Only 2% of web traffic converts on the first visit…. Yeah, 2%!
That means 98% of the opportunity that is on your website is being missed if you don’t have a strategy to get people back you your website.
So how do you get people back to your website after they have already left? The answer is retargeting.
Retargeting is basically using code to track which individuals have made it to your website and serve them up more ads and content across the web with the hope of feeding them down your sales funnel.
Most of us are familiar with retargeting and don’t even realize it. Have you ever been shopping online for a particular product and then all of a sudden, everywhere you go you see ads for that product offering you a discount? That’s retargeting!
Is it a little creepy? Yes. Does it work? 100%.
Pretty much all companies can benefit from some kind of a retargeting strategy, but for B2B and eCommerce companies, it should be an absolute requirement!
For B2B, decision-makers are evaluating new software and services all the time. They might hop on your website and like what they are seeing, but will leave to check out other vendors, or even worse, forget about that bright idea they had the second other priorities come up and more fires to put out appear. Retargeting allows you to stay front-of-mind and make sure you aren’t forgotten about it.
Retargeting allows you to remind them about what they were once interested in. You can show them additional features and benefits that they might not have been aware of or give them an offer that might get them right back into your pipeline.
In eCommerce, shoppers can be really stubborn. They like to “window shop” online; Finding items that they like, looking at sizes and reviews, and maybe even putting some things into their cart. But then nothing… Why? It could have been because they really couldn’t afford what you are selling or they just truly don’t want/need it anymore, but most of the time it is a different reason. Maybe the kids are screaming, or the grass needs to be cut, or about 10,000 other reasons that would draw people away from their decision to buy. Even if it’s an item that someone needs right now, you can easily be forgotten. Not to mention you need to duke it out with the likes of Amazon now… How the hell do you compete with that?
Now that we have introduced the concept of retargeting to you to help you, how do you do it?
Well, retargeting has evolved quite a bit over the last few years. Companies still pour thousands and thousands of dollars into banners and side panel ads across the internet at obnoxiously high CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions). The problem with these ads? The 100% do not convert.
When is the last time you clicked on a banner ad? My guess, probably close to never. We have been so accustomed to seeing those ads on the top and side of the screen, we completely phase them out. Even the side benefit of getting a little extra brand awareness.
So what do you do instead? That’s easy – social retargeting.
Pretty much all social platforms now support some kind of retargeting. It is pretty easy to set up and gives you a crazy amount of power to try and get more people back to your website.
All it tasks is the installation of tracking code from the social channels on your website. Each platform calls it something a little different (Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Conversion Code, etc.) but they all essentially do the same thing.
When someone visits your website, the code attaches itself to that user and follows them pretty much everywhere they go on your website. When you log into your account, the social platform reads that data via the code that is now attached to them, allowing the platform to collect data on what websites they looked and what actions they took.
You then set up rules based on what pages on your site someone visited to make the most out of your advertising.
Let’s use our website as an example. You are reading this blog right now, and our tracking code knows it. Since this ad is about paid social advertising, we might decide to serve you up an ad that leads you to our pricing page for our paid social advertising services. If you visit that page, we will show you an ad that leads to a specific landing page for paid ads with a goal of you filling out a form
The whole point is to keep you coming back and move you down the funnel. In simpler terms, make you move closer and closer to a purchase or a meeting, or down the marketing/sales funnel
The best part about all this is that it’s extremely cost-effective. Instead of sending out ads to broad audiences that may or may not want your product or service, you are spending those dollars on people you know for a fact are at least somewhat interested. That’s about as good of an audience as you’re going to get!
Retargeting is the next level of strategy when it comes to your paid efforts. You have done the hard work of getting people to your website, now it is time to make sure that you stay top of mind and get them to come back. These secondary visits increase your chances of actually getting a conversion and increasing your sales.
If you have any questions about conversion tracking including how to get things set up, feel free to give us a call for a free consultation. We will be happy to help you out!