When you’re planning a retargeting display campaign, following best practice can make a significant difference; not just to sales, but also to the long-term awareness and impression of your brand among consumers.
So for the best results, make sure you follow this 10-step best practice process.
1) Segment your audience
Audience segmentation is the heart of data-led retargeting, so make sure you segment your audience properly around user intention. Each of these segments, as an example, has very different needs and desires:
* People who have only been to your home page once
* Regular product viewers
* Dropped baskets
* Recