Should Your Brand be Retargeting?

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A successful campaign funnel leads consumers through brand awareness and trust to purchasing. Anymore, we believe a necessary addition to modern campaign funnels is retargeting.

With online shopping becoming increasingly common practice, Sleeknote estimates that “by 2021, e-commerce sales are expected to reach 17.5 percent of retail sales worldwide.” Retargeting allows your brand to capitalize on website visitors that initially left your website without purchasing. By directing consumers back to your site and back to the products they were interested in, you’ll increase your overall ROI.

Implementing a strategy like retargeting, which reminds visitors of your products and services using relevant ads displayed on other web pages, is a necessary part of modern content marketing. Unlike digital search ads, which are shown to new customers because they first searched for a product or service online, retargeting ads are based on information collected via retargeting pixel codes. Successful retargeting allows your brand to recapture consumers with high intent to purchase and help move them further through your campaign funnel.

Retargeting is one of the most underused online marketing strategies and is as straightforward as it sounds: it means remarketing your website to previous visitors using pixels to increase brand awareness and conversions. A 2019 Statistica survey found that only 2.72% of e-commerce website visits actually ended in a purchase. Tactics such as holiday promotions or price matching still have their place in good marketing practice, but today’s consumers often need multiple exposures to a brand before they make a purchase.

Consider this scenario: Your published content is designed with your brand personas in mind. Your SEO is informed by data you’ve collected from previous campaigns and you are able to draw your target audience to your website on a regular basis. But if these website visitors do not subscribe to your blog, opt-in to your free downloads or purchase products, you have lost these potential customers and have no way to continue marketing to them.

We see this situation far too often.

There are many reasons a consumer may visit your website and leave without purchasing. Daily life and digital distractions can pull even the most serious of shoppers away from making an online purchase from your business. And this is where retargeting can make all the difference. By reminding consumers of your brand and products, retargeting can give your brand a second or third attempt to turn a non-purchasing website visitor into a loyal customer.

how to run a successful retargeting campaign

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Launching a retargeting campaign is proven to increase conversion rates because the target audience isn’t new visitors – they are consumers that were already considering buying from your brand and simply need a little extra nurturing. Here’s a quick crash course in designing and launching your own retargeting campaign.

Collect and Segment Data

Begin by attaching a retargeting pixel (usually in the form of JavaScript code) to your website or landing page. This allows browser cookies to be connected to your visitors’ browsers and gives you the data you need to find and connect with these same visitors again. After visitors navigate away from your website without purchasing or subscribing, the retargeting pixel enables advertising platforms like Google Ads to immediately display your retargeting ads to those lost visitors.

Collected data can then be used to categorize website visitors by behaviors they display while on your page, and these categories can be used to develop more specific advertisements for retargeting. For example, you could segment your visitor data by visitors that abandoned their cart or made previous purchases but navigated away this time, or engaged with certain content on your page. You are able to set the rules for who gets retargeted based on website behavior.

Repurpose Existing Content

Consumers that have already considered purchasing from your business don’t need to be made aware that your brand exists. They need to see your brand understands what they need and can deliver what they want. Make sure that, when repurposing existing branded content, your new retargeting ads educate, address common objections, deliver maximum value and build trust that encourages conversions. And while we’re here, you may also consider leveraging limited-time deals, discount codes or coupons, because consumer FOMO is real.

Privacy

Recent conversations regarding digital privacy have opened a debate about digital safety. Today’s consumers want to be understood and enjoy personalized website experiences, but not at the expense of being tracked without their knowledge.

To be clear, retargeting does not violate privacy laws as long as your website clearly outlines its cookie usage policy. In fact, current dynamic privacy regulations are serving as amazing catalysts for agencies like (human)x to delve into the ever-maturing world of AI. Modern technology allows agencies to develop stronger user personas and identifiers, which creates next-level personalized consumer experiences even with third-party cookie restrictions.

Choose a Retargeting Service

Understanding your brand’s time and budget constraints will inform your choice of retargeting service. Self-serve retargeting tools like Google Remarketing can be great options for brands looking to create campaigns, interpret data and adjust ads all on their own. Retargeting ads can also be self-launched in conjunction with Facebook or LinkedIn.


If designing a retargeting campaign on your own feels overwhelming and your brand needs time-tested, full-service expertise, you may consider working with an agency that can get your retargeting campaign up and running smoothly. At (human)x, we not only utilize to collect and segment visitor data for our clients, but we apply this data to design creative retargeting ads that remind lukewarm website visitors of your services and convince them to reconsider your brand.