Retargeting 101: Everything You Need to Know About Retargeting

RETARGETING
A Beginner’s Guide to Retargeting 101

Retargeting 101
Interested in retargeting, but don’t know where to start?
ReTargeter Retargeting 101
Allow the following beginner’s guide to help you:
1

What is
Retargeting?
Retargeting is the practice
of serving ads to users
based on prior engagement.
Retargeting 101

How retargeting works:
When someone visits your website, your retargeting provider will place an anonymous browser
cookie. The cookie will store the site visit and when that visitor leaves, that cookie lets your
retargeting provider know when that bounced visitor appears on another site.
If there is available ad space, your
retargeting provider will bid on that
space in real-time. If they are the
highest bidder, they secure the ad
space before the page loads. This entire
process occurs within a fraction of a
second!
Retargeting 101

Why Marketers Should Be
Retargeting
2

Engage with bounced
site visitors and
increase conversions.
Increase ROI by
serving focused ads
to a qualified
audience.
With retargeting, you can:
Stay in front of
prospects as they
browse the web.
Boost brand
awareness and stay
top of mind.
ENGAGE BE SEEN AWARENESS TARGET
Retargeting:

Retargeting:
Engage with bounced site visitors and increase conversions:
• Traffic that bounces doesn’t have to be the end of the line. By serving retargeted ads
to users who already expressed interest in your site, they become part of the
purchase funnel, and encourages the next step: conversion.
• With 90-98% of site visitors simply not converting, retargeting can provide the
additional marketing touch points to encourage conversions and drive prospects
further down the funnel.

Stay in front of prospects as they browse the web:
• Potential buyers are likely to do thorough research on all of their options.
Retargeting will keep your company in front of those prospects while they evaluate
the competition.
• According to Gleanster, 50% of leads are qualified but not ready to buy. Additional
research shows that 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first.
Retargeting:

Boost brand awareness and stay top of mind:
• Retargeting delivers meaningful impressions and drives further consideration by
serving display ads to users who previously had little or limited exposure to your
brand.
• 63% of marketers project that the dollars allocated to branding will grow in 2013,
with 1 in 5 stating that the increase will exceed 20%, according to a Nielsen study.
• The same study shows that 61% of marketers are allocating dollars away from direct
response to branding.
Retargeting:

Increase ROI by serving focused ads to a qualified audience:
• By only serving ads to people who have expressed interest in your brand, you
aren’t wasting your budget (and valuable impressions) on users who just won’t
convert. Targeted ads on a focused audience ensures retargeting increases your
ROI.
• One comScore study found that retargeting campaigns led to a 1046% increase in
branded search and a 726% lift in site visitation after four weeks of retargeted ad
exposure.
Retargeting:

The Most Common Forms
of Retargeting
3

• Site Retargeting
• Email Retargeting
• Search Retargeting
• CRM Retargeting
• Dynamic Retargeting
• Facebook Retargeting
The Most Common
Retargeting Practices
The most common retargeting practices include:

Site Retargeting:
The practice of serving ads to people who visit your website after
they leave.
The Most Common

Email Retargeting:
The practice of serving ads to people who open your emails.
The Most Common

Search Retargeting:
The practice of serving ads to people who search for one of your keywords
while browsing the web.
The Most Common

CRM Retargeting:
The practice of serving ads to people with nothing but an email or mailing
address.
The Most Common

Dynamic Retargeting:
The practice of serving ads to people based on prior
engagement.
The Most Common

Facebook Retargeting:
The practice of serving ads to people who visit your website, on Facebook.
The Most Common

Retargeting best practices include:
• Frequency Caps
• Burn Code
• Rotating Creatives and A/B Testing
• Audience Segmentation
• Demographic, Geographic, and Contextual Targeting
• Setting View-through Conversion Windows
• Single Provider Retargeting
Retargeting Best Practices

Frequency Caps:
• A Frequency Cap will limit the number of times a tagged user will see your
ads, preventing potential customers from feeling overwhelmed.
• ReTargeter typically recommends 17-20 ads per user per month, but you
can work with your retargeting provider to determine what makes most
sense for your campaign.

Burn Code:
• Always use a burn pixel.
• This snippet of code, placed in your post-transaction page, will untag any
users who have made a purchase, ensuring you stop serving them ads.

Rotating Creatives:
• After seeing the same ads again and again, a user’s interest is no longer
piqued and ads are more likely to blend into the background.
• By rotating your ad creative every few months, you can easily avoid
experiencing dips in performance.

A/B Test Your Creatives:
• Simple A/B tests can provide the data you need to run campaigns with high-
performing ads. Instead of relying on what you think will work, you can run
tests for measurable and actionable results.
• A/B testing your creatives will help you determine the optimal combination of
ad copy, calls-to-action, and graphics.

Audience Segmentation:
• The process is simple: you place different retargeting pixels on different pages of your
site, and then tailor your creatives based on the depth of engagement of each user.
• Then, tailor ad messages to users in different stages of the purchase funnel.

