customersMany companies have been using retargeting to reconnect with previous customers, or even visitors to their e-commerce sites, with the hope to grab another sale or at least be top of mind when the targeted consumer is in need of goods or services the company can provide.

Retargeting is an excellent way to re-engage with those folks, but it must be used correctly. There is a fine line between being helpful, and looking like a stalker. To help, we’ve put together a few tips and best practices so you become a retargeting all-star.

Where you target might be just as important as whom you target and how often. The ways you can retarget customers include:

  • Web search retargeting: Based on what people keywords or phrases people search that relate to your type of business.
  • Site retargeting: show ads to users that have already visited your site.
  • Email retargeting: retarget people based on actions they have taken on your emails.
  • Facebook retargeting: display ads on Facebook to users who have visited your site.

Be sure to test one or two of these retargeting options to see what types of results you get. If one is performing better than the other, it might be time to focus on the most successful one.

With the “where to retarget” out of the way, let’s talk about the “how.” These are, by no means, the basis for an entire retargeting campaign, but they are a good place to start and get your mind thinking of best practices.

Frequency Caps. You want to limit the number of times a tagged user sees your advertisements and banners. People can become infected with “banner blindness” where they can gloss over your banner, and if they see it too much you risk the chance they have a negative reaction to your brand. Recommendations are all over the map, but the sweet spot seems to be 17-20 ad impressions per month for tagged users.

Burn pixel. This small piece of code can be placed on your post-transaction page ­to remove your buyers from your retarget list so they’ll stop receiving your ads. It saves you from bothering a current customer, and helps your bottom line because you aren’t wasting resources sending emails and other correspondence to people who just made a purchase with you.

Be creative. If you want to create banners, make sure to cut through the typical stagnate banners with animation or a rotating banner to draw more attention to it. It is suggested to test a number of banners at the same time to see what gives you the best analytics.

Use results. Most online advertising campaigns give you data you can use to fine-tune your messaging. The data will provide you information on current and future customers, so you can make sure they get the information they need to make an educated purchase decision. This will help to keep you from casting too wide a net and wasting money on going after people that don’t make sense for your business.  

When used correctly, retargeting can help make current customers a guaranteed revenue stream that you can leverage for years to come.

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