We’ve all been in this scenario: while perusing social media, an interesting ad pops up on the feed. It’s a new product that looks enticing, so we click on it and poke around on the website.
The product, a new meal delivery service, seems legitimate and worthwhile. You add a few items to your cart to test the waters and find out the final price. And while the price isn’t too bad, you still can’t quite make yourself pull the metaphorical trigger.
So you abandon the cart, thinking, “oh, I’ll just go back later on when I’m ready and order.”
But weeks go by, and you quickly forget that you even clicked on that ad in the first place. The company has lost a prospective customer, and their success is now subject to whether or not your memory is jogged and you decide to go back and make the purchase.
In order to prevent this scenario from happening more often, many businesses have adopted tactics intended to “retarget” those who visit the website but leave without making a purchase.
There are a few ways to retarget customers who may have had second thoughts or not wanted to take the plunge right away. It’s a key part of a marketing strategy to have a plan in place for retargeting. After all, research shows than just 2 percent of customers make a purchase on their first initial visit to a website.
Retargeting can be as simple as creating what’s called a pixel to seek out and sell to those who have visited the website before. This is often done on Facebook, which explains some of the
“phenomena” of having a website populate ads on a user’s feed shortly after they look up that brand.
Retargeting serves as a gentle reminder that the customer has visited that brand before. Often, a retargeting ad has a stronger call to action or even a special deal or discount code designed to entice the customer to return to the website and make a purchase.
These types of ads should typically see a higher conversion rate than those that are designed to grab visitors and bring them to the website for an initial visit. For example, many businesses will enlist the help of Google Ads and put out ads on what’s called the Display network.
These ads are designed to target users based on their internet search history. Perhaps a user has searched for “meal delivery” or “ready to make meals” before. This will trigger Display ads to populate on websites that have Google AdSense enabled. This customized view is more likely to show users ads that are relevant to their search history, giving them exposure to businesses offering what they’ve been searching for.
When paired with retargeting pixels and corresponding social media ads, brands can have a better shot at A) introducing the customer to the business and B) encouraging them to return and make a purchase.
Without the use of retargeting, many customers may get lost and forget that they’d once perused the website and thought about making a purchase. Conversion rate optimization is an important metric to track for any business and introducing pixels and retargeting can help further optimize this for a stronger return on investment.
Ronn Torossian is the CEO and Founder of 5WPR. 5W Public Relations is headquartered in New York City.
Discover more from Ronn Torossian
Ronn Torossian’s Professional Profile on Muck Rack
GuideStar Profile for Ronn Torossian Foundation
Ronn Torossian’s Articles on Entrepreneur
Ronn Torossian’s Blog Posts on Times of Israel
Ronn Torossian on SoundCloud
