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Retargeting or Remarketing is a great tactic to generate leads. Many people believe that it’s only good for e-commerce companies however, when done well, it can be great for B2B companies as well.
It’s highly likely that you will see at least one retargeting ad on a website or on social media every day. But what exactly is retargeting?
Have you ever been on a website, looked at some pages, and then decided to leave without taking an action? Then, a couple of days later, you start seeing what you were looking at as ads on websites and on social media. This is retargeting. 98% of users who visit a website do not convert straight away which can seem quite daunting. However, instead of just focusing on the 2% that have converted, retargeting is a great tactic to start converting some of the 98% who haven’t.
So you now know what retargeting is. Let’s take a look at how you can use retargeting to start generating leads.
Retargeting specific URL visits
It’s very easy to create a retargeting ad on Google Ads or Facebook Ads and start retargeting to users who have visited your site in the past x number of days. You may see a few leads generated this way depending on the number of people you are retargeting, but it’s not the most effective way. This is because all these users are different and will have different needs. How can you show you meet all these different needs in one ad?
So, instead of retargeting to all the users who have visited your website, look at users who visited a specific URL. This way, you can display more targeted ads that will appeal to the users and meet their needs. Has someone visited a landing page on your site with CTAs to sign up for a webinar, or to download an ebook but left without doing so? Retargeting users who visited these specific pages will allow you to show ads to these users to encourage them to return to that page and convert.
In order to retarget website visitors on Google Ads and Facebook Ads, you need to add the relevant tags to your website. For Google Ads, you need to add the Google Ads Remarketing Tag and for Facebook, you need to install a Facebook Pixel. On Google Ads, you can then start creating an audience list to target people who have visited specific URLs on your site. If you already had your Remarketing Tag installed, you can add users who have visited these pages in the past 30 days as well.
On Facebook, you can start creating a custom audience to again target users who have visited specific URLs on your site. You can also set the list to users who have frequently visited a URL without taking any action. Like with Google Ads, you can also target users who have visited these pages in the past 30 days, if the Pixel had been installed during this timeframe.
Email Retargeting
Just because a user has signed up to your newsletter, downloaded an ebook or signed up for a webinar, it doesn’t mean they will become a paying customer. They need to be nurtured. In order to do this effectively, you should sort them into lists based on the actions they have taken. This can include:
Once you have created your lists, you can then start creating emails that are relevant to them. For users who signed up for a webinar but didn’t attend, you can send them an email with the recording of the webinar, as well as including a CTA to discuss any questions they might have around it. For users who did attend a webinar but didn’t convert, send them an email for an upcoming webinar which is relevant to the one they attended. Add a question about why they signed up for the previous webinar, did they get what they wanted out of it, would they like to discuss it further with you.
You can also use the email addresses you have collected to create Customer Match audiences and Lookalike Audiences on Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Google Ads’ Customer Match will allow you to target ads to users who have shared their emails with you, as well as other users that are similar to them. Facebook Ads’ Lookalike Audiences allows you to target users who are similar to users who have shared their emails with you.
In the B2B industry, it’s highly unlikely that someone will visit your website and become a customer immediately without researching, looking at your competitors and discussing with colleagues and management. Research shows that 74% of B2B sales to new customers take at least 4 months to close, with 46% taking 7 months or longer. Retargeting is a great way to keep your company front of mind throughout this process. You can use retargeting to show the value of your company with retargeting ads for webinars and ebooks.
Retargeting is also great to engage existing customers. Maybe they took out a free trial which has now expired. You can use retargeting ads to get them engaged with your company again. If you offer a monthly service, offer them a discount for the first month or two to entice them. Have you released a new or updated product that is similar to the one they bought from you? Run a retargeting ad to these customers to encourage them to re-engage with your company and tell them about the new product that will support their needs.
As mentioned earlier, it’s highly likely that you would have seen a retargeting ad and been sent a retargeting email at some point. In the slight chance you may not have seen one, here are a couple of examples of retargeting in practice.
Set Hero
Last week, I visited Set Hero to download a template from their site. In order to download the template, I needed to enter my email address and then they sent me the link to download. This is a great way to collect emails for retargeting. A lot of companies now do this, and if your content is valuable, users are likely to offer you their email address in return. A few days after downloading the template, I received an email from Set Hero with a link to their website with another article and downloadable template that was related to the one I already downloaded. This is a great way to show the value they offer as well as guiding you back to their website where they can try to convert you into a paying customer.
Leadfeeder
I recently visited Leadfeeder’s website to read a blog and had a look around their site. I didn’t enter my email address which meant they were unable to retarget me via email about their product. However, as I was on their website, they were able to retarget me via Facebook Ads. A couple of days after visiting the website, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and a Leadfeeder ad appeared to learn more about their product to encourage me back to their website and convert.
To get the best results with retargeting, it’s important to split your audience into lists depending on where they are in the sales funnel and what they were looking at on your website. In a world where personalisation tactics are being used at a more intelligent level, this allows you to lead them to relevant information to encourage them to convert, if they are at the stage to convert. Maybe there isn’t a relevant page on your website to send them to. That’s when creating landing pages can help. Retargeting isn’t as complicated as it may sound. Ensure you spend time planning your lists and content if you want to start generating leads.