• Targeting gives you the opportunity to fine-tune your ad placements, ensure greater
relevancy and increasing ad performance.
• Advertisements can be targeted based on demographic information, like age or gender,
contextual factors like subject matter of the website, or geographic data.
Demographic, Geographic, and Contextual Targeting:

Setting View-through Conversion Windows:
• The view-through conversion window takes into account that some ads don’t trigger
immediate buying decisions, but can nonetheless influence people to make purchases
later, also known as the billboard effect.
• In the same way a catchy billboard grabs your attention and boosts brand awareness, an
online display ad can encourage a later action.
• There are various practices around the length of a view-through conversion window,
some providers will set a 30-day window, but ReTargeter recommends 24 hours.
• A 24-hour view-through conversion window will provide you with valuable data around
the stickiness of your ads, the quality of your ad placements, and your audience’s
shopping habits, without inflating or overstating your ads’ effectiveness.

• If you run with multiple providers, each provider will be bidding for the same spots on
the same websites, driving up media costs and decreasing the chances each has to
serve ads to your users.
• You may also run into difficulties effectively implementing frequency caps, as each
retargeting provider will be operating independently
Single Provider Retargeting:

How Retargeting Fits Into
Your Marketing Strategy
5

How to Fit Retargeting Into Your Marketing
Strategy

Retargeting serves as a valuable component of an integrated marketing
strategy, and will be most successful when used in conjunction with other
efforts.
How to Fit Retargeting Into Your
Marketing Strategy

Retargeting and your Website:
• Over 95% of users leave websites without converting. Retargeting keeps your brand top
of mind among those users, bringing them back to your site, and improving conversion
rates.
• Site retargeting allows you to serve display ads to people who visited your site, but left
without completing a purchase, filling out a lead form, or taking some other desired
action.
Marketing Strategy

Retargeting and Email:
• The ability to keep your email list’s attention is more important than ever.
• The way users interact with email has changed significantly, with people spending less
and less time opening and browsing marketing emails.
• Email retargeting serves ads to everyone who opens your emails, which gives you a
second change to re-engage users who aren’t heavily engaging with your emails.
Marketing Strategy

Retargeting and Content:
• Producing valuable content (that isn’t self-promotional) will drive traffic, build
readership, and increase brand credibility and awareness.
• Retargeting can help convert blog readers, white paper readers, and webinar watchers.
• By placing a simple retargeting code on your blog, as well as any dedicated landing
pages you use for webinars and white papers, you can stay in front of everyone who
interested in your content.
Marketing Strategy

Retargeting and Social:
• Many marketers leverage social media to expand reach and drive traffic to their site.
• You can then use retargeting to stay in touch with social media audiences across web.
• How? By placing a retargeting code on the landing pages you share via social, you can
stay in front of everyone engaged with your social content.
Marketing Strategy

Retargeting and Events:
• Retargeting can drive awareness and increase ticket sales for your events.
• You can serve display ads promoting an upcoming event to people who have visited
your website, opened your email, or even attended one of your events in the past.
• You can also use retargeting to offer related promotions, deals, and discounts, and
ultimately, keep engagement high even after an event has passed.
• Conferences will often use this technique to encourage event attendees to register early
for the upcoming year or to boost awareness for a smaller, lesser-known event.
Marketing Strategy

Retargeting and PPC:
• Your PPC campaigns are driving traffic to your site or specific landing pages.
• Your site and landing pages can have retargeting pixels.
• Then, when people visit your site or landing pages but don’t convert, you can still serve
them retargeted ads across the web.
• Retargeting gets you more out of your PPC campaigns by brining back bounced traffic
and encouraging conversions.
Marketing Strategy

How Can You Benefit From
Retargeting?
6

Can you benefit from retargeting?
• Retargeting can be effective for both B2B and B2C marketers.
• Ecommerce companies can benefit from retargeting by bringing back bounced traffic
and shoppers who have abandoned their carts.
• B2B companies can stay in front of leads during longer purchase cycles.
If you have a website and you’re not seeing 100% conversion rates, you’re a
good candidate for retargeting!
Can You Benefit From
Retargeting?

What Kind of Retargeting
Provider is Best?
7

Select a retargeting provider that best suits your needs:
Full-service or
Self-serve?
What Kind of Retargeting
Provider is Best?

Benefits of self-serve retargeting:
• Manage your campaign in its entirety.
• Optimize your own spend across networks.
• Avoid built-in costs for account management.
Full-Service or Self-Serve?

Benefits of full-service retargeting:
• Leave your campaign in expert hands.
• Reporting is provided for you
• Campaigns are optimized to ensure you receive the highest returns
• Larger financial investment, but a smaller resource investment
Full-Service or Self-Serve?

Get started today!
Contact Us
Retargeting is highly effective and easy to integrate with your
existing marketing efforts.
ReTargeter.com
33 New Montgomery St.
Suite 1150
info@retargeter.com
(415) 738-0573

Retargeting 101: Everything You Need to Know About Retargeting

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Retargeting 101: Everything You Need to Know About Retargeting