Get 150% Increase in Your Conversion Rate with Retargeting

For digital strategists and PPC consultants alike, being able to understand and align with your target audiences' online behavior is the only way to truly maximize engagement and conversions.

Without knowing:

• What motivates your ideal consumer's online search progression.

• What subjects and concepts attract their attention.

• What environments and destinations they frequent the most, while browsing online.

You cannot possibly expect to deliver the return on investment (ROI) you promised your boss or client, since there are too many gaps in understanding the type of conversion funnel that's most appropriate for your consumers to follow.

For those of you who struggle with understanding how your target audience(s) behave online, make sure you check out the concept of retargeting.

What Is Retargeting and How Does It Work?

If you are new to the world of paid search and have never heard of this concept or you have a year or two of experience under your belt, but have yet to test out this tactic, retargeting is the ability to track the online behavior of individuals that pose as relevant opportunities for converting into customers.

Basically, a particular type of code is embedded on your website, which tracks the online behavior of anyone who connects to one of your landing pages. Every time someone new visits your site, the embedded code attaches an anonymous browser cookie to that visitor, which lets your retargeting provider know where to run your ads based on the visitor’s behavior dedicated to where they go online and the websites they visit.

For example, if you as the online user were to look up the services of a search marketing agency, let’s say in Atlanta. You click on whichever website is listed at the top of the SERP and decide after a few minutes of browsing, that you have all the information you need and leave the site without sending an inquiry or perhaps even without purchasing their services.

Once you leave their website, if retargeting is setup, you’ll notice that the search agency’s ads start to follow you around, populating in areas that are not necessarily owned by the agency, but are relevant to what they do and/or stand for.

That is retargeting in a nutshell and for digital marketers, this singular tactic is responsible for boosting ad responses up to 400%, according to a CMO by Adobe report.

Retargeting ≠ Remarketing

If you are reading this and are confused or wondering what the difference between the concepts of "retargeting" and "remarketing" is, you are not alone.

This confusion can be attributed to Google AdWords which in 2010 launched a form of retargeting in their display network that they called "remarketing".

With this in mind, "remarketing" is specific to Google AdWords display network and "retargeting" is the marketing approach behind remarketing.

20 Reasons to Include Retargeting in Your PPC Campaign

There are a plethora of benefits associated with retargeting campaigns that run the gamut from improving brand loyalty to increasing conversions/transactions.

Here are twenty reasons why you need to include this tactic in your next PPC campaign.

1. Online users who are retargeted with display ads are 70% more likely to convert into a paying customer.

2. 46% of search engine marketers believe retargeting is the most underused online marketing technology, according to an AdReady survey.

3. 3 out of 5 online consumers within the United States increase their shopping carts based on similar products/services offered in retargeting ads, according to eMarketer.

4. Click-through-rates and conversions dedicated to E-mail campaigns increase by 5% when connected to retargeting applications.

5. The average click-through-rate for a typical display ad is only 0.07%, where as a retargeted ad’s CTR is around 0.7%.

6. Reminds prior visitors that your brand still exists and shows them how to reconnect with your online presence. Consumers that somehow became distracted by other variables and left your website are able to find their way back to you at a later time.

7. Improves insight around consumer behavior and monthly reporting. Google Analytics is able to offer information that shows how many consumers are returning to your site, as well as the level of dedication they have for your brand,

8. Retargeted ads can be personalized, which allows you to adjust your ads in ways that resolve high bounce rates and keep consumers engaged.

9. According to statistics offered by SlideShare.net, 59% of online consumers have a neutral reaction to retargeted ads.

10. Online consumers that are confronted with retargeted ads are 3x more likely to click on your ad than people who haven’t interacted with your business before.

11. Depending on the vertical, retargeting has the ability to increase conversion rates by almost 150%, according to a study from DataXu. Brands and businesses dedicated to customer service saw an average 128% increase in conversions, while others associated with financial services enjoyed 147% growth.

12. According to comScore, retargeting is the most effective method of getting potential customers to return to a particular website; leading to a 1,046% increase in branded search and a 726% lift in return visitors after four weeks of being exposed to the original ad.

13. Kimberly-Clark continuously sees a 50-60% higher conversion rates among retargeted consumers.

14. 38% of marketers run retargeting campaigns on Twitter, according to a 2014 report offered by Chango.com.

15. Consumers are 26% more likely to return to your website and follow through with the check-out process.

16. 68% of agencies and 49% of brands are reallocating their budgets to transition funds from traditional display advertising to retargeting.

17. 25% of online consumers enjoy receiving behaviorally retargeted ads because they remind them of what they were previously looking for, according to Wishpond.

18. Nearly 3/5 United States consumers admit to noticing ads for products they looked up on other sites.

19. 56% of retargeting is used to acquire customers, 42% is used to build brand awareness, and 11% is used to acquire customers from competition.

20. 68% of online advertisers are using Facebook’s FBX exchange for retargeting.

Time to Launch Your Own Campaign

Now that you are convinced retargeting is the way to go, make sure to consider a few tips when setting up your first campaign.

• Incorporate “burning” into your campaign, which means that if a particular consumer is being tracked and converts into a customer, they are then removed from your campaign. This will help you differentiate between consumers who are following through with your conversion funnel and those that still need to be nurtured.

• Install or establish a frequency cap on your campaign in order to regulate the frequency of your ads and the level of exposure consumer receive. Best practices recommend 15 to 20 ads per month.

• Segment your ads to better align with consumer behavior, as well as to provide the most ideal forms of content and messaging to each individual visitor. Depending on your level of enthusiasm for in-depth data, you can segment your ads to align with all levels of your marketing conversion funnel, for each and every landing page that exists on your website.

Note: The opinions expressed in this article are the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of Caphyon, its staff, or its partners.