Retargeting Ads – What, Why and How

10x Your Advertising Returns With Retargeting Ads

What is Retargeting?

Retargeting is a form of online advertising becoming more and more popular with business owners and marketing professionals. The average website converts roughly 2% of its traffic — retargeting helps you get back in front of the other 98% of your website’s visitors.

You may have noticed that after you search for a flight to Denver, advertisements for “flights to Denver” follow you around the web. This is retargeting at work. It allows advertisers to direct their ads at people who’ve visited their website or viewed their product pages. This visit causes a pixel to fire, which then follows the site visitor for a predetermined period of time — typically 30 to 60 days.

Why Retargeting?

Because the numbers don’t lie.

-Website visitors who are retargeted with display ads are 70% more likely to convert on your website. (Source)

-The average click-through rate for display ads is 0.07%, while the average CTR for retargeting ads is 0.7% — that’s 10x higher. (Source)

-46% of search engine marketers believe retargeting is the most underused online marketing technology. (Source)

Think about it for a second.

Is it going to be easier to sell to people already familiar with your brand, or to people who have yet to hear of your business?

Unless you own a Radio Shack*, people who are familiar with your brand are much more likely to make a purchase from you.

Anyone who visits your website is at least somewhat interested in your product. If you’re not running retargeting ads at this audience, you’re leaving some of the lowest hanging fruit in the orchard.

How Do I Start a Retargeting Campaign?

If you want to start a retargeting campaign, both Perfect Audience and AdRoll are great places for beginners. They offer tons of videos and resources to guide you through the process of launching your own campaign.

My personal recommendation is to start with a Facebook retargeting campaign. I say this for three reasons.

-Click through rates are 21x higher with Facebook News Feed retargeting than with standard retargeting. (Source)

-Cost Per Click is 79% lower with Facebook retargeting than with standard retargeting. (Source)

-Cost Per Acquisition is 63% lower with Facebook retargeting than with standard retargeting. (Source)

Here’s an article on how to start your first retargeting campaign on Facebook. It will walk you through the process step-by-step with pictures.

*Unnecessary cheap shot, I know. The truth is, retargeting ads would still be much more profitable for Radio Shack than regular display ads if they wanted to 10x their Sony Walkman sales**.

**Couldn’t resist, it’s too easy to keep going, just like the rechargeable Energizer batteries on sale at Radio Shack.***

***I’ll leave now. Like Radio Shack should’ve in 2002.

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