Leverage Ecommerce Retargeting to Win Back Your Customers

Purchasing a product is rarely love at first sight. There are multiple touchpoints before a buyer decides to buy. 

For example, an online user visits your product page, scrolls through it multiple times, and closes the browser window without taking action. With eCommerce retargeting, you can nurture such leads and convert them into customers. 

Retargeting is a popular strategy in eCommerce because it reduces cart abandonment by 6.5% and increases web traffic by a whopping 700%! In fact, 27% of the retail industry uses retargeting compared to just 9% in finance. 

What Is Retargeting?

Retargeting is not a new concept. Marketers have been using it for a long time to win back business or generate leads. Let’s see how it works.

You choose a retargeting service, which will ask you to put a code snippet on your website that tracks conversions and visitors. 

You must prepare the marketing collateral, such as ad copies, which include the text and graphics. 

Once the retargeting is live, whenever a customer visits your website and leaves without performing the desired action, they will start seeing your ads on different websites including popular news sites or social media platforms. 

These ads usually have an offer that encourages visitors to return to your website and seal the deal. However, you should not confuse retargeting with remarketing. 

How Is Retargeting Different From Remarketing?

Both retargeting and remarketing are used to make sales or generate leads. These terms are interchangeably used even though they are not technically the same. So how are they different? 

Retargeting uses multiple approaches including online ad placement or display ads that target users who visited and interacted with your website without making a purchase.

For example, you visit a website to purchase a pair of jeans. You finalize a product, add it to your cart, change your mind and exit the website. You decided not to buy it. 

A few hours later, you browse your favorite websites and see the ad for the same jeans.

That is retargeting. It happens because of the cookies installed in the browser, which track users’ actions such as entering the website, clicking on a product, or taking other critical steps like adding the product to the cart. 

Retargeting ads are placed by third parties like Facebook or Google Display Network. It is about converting prospects into customers by triggering ads on third-party sites that your visitors visit. 

In contrast, remarketing is more about re-engaging subscribers via emails. It provides an opportunity to upsell or cross-sell and "remind" users to act based on their purchase history. While most brands like to remarket through emails, paid ads are also popularly used for remarketing.

So Why Should You Care About Retargeting?

Research by Invesp claims that:

• 75% of online buyers pay attention to retargeting ads.
• Up to 26% of online buyers will click on a retargeting ad and revisit the website. The average click-through rate of retargeted ads is 0.7%.
• Using display ads for retargeting can lead to a 70% conversion rate.

Top 3 Benefits of Ecommerce Retargeting 

The end goal of any eCommerce retargeting campaign is to move the user down the buyer's journey. Here are the top three ways eCommerce retargeting benefits your business: 

1. Reach Interested Prospects

Retargeted campaigns are focused and ensure you are not shooting ads all over the internet. It helps you show your ads to only those prospects who have interacted with your brand online.

2. Increase Brand Recall

Retargeting ads let you stay in front of your prospects and make them aware of your brand. Even if they do not convert immediately, your brand will have a higher recall value when the user is ready to purchase. 

3. Be Cost-Effective

For cost-sensitive businesses, retargeting ads maximize your ROI on digital advertising. Retargeting ads' conversion rates are relatively higher, and you will likely get a bang for your buck. 

How Can Ecommerce Implement Retargeting?

Integrating retargeting into your online store requires different steps, starting with identifying the type of retargeting platform you want. Do you want Shopify or WooCommerce retargeting plugins, or go with the most popular Google's built-in retargeting? 

Implementing eCommerce retargeting is pretty straightforward. Install all the required plugins or code add-ons, create ad copies, and set it up to execute campaigns. 

The Google Display Network Reach attracts more than 92% of visitors across millions of devices, websites and videos.  

Here's how you can set it up in Google AdWords:

1. Log into your AdWords account.

2. Click and open the 'Shared Library.’

3. Select 'Audiences.'

4. Do 'Set-up Remarketing.'

5. Click 'View AdWords Tag for websites.'

6. Select the entire remarketing tag code and copy it. 

7. Paste the code at the bottom of the web pages you will use for the campaign.

8. Save the changes and publish the page.

9. Use 'Google Tag Assist' to see if the tag is working.

10. Click 'Continue' and then 'Return to Audiences.'

And that is it. You are all set. 

