Retargeting campaigns: tips and examples of best practices

Retargeting within online marketing

One of the most important tools in online marketing is retargeting, which can boost the number of conversions. It not only addresses users who have already visited your company’s website or other online site but didn’t make a purchase – it also directly communicates with those people and reminds them via digital ads of their past visit to the website. The purpose behind this: the person who showed interest in an offer should be animated to actually purchase it.

This method works using tracking pixels on the company website, which mark the user via cookies upon their initial contact with the company. This enables the visitor to be recognised again in future once they have left the website and to follow their other activities on the Internet. If they call up a website with a retargeting function, ads which have been personally individualised as far as possible can be placed there. The better these are tailored to the targeted person, the higher the probability is that they will return to your website and order something there. This, in turn, increases your conversion rate. 

Attention: cookies which collect personal information may only be used in line with very strict legal stipulations. A breach of these may result in criminal prosecution. On top of this, they are today blocked by the most significant browsers. Companies should therefore rely on retargeting without cookies.

What matters most for retargeting

If you want to be successful with your retargeting and turn visitors into customers, you must mainly be able to do the following:

• Capture and analyse data
• Put information collected into a meaningful content-based context
• Develop ideas for digital campaigns

Based on the above, various retargeting formats can be leveraged: on websites, on social media platforms and via Google Ads. Here are a few examples of use:

• Product ads are some of the most common kinds of retargeting. For instance, they are shown as banners to people who have been interested in an offer or have already had a product in their shopping basket but then didn’t buy it after all. A click on the ad leads them to the website they once visited or a website specially designed for retargeting.
• Via cross-selling, other products can be shown which match previously purchased products. However, this should be performed a few days after the purchase, as the buyer needs a bit of time to develop a possible need for additional items.
• Lots of goods, such as food and cosmetics, have to be ordered in regular intervals. Retargeting measures can remind buyers of these consumer goods.
• Price reductions are also a good way to call up products or services in the minds of interested persons. Discounts could increase in intervals of a few days, which, in turn, increases appeal and shows who is willing to buy at which price point.
• Another tried-and-tested method of retargeting is emails and newsletters when they communicate personalised content. In this way, precisely that product or a similar one can be advertised which the target person has already shown interest in.
   

Best practices: how it successfully works

Like with many activities in online marketing, it is important to follow a strategy. For this, all measures have to be harmonised and the individual components of a campaign integrated seamlessly. Only then does the effort pay off and the prospect of conversions improved. How retargeting can work is seen in the following best-practice tips:

• Fundamental is the determination of the target groups and, if needed, their differences to one another. First and foremost, this concerns people who have looked at products or placed them in their shopping basket without actually purchasing them. But it also makes sense to address people who are already part of your customer base and can be guided to other products or services.
• Another basic tip for best practices in retargeting: communicate via as many channels as possible where your target groups can be found – even across several devices (e.g. computer, mobile phone).
• Retargeting will not be successful when the advertising is not clearly positioned in an eye-catching way. This is why banners should preferably be placed at the top, at the end or in the centre of the page.
• While ads which are too small will not be seen, potential customers may see large ads as being annoying pop-ups. So the aim is to strike a happy medium.
• When the retargeting is too vague and too elaborately designed, no one will feel bothered by it. Which is why it’s important to get to the point.
• Particularly companies with a regional coverage area can profit from geo-targeting, which allows you to address the target group, for instance, based on the postal code or other suitable geographic criteria. This lowers the costs of retargeting.
• Also an important best-practice tip: the frequency of displaying ads has to be well balanced. A very high frequency is seen as being slightly annoying. A low frequency will lead to nothing.
• The more creative companies design their retargeting, the more willingly it will be accepted. Keep in mind to ensure an easily understandable design and a clear language. An animated call-to-action button can foster the awareness and the willingness to click on it.
• The largest effect is achieved by retargeting campaigns when they are highly personalised as far as possible.
• When it comes to the analysis of a retargeting campaign, the focus should not be on the clicks, but on what happens after a banner is clicked on. Does the person dwell longer on the website or even make a purchase?