How to Re-Market and Re-Target Like a Pro

Have you ever wondered how those products you almost purchased seem to follow you around the internet, popping up in ads on completely different websites? This is no sorcery, but an innovative digital marketing strategy known as retargeting, or remarketing. It's one of the smart ways businesses connect with visitors who may not have made an immediate purchase or inquiry.

While it might seem like a complex feat to pull off, our team at Bowen Media has mastered this art and turned it into a precise science. Before we dive deep into how we can help, let's briefly revisit this fascinating marketing technique.

Personalize your remarketing ads.

Every visitor has a different interest and experience with your website. Some users visit your home page and product pages. Others read your blog and download your content. Tailoring ads to these specific audiences can significantly increase click-throughs and conversions.

Audiences and Goals

• Visits Home Page: Create a general retargeting ad to keep your business top-of-mind. Generate awareness and drive visitors to an optimized landing page.
• Visits Product Page: Tailor ads around specific products. Create excitement with a great offer to entice visitors to return to your website.
• Reads Your Blog: Use a strong call-to-action with an offer such as a free trial. Give visitors the information needed to make a purchasing decision.
• Downloads Your Content: Use more content and customer case studies. Communicate the benefits of your product or service.

A little behavior analysis goes a long way in remarketing. Segment your audience to create relevant ads and you’re already ahead of the game.

Use a burn pixel and frequency cap.

The best thing an online business can do – convert customers with an ad. One of the worst? Continue serving ads to already converted customers. More than being flat out annoying – serving the same ads is a waste of money. Enter the burn pixel. A snippet of code, the burn pixel untags users who are already customers – to stop serving them ads. Smart, right? Don’t waste valuable impressions on people who already converted. Don’t ask converted customers to take the same action twice. Instead, save your money and retarget current customers with new ads. You can upsell, cross-sell, or even offer referral discounts through new ads. Whatever you do – burn the previous campaign.

Also, put a frequency cap on your retargeting ads. It’s a smart way to limit the number of times a tagged user sees your ads. Frequency caps prevent potential customers from feeling bored, annoyed, overwhelmed, or stalked. Remember, you want to be visible – but not overexposed. Frequency caps help you walk the fine line between the two.

Avoid “banner blindness” and decreased campaign performance with an optimal number of ads. When in doubt, start with 17 to 20 ads per user per month. Test your results and adjust from there.

Change your ad. Change your conversions.

There’s no point in keeping a stale ad around for too long – especially one that doesn’t convert. It’s always a good idea to keep things fresh. Fresh ads cast a bigger net over your targeted consumers.

At Bowen Media, we run remarketing ad campaigns for ten days before switching things up. Fewer than ten days and there’s not enough data to test and adjust. More than ten days and consumers are officially uninterested.

Even the smallest tweak can convert a customer. The secret is to stay fresh and top-of-mind in the eyes of consumers.

Chances are your product or service has more than one benefit. So, why not gather all the benefits and every ten days, switch up the messaging in the retargeting ad? Different benefits resonate with different consumers. You want to appeal to as many of them as possible.

If changing the benefit can boost conversions, then so can changing the offer. You can offer a free trial, a discount, or free product – anything to encourage a consumer to click.

Again, not all consumers will respond to the same offer. Keeping the offers fresh is a smart way to encourage and earn clicks.

Focus on the landing page, too.

You can do everything right to create the perfect remarketing ad. You can personalize the ad, use a burn pixel and frequency cap, and switch up the messaging every ten days.

Still, there’s one critical element missing from the complete retargeting formula: the landing page.

Your landing page needs the same look and feel of the ad. The layout, design and content must instantly convey that the consumer is on the right page. Your goal is to match everything from the colors to the headline and call-to-action. Nothing causes more bounce rates and missed opportunities than an incongruent landing page.

Building a relevant landing page is also important for search engines. Google’s algorithm can easily detect the quality score of a remarketing ad. Low quality scores translate to search engine penalties and decreased conversions.

The best way to stay relevant for both the consumer and search engine is with a single call-to-action. First, a single call-to-action keeps the visitor focused only on the conversion goal. Second, it signals Google and other search engines that the ad is a match to the landing page. It’s what we like to call a win-win. Want even more conversions from your retargeting campaign? Use relevant, high search volume keywords in both the ad and landing page.

Bowen Media has all the tools to ramp up your remarketing campaign. Our integrated team is here to help you maximize click-through-rates and ROI. Let our design and content experts build you the perfect ad with a premium, custom landing page to match. Contact us today and discover the Bowen Media advantage.