How to Create a Successful Remarketing Strategy

Remarketing can be a powerful conversion tool. Serving ads to users who have previously visited your site keeps you in front of prequalified prospects. But…if not done well it can be a huge waste of time, money, and resources.

So, how can you make your remarketing campaigns successful? You need a strong remarketing strategy.

Remarketing campaigns require three elements:

• An audience
• Ads – especially copy! – specific to the audience
• A well-defined goal

Prioritizing one of the above elements over the other two, for example: using catch-all copy for all audiences/goals, can quickly derail your campaign.

Remarketing is more than audience. It’s a cohesive strategy focused on the audience and the specific outcome you want from that audience, which understands the unique needs and intent of each audience. Let’s take a deeper look.

Set Goals and Build Your Remarketing Strategy From Them

Every campaign needs a strategy and every strategy starts with a goal to work toward. Several factors play a role in determining your remarketing goals. These include wider company goals (ie., revenue, brand awareness), departmental goals (ie., product expansion, audience targeting), and goals specific to each audience (ie., sales for cart abandoners, downloads for landing page visitors, etc.).

Goals for each audience will guide the copy and define the CTA for ads. They may even reveal ways to further segment and audience for greater impact. With remarketing technologies, it’s possible to get highly specific in your audience targeting efforts.

Audience Targeting

No brand can target ‘all previous site visitors’ and expect amazing results. Some visitors may only visit the home page while others may fill a shopping cart only to abandon it right before check out. Each audience is at a different stage of the conversion funnel and in order to reach these individual audiences, you must have specific strategies.

When creating a remarketing strategy, first identify the audiences you want to reach. Do you want to reach the casual site visitor, or do you want to reach the one who abandoned their cart? Do you want to reach those who visited the ‘Request More Info Submission’ or those who clicked on ‘Our Services’?

Depending on your budget, maybe you can target all of them. If not, prioritize the audience that promises the best conversion – the one further down the conversion funnel. Once you’ve determined your budget, it’s time to set your bids.

Optimize bids by audience. Those further down the conversion funnel are worth more and should be bid accordingly. Bid higher to ‘win’ the ad space and reach this audience. Less committed audiences may be bid lower if it fits with your remarketing campaign goals.

Finally, create ads to engage with your audience, which is the second essential element of every remarketing strategy.

Write Highly Targeted Ad Copy

Copy must be crafted based on where and how a user engaged with your site. The copy that resonates with a home page visitor probably won’t motivate a user who abandoned a cart to return and complete the transaction. Each audience requires its own ad and copy and offers designed to resonate.

For example, target shopping cart abandoners with ‘BOGO Copy’ after they visit the Sneakers page and filtered for ‘Shoes Under $50’. Another example would be to serve banner ads to users who download a white paper on installing a stone-paver patio with a coupon for $50 off $100 or more purchases.

Don’t shirk on this element of the remarketing strategy. Targeting an audience is vital, but so too are the words they see. Make it a mantra: the wrong words directed to the right audience will produce the same results as the right words direct to the wrong audience. ßTHIS IS GREAT!

How Many Remarketing Campaigns Do You Have?

The ability to segment your conversion funnel into highly specific audiences based on pages visited and actions taken make remarketing a vital tool for every brand. To make the most of retargeting those who have expressed interest in your brand, set outcome-based strategies for each audience and craft ads to resonate and drive action. In just a little, you may find yourself with multiple remarketing campaigns running.

Have questions about a current retargeting campaign or getting one started? Start a conversation…

If you’re looking for more reading material in the meantime, check out our ebook ‘The Marketer’s Guide to Managing & Maximizing Lead Generation Success‘.