In a few days, you will notice that the tag is collecting the cookies of web visitors. You will see the data in your account in the 'All Visitors' list.

Ecommerce Retargeting Best Practices

Before you launch your eCommerce retargeting ads, here are a few best practices to keep in mind regardless of the platform you decide to use.

1) Create Relevant Messages

The internet is a noisy place. It is full of brands trying to grab consumers' attention. It is critical to creating relevant messages to ensure that your eCommerce retargeting ads perform well. 

Target your ad appropriately with relevant messages if you want to build quality relationships with your customers. Irrelevant messages can be annoying and pass off as spam. For example, if you sell products specifically for men, your retargeting ads should not be displayed to boys and certainly not to women. 

2) Segment Your Audience Correctly

Personalization goes a long way to ensure your messages are relevant. But personalizing each message can seem a daunting task without segmentation. 

Segmentation lets you divide customers into multiple groups based on a common trait, such as their preferences, likes, and dislikes. This allows you to tailor your messages to those specific segments. Typically, you can segment your audience based on: 

Demographics: Demographics include any profile data of your customers or subscribers, including gender, age, gender, location, and marital status. 

Campaign engagement: Segment data based on how your contacts or customers engage with your online campaigns, such as digital ads or emails. 

Shopping behavior: Use shopping behavior to segment customers no matter where they are in the buyer's journey. 

Layer these segments to get even better results. 

For instance, imagine you want to retarget 50-year-old men who recently purchased a cashmere pullover from your winter collection. In this case, you can layer demographics and shopping behavior segments to send relevant and ultra-personalized messages.

3) Focus on Different Ad Elements

Ecommerce retargeting ads have different components from the copy and call to action, to visuals. It's critical to pay attention to these elements, especially the visuals. The ad design must convey what you want to say and should include your brand logo.

Create a power call-to-action, which can potentially attract the customer and compel them to act, including "Get your 50% Discount", "Shop now," etc. Also, ensure that your offers are time-sensitive. It creates a sense of urgency and FOMO within your audience. 

Then, finalize your ad by doing an A/B test. Create at least four different iterations, changing one element, be it visuals, CTA, or the copy, at a time.

Top Metrics to Measure

When running retargeting campaigns for your eCommerce business, you must target specific metrics that will help gauge your success.

Conversion Rate

The average conversion rate in eCommerce is 2.5-3%. It is the baseline. Use it in your retargeting campaigns to see if there is an uptick in the number or if your ads need to be further optimized. 

Abandon Cart Rate

If you have a high card abandonment rate, then it makes sense to do retargeting campaigns. Retargeting ads can reduce cart abandonment by 6.5%. 

ROI

See if the sales have increased after retargeting ads. Retargeting ads have multiple benefits, such as they help in increasing brand revenue and customer acquisition by 33% each, boosting website engagement by 16%, and growing brand awareness by 12%. In other words, retargeting ads will improve the overall performance of your marketing efforts. 

Time Spent on Page

Are your visitors only clicking your ads and bouncing off, or are they reading the content of your landing page? You may want to optimize the landing page content for higher conversions and lower bounce rates. Look for the time they spend on the page before either leaving your landing page or converting into customers.

Click-Through Rate

Retargeting ads have a higher click-through rate than traditional ads. The click-through rate is the number of people who clicked on your ad link and landed on your website. The CTR of retargeted ads is 10 times higher.

 Effectively Leveraging Retargeting Campaigns

Ecommerce retargeting ads offer incredible opportunities to reach the customers you want. It places your brand and message in front of users who have expressed interest in your business through online interactions. 

If you need help with retargeting, Growth Natives can help you devise a proven retargeting ad strategy for your business. Write to us at info@growthnatives.com and we will help you create and optimize these ads, turning those clicks into conversions.