With 70% of consumers abandoning their carts and only 8% returning to complete their purchases, retargeting presents a crucial opportunity for eCommerce businesses. Effective customer retargeting can boost conversion rates to 26%, making it an essential strategy for online retailers.
Retargeting, also known as remarketing, allows you to reconnect with potential customers who have shown interest in your products. It reinforces brand awareness, boosts eCommerce sales, and enhances customer loyalty. If you’re ready to transform lost opportunities into sales and foster long-term business growth, this guide is for you. We’ll cover actionable strategies and retargeting best practices, including:
- What Is Retargeting?
- Effective Types and Formats for Retargeting Ads
- How To Segment Your Audience for Personalized Retargeting
- 6 Best Practices for Retargeting Campaigns
- The Role of Data and Analytics in Tracking and Optimizing Your eCommerce Retargeting Campaigns
What Is Retargeting?
Customer retargeting is a powerful digital marketing strategy that targets users who have shown interest in your products but didn’t complete the transaction. The goal is to move these interested users closer to a purchase since they already have some level of interest in your brand.
Different Kinds of Retargeting Campaigns
Here are three types of retargeting ads you can include in your campaigns to engage buyers more efficiently:
Abandoned Cart Ads
These ads target users who added items to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase. By reminding them of their unfinished purchase, you can bring them back to complete the sale, enhancing your conversion rate optimization efforts.
Win-Back Campaigns
These campaigns re-engage customers who haven’t interacted with your brand in a while. By targeting these previous buyers with personalized messages based on their past behavior, you can encourage them to return and make a new purchase.
Cross-Sell/Upsell Ads
After a customer makes a purchase, retargeting ads can encourage them to buy related products or upgrade to higher-end versions, increasing sales and improving customer engagement.
Dynamic Retargeting
Dynamic retargeting serves ads automatically generated based on individual user behavior. For example, if a user views a specific product on your site, dynamic ads will showcase that exact item when they encounter your ad elsewhere. This hyper-relevant content boosts customer engagement and makes converting interested buyers into paying customers easier.
Effective Types and Formats for Retargeting Ads
Choosing the right ad type and format is essential for driving engagement and conversions in your retargeting campaign. Below are some of the most effective formats worth exploring:
Display Ads
Displayed across networks like Google Display Network, these ads keep your brand visible as users browse the web. Popular formats include:
- Banner Ads: Traditional rectangular ads appearing on websites and apps.
- Interstitial Ads: Ads that cover the entire screen and are shown at natural transition points in apps or websites.
- Native Ads: Ads that blend seamlessly with website content, making them less intrusive.
- Video Ads: Engaging ads that showcase product features or customer testimonials.
- Dynamic Ads: Real-time content adjustments showing users the exact products they viewed or left in their cart.
Social Media Ads
These ads are displayed on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, appearing in users’ feeds, stories, or sidebars. They offer powerful targeting options and integrate smoothly into the social media experience. Primary formats include:
- Photo Ads: Simple image-based ads that blend into users’ feeds.
- Carousels: Ads that showcase multiple products in a single, scrollable ad.
- Video Ads: These auto-play in social media feeds, capturing users’ attention.
- Stories: Full-screen ads that appear between user-generated stories.
How To Segment Your Audience for Personalized Retargeting
Many eCommerce brands make the mistake of sending the same ads, offers, and messaging to the same audience group. The repetitive ads overwhelm viewers and rob businesses of the opportunity to tailor the message and encourage higher customer engagement.
Here are three primary ways you can segment your audience and keep your messaging relevant:
- Behavioral Segmentation: Group your audience based on their actions, such as interaction with your ads, browsing history, or past purchases.
- Demographic Segmentation: Segmenting your audience based on factors like age, gender, income, or location lets you craft personalized messages.
- Preference Segmentation: This involves grouping audiences according to their product preferences or shopping habits.
Adhering to retargeting best practices and grouping your audiences helps you focus on specific groups and create more effective and personalized campaigns.
6 Best Practices for Retargeting Campaigns
Let’s explore some helpful tactics for optimizing your retargeting efforts, ensuring your ads capture attention and drive conversions effectively. From setting frequency limits to conducting split tests, these retargeting best practices will guide you in creating more engaging eCommerce retargeting campaigns.
1. Set a Frequency Cap
While retargeting ads are effective in re-engaging prospective customers, you don’t want to bombard potential clients with the same advertisements. This can lead to ad fatigue, where users become disinterested and ignore your ads moving forward.
To prevent this, set a frequency cap on how often an individual sees your ad within a certain period. This keeps your ads fresh and helps maintain customer engagement.
2. Rotate Your Ads
In addition to setting frequency caps, it helps to switch up the ads you serve to your audiences. If your ads become repetitive, they risk losing their impact and becoming background noise.
Updating and rotating ads with different formats and messages keeps your eCommerce retargeting campaigns dynamic and engaging.
3. Explore Cross-Channel Retargeting
Maximize your reach by implementing cross-channel retargeting, engaging customers across platforms like social media, display networks, and email. With a coordinated effort, you can reinforce your messaging and create a seamless experience for your prospects.
4. Leverage A/B Testing To Refine Your Ads
A/B testing or split testing is vital for eCommerce marketing success. By systematically comparing different versions of your ads, you can identify which elements resonate most with your audience and refine your campaigns accordingly.
- Test different headlines and calls to action.
- Experiment with various ad visuals and ad copy.
- Analyze the impact of different ad formats.
5. Consider Offline Conversions When Monitoring Performance
For businesses with physical locations, tracking offline conversions is essential to gauge the actual return on ad spend. Here are some ways to do that:
- Google Ads Store Visits Conversions: Enable the Store Visits metric in Google Ads to track store visits.
- Facebook Offline Conversions: Facebook’s offline conversions feature allows you to upload in-store transaction data.
- Custom Promo Codes or Coupons: Create unique promo codes for specific ad campaigns.
- POS System Integration: Integrate your POS system with your ad platform for real-time syncing of sales data.
6. Broaden Your Retargeting Efforts Beyond Paid Advertising
While paid advertising on platforms like Facebook and Google is worthwhile, diversifying your retargeting tactics can further enhance your online store’s potential. Consider integrating email marketing, SEO, and other strategies to improve brand awareness and boost eCommerce sales more sustainably.
The Role of Data and Analytics in Tracking and Optimizing Your eCommerce Retargeting Campaigns
Leveraging data and analytics is crucial for tracking and optimizing any campaign. Closely monitoring key performance metrics allows you to refine your eCommerce marketing strategy, improve customer retargeting, and maximize ROI.
Some metrics to consider tracking:
- Conversions: Track the number of completed purchases to evaluate the direct impact of your retargeting efforts.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures the percentage of people who clicked on your retargeting ads.
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Compares the revenue generated from ads to the amount spent on those ads.
- Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): Refers to the cost of acquiring a new customer through your retargeting ads.
- Engagement Metrics: Include time spent on site, page views, and bounce rate.
Boost Your Bottom Line With Cyberset
Customer retargeting is a powerful tool in conversion rate optimization. With suitable ad types and formats, retargeting best practices, and a well-planned overall strategy, you can bring interested customers back, boost eCommerce sales, and build lasting brand loyalty.
If you know it’s time to elevate your retargeting efforts, Cyberset is here to partner with you in launching a tailored retargeting campaign that turns your visitors into loyal customers. Get in touch to get started.
