page after a set amount of time.
Each platform is slightly different in the way that it reaches your customer, but the intent is the same. Your goal is to increase engagement and conversions on your website, and retargeting pixels can help in multiple ways.
When should you retarget customers?
Despite the various uses, there are certain times when you’re going to want to target prospects with retargeting pixels. The first, and most common, example involves you converting customers who add products to your cart but don’t complete their order. You could also target customers who start signing up for an account to check out but bounce from the page. Considering that 79.6% of consumers abandon checkout forms, this is an excellent opportunity to convert some of the nearly 80 percent of customers who tried to leave your website before completing their purchase.
You can handle this retargeting in two ways. You could first trigger a pop-up to appear that encourages the customer to complete their form as they are getting ready to leave the page. The second way you can retarget them is by showing them ads on social media or while browsing other websites. This could spark their interest and encourage them to finish the order process.
If you want to encourage prospects to sign up for your email list, you could trigger a popup asking them if they would like to sign up after they’ve viewed a specified number of articles on your blog. This tactic is particularly helpful if you’re offering an incentive such as a free e-book, checklist, or discount.
Final tips to keep in mind
It’s better to look helpful than annoying. When you’re retargeting customers, make sure you select a specific number of adverts you would like to show them over a pre-determined period of time. The average is around 20 to 30 retargeting ads per 30 days.
A/B testing is a crucial component of every marketing campaign – and retargeting ads are included in this group. When you’re creating adverts, try to create a variety of different ads with different offers. You could create one that offers a free e-book, another that gives the consumer a discount, and maybe two styles of each ad. Once you start consistently sending out these adverts to potential customers, check your Google Analytics account to see which ads are performing best. You can make minor tweaks to your successful campaigns until you have a group of reliable promotions that boost conversions and engagement.
Even though you’re going to mostly use retargeting ads to pull customers back onto your website, you still have to focus on your search engine optimization (SEO). Always make sure you’re optimizing pillar posts and landing pages to encourage new customers to find your website organically.
Conclusion
Retargeting pixels are an essential marketing tool that can help you see explosive growth throughout your business. When you’re creating your first retargeting campaign, it helps if you’re able to put yourself in the mind of your customer. Think about a time you clicked through on a retargeting ad and made a purchase that you otherwise wouldn’t have made.
What was it about the ad that caught your attention and compelled you to go back? Was the promotion too good of an offer to pass up? Were you intrigued by a free offer? Did the design catch your attention and further your interest? Keep these thoughts in mind and remember to continuously evolve your campaign to include new adverts and new offers, if possible.
Before long, you will have an impressive catalog of promotions that are proven to help your business grow. As long as you are regularly split testing your creations, engaging with customers, and offering products or services that provide value to consumers, you’ll have a much better chance at creating a successful retargeting campaign.