Did someone ever tell you that when they search for a pair of shoes online, the same ad or something similar continually pops up when they’re not even actively looking for it? Is it coincidence? Not a chance. It’s called remarketing and many businesses rely on it to drive sales and web traffic.
When a potential customer goes to a website to look at a certain product, they are tagged without even knowing it. In order to remarket these visitors, a special code is placed on the page that the user just visited. That little code tells your ad to follow that user while they’re on the web. This can happen when they are on their various social media sites or when they’re using a search engine. This “subtle” way of advertising allows your brand and ad to remain in the user’s mind while they are doing other things. If your remarketing works, they may even go back to your site and buy whatever they were looking at in the first place.
With more than one billion users a day, it’s no wonder that businesses are remarketing with Facebook. As was mentioned above, users are tagged when they visit your site so that your ad will appear as they’re scrolling through their Facebook feed. Were they thinking about what they just saw online? Maybe not. Are they now? There’s a good chance because your ad keeps popping up.
Facebook has a few different ways to advertise. Businesses can use customer lists which allow them to essentially upload a list of contacts and specifically target that customer base. This helps businesses reconnect with prior customers.
You can also target customers using website traffic. Basically if you sell refrigerators, you may want to set up an audience of people who recently searched for appliances in general. This will give you a customer pool of people potentially looking for refrigerators as well as those people who specifically searched for them.
Another option is using your app, if you have one. Many times people will shop and leave items in their online cart without completing the purchase. Through remarketing, you can “remind” them of what they left behind and offer incentive (like a discount) for them to return and buy the item.
You can use these remarketing tools within your Facebook Ads Manager to customize your business plan. The best way to get the most out of your remarketing is to rely on experts like those at Portside Marketing to help you develop the best strategy. This way you can be sure your advertising dollars are spent wisely.
When you do any type of advertising with Facebook, you control the budget. You don’t need to lock into a basic plan or price. You can decide to spend just $5 on an ad or hundreds of dollars. Facebook will never spend more money on an ad campaign than you have budgeted.
Remarketing with Google AdWords works the same as it does with Facebook in that it allows you to reconnect with customers and reach more people. Remarketing tools allow you to show targeted ads to users who have already visited your site. You just have to add a tag or pixel to your website that will add visitors to your remarketing audiences using browser cookies.
For example, if you sell shoes and someone was just on your site searching for a pair and leaves, your Google ad may magically appear as they go to check their Gmail account. Who knows, that action may convert into a sale based on your efforts.
With Google, there are several options available:
This doesn’t allow for just any old ad from your site to appear. It brings an ad of the specific item a user was searching and reintroduces them in case they forget about it.
This shows ads to your previous visitors as they do follow-up searches.
If someone was looking at your YouTube video, they can see your ads as well.
Upload customer lists to target previous clients.
When you use Google Adwords, you are setting the budget. There is no flat fee or base price package. You decide how much you’re willing to pay for your ad. This combined with your quality score will determine your AdRank.
With that said, this type of marketing with Google is typically less expensive than starting a Google Ad from scratch. A remarketing ad with Google can cost anywhere between $.25-$.60 each while an actual ad could have a cost per click of two to three dollars each.
Whether you are using Facebook or Google, the benefits are similar.
You can reach people who are already interested in your business. You’re already one step ahead because the people you are targeting already have some interest; that’s half the battle.
You can target certain groups. While you can reach interested customers, you can also target specific groups of people who share a common interest.
You control the budget. No need to spend a lot if you don’t want to. You are in total control.
It’s less expensive. Remarketing on both platforms is typically less expensive than regular ads.
Higher conversion rate. Remarketing can give you a higher conversion rate to build your bottom line.
Remarketing with Facebook and Google allows you to reach more potential customers anywhere in the world. When you have a winning ad campaign, success is only a click away.