But how do you target qualified prospects and what type of content should be used to encourage them to take action? In this guide dedicated to retargeting, we will explain how this marketing lever works and its effects on sales.
What is retargeting and how does it work?
Retargeting marketing is a form of virtual advertising that involves targeting prospects or customers who are already interested in a company and its offering.
By using cookies to track the preferences of visitors to a website, or by using first-party data collected by the company (for example via a form used to participate in a previous loyalty campaign), the company can segment its audience.
This marketing segmentation will enable it to create highly personalised advertising media that correspond precisely to the interests and expectations of the brand’s prospects.
Let’s take an example: a web user has consulted a specific product sheet on an online shop. He even went so far as to add the item to his shopping basket, but did not complete his purchase. Retargeting will consiste of display advertising banners for this product (or other similar articles) on other websites visited by the prospect. The company can also use email retargeting (offering benefits such as discount if the customer completes the purchase within 24 hours).
Taken together, these strategies enable the brand to increase the chances of the prospect coming back on its e-commerce site and finalise their purchase. To achieve its objective, it must not only re-expose the customer to the product or offer that interested them. But they also need to adapt their advertising media to move them along the conversion tunnel.
The benefits of retargeting
No matter how popular a company and its products are, the majority of consumers who visit its website will leave without signing up for the newsletter or buying a product.
That’s why it’s crucial to multiply the points of contact with prospects in order to create reassurance and desirability. Little by little, they will progress through the sales funnel until they actually buy (or even buy again from the same company).
Better conversion rates thanks to effective activation of consumer data
Retargeting is therefore one the most effective advertising techniques in terms of conversion. In fact, it involves directing efforts toward users who have already shown an interest in the brand (also known as qualified propects). Unlike other techniques of inbound marketing, companies don’t make contact with consumers at random, with no guarantee of generating a sale.
Retargeting also works because it is based on a much more detailed knowledge of its audience. Brands can refine their strategy even further by using segmentation. For example, they could focus their retargeting on a specific marketing segment, such as visitors who have abandoned their shopping basket in the last 30 days, or those who have subscribed to their newsletter but have not yet completed a purchase.
Increased customer retention and loyalty
By creating advertising tailored to the interests and needs of their audience, companies can also create a more attractive advertising experience because it is personalised. Re-targeting marketing is therefore not just a conversion tool, it is also a lever for retaining existing customers and building loyalty.
Easier to monitor and measure the success of marketing campaigns
Finally, retargeting marketing offers companies the opportunity to track and measure performance of their marketing campaigns. By tracking the behaviour of visitors to their website and using these informations to create targeted advertising, brands can more easily monitor and measure the succes of their retargeting campaigns.
In effect, retargeting work by placing a tracking pixel or cookie on its website in order to track visitor behaviour. The implementation of a retargeting strategy therefore offers a better understanding of the experience that users have of an online shop. Companies can analyse their click-through rates, conversion rates and cost per acquisition in order to improve their UX, as well as the effectiveness of their campaigns.
In addition, retargeting platforms often offer analysis tools and generate detailed reports.
L’ensemble de ces données permettent aux entreprises d’avoir un aperçu de leur audience et de l’efficacité de leur stratégie.
Cela peut inclure des informations telles que la segmentation de l’audience, mais aussi de la data sur les appareils utilisés (desktop ou mobiles) et la localisation des visiteurs.
How can you use your marketing segmentation to boost retargeting results?
The key to the success of a retargeting campaign lies in the quality of the data collected and the way it is used to create customer segments.
Rather than targeting everyone who has visited its website, a company should use segmentation to target specific audiences. This can include targeting people who have viewed a specific item or product category, abandoned a basket or made a purchase in the last X months.
But brands can go even further than simply basing their segmentation on the tracking of visitors to their site. They can base their retargeting campaigns on data shared directly with them by their audience, as part of a competition for example, or by filling in a form to take part in a gamified marketing game .
This data is known as first-party data , are all the more valuable for retargeting as they come from consumers themselves. They are also more precise, giving us a much deeper understanding of their consumer habits, buying preferences and expectations.
First-party data will not only enable us to better segment our customer base (and therefore boost the effectiveness of their retargeting). But they can even enable companies to find other potential customers interested in their products. They will feed what are known as lookalike customer bases (or similar audiences) that have similar characteristics/behaviours to their qualified prospects. And who therefore have the same conversion potential.
Re-targeting prospects with automated email campaigns
The whole point of retargeting marketing is to be able to automate campaigns without sacrificing their quality or effectiveness.
A retargeting platform like Adictiz, for example, allows you to send personalised messages (special offers on relevant products, recommendations, etc.) to its audience based on their behaviour in previous campaigns. This strategy is a much more powerful approach to optimising prospect engagement and maximising marketing results.
Get started with retargeting marketing and boost your conversion rates with our segmentation and retargeting tool !
