Similar to how shoppers abandon their carts, there are many reasons why a shopper might view a product on your site and then navigate away without making a purchase. For retailers who are getting a lot of site traffic but not as many sales as you’d like, retargeting is a great method for reminding shoppers of the products they viewed and bringing them back to make a purchase.
It’s one thing to know retargeting is a good option for your marketing strategy, and it’s another to make sure your campaigns are successful. If you’re not seeing the results you want, here are 5 quick adjustments you can test for your retargeting campaigns:
1. Choose the Best Ad Format
Consider which ad format, static or dynamic, will be most effective for your end goals. If you have a specific landing page you are trying to drive traffic to (for example, holiday campaigns, special promotions, etc), static retargeting ads can can help you achieve this. With static ads, you can send them to your home page or even a product category page. The destination page will be the same for everyone who clicks on your ad.
If you’re looking to increase sales with a more targeted ad, use dynamic ads to send visitors back to the specific products they viewed on your site. If they viewed a pair of sandals and a skirt on your site, the ad they see will feature those products and lead them back to the product pages.
2. Diversify the Size of Your Ads
By generating ad creatives for all of the possible ad sizes on a given platform, you’re ensuring your ad’s eligibility for every possible site within the associated advertising network. This maximizes your reach and raises the potential for a bounced visitor to see one of your ads on each of the sites they visit.
3. Understand Your Visitors
Each of the potential customers that visits your website is different, and it’s important not to treat them all the same. Consider segmenting your retargeting campaigns so that they’re more likely to speak to each person’s unique set of needs, wants, and priorities.
How many pages did your visitor view before deciding to leave your site? How long did they stay, and which types of products in particular did they show the most interest in while they were there? The answers to these questions and others like them will give you valuable insights on the kind of messaging and creative to use for each campaign.
4. Use Coupons Strategically
Coupons are great incentives to entice customers to finalize a purchase. Try using coupon codes and other special offers in your ad creative to capture the attention of shoppers, especially during the holidays when competition levels are high.
5. Change Up Your Message
Retargeting ads can get stale; though people may need to see your ads multiple times before clicking-through, you don’t want to serve them the same ad all year. Use changes in seasons, holidays, and other events to refresh your ad creative so your shoppers don’t experience ad burnout.
Let’s say, for instance, you decided to offer a 20% discount to all your first-time customers, and it was working well at first. Then, after a couple of weeks, you notice a distinct drop in click-through rates. It’s possible that market is tired of seeing the same message over and over again. Create renewed curiosity by changing the design of your ad, or come up with a different message that you feel might work better.
Want more advanced retargeting tips? Check out our recent posts on ad performance optimization and refreshing your holiday campaigns.