Failing to retarget your website audience is a missed opportunity!
Have you ever viewed a product on Amazon, and then been amazed at how that product seemed to ‘follow’ you as you went around the web? From news websites, to blogs, to YouTube, it was as if that blender has been ‘stalking’ you!
Welcome to the world of retargeted advertising! This is the ability to repeatedly put ads in front of your website visitors for months after they left your site.
Any small business owner can implement this powerful strategy at a very low cost. Yet few small business owners know about it.
Before we get into the ‘how’, let’s talk about why retargeting is the most profitable form of small business advertising!
Reason 1: Repetition Works
On television we all see the same advertisement again and again. And it isn’t because the ad agencies forgot to turn it off!
Marketers know that the average person needs to see an offer 3 to 5 times before they buy it. In the case of somebody visiting your website, chances are they are not ready to take that first step in your sales process (i.e. ‘buy now’, ‘call us’, ‘book your free consultation’, etc.) right away.
But when they click away, you don’t have to lose them forever. Repeated invitations to take that next step in your sales process WILL sink in. Retargeting the same offer to non-buyers is the most profitable campaigns we run for our clients!
Reason 2: Maximise Brand Awareness
Wouldn’t it be fantastic for your brand to have the kind of ‘omni-presence’ of Coca Cola or Starbucks? The good news is, you CAN be perceived like this in the minds of your website visitors.
When a client says to me, “we’ve seen you everywhere,” it isn’t because we have the marketing budget of McDonalds. It’s because we constantly run retargeting campaigns to our website visitors until we become completely familiar.
Obscurity is the single biggest obstacle that most small businesses suffer today. And retargeting has amazing potential to create familiarity for your small business. The more your business becomes ‘known’, the more sales you will make.
Reason 3: Tailored Advertising
You have ability to retarget tailored ads to people on your customer and leads databases. You can also retarget people who visited your website or specific sub-pages of your website.
You can create retargeting ‘rules’ to exclude visitors who have visited one page but not another. This means you can create tailored offers based on your prospect’s EXACT stage of the buying cycle.
For example, if somebody views an offer on your website, but doesn’t buy, you can retarget that same offer to them repeatedly.
If somebody signs up to become a lead, then you can run an ad inviting them to join you for a free consultation.
If you have an existing customer, you can offer them a more expensive up-sell, a re-servicing, or an associated product!
Retargeting enables you to put tailored offers in front of your prospects, leads and buyers in a completely automated way! This saves businesses time and can bring a large return on investment.
How to Create Retargeted Ads:
Google and Facebook both allow small businesses to create ads which retarget visitors. This includes ads placed within their own networks, and also display banners on blogs and news sites around the web.
Simply select the ‘create retargeting audience’ option and you will be given code. You (or your developers) can copy and paste this code on your website pages. Once the code is in place, these networks will track visitors for up to 180 days.
With the ‘create custom audience’ option, Facebook enables you to upload the email addresses and/or phone numbers from your leads or customer databases. You can then create tailored ads for each of those audiences.
Retargeting campaigns are quick, easy, and one of the most profitable ways to advertise your small business!
About the author:
From Melbourne, Australia, Campbell McPherson is an expert digital marketer. His website, campbellmcpherson.com, provides strategies to help small business owners get leads and sales online.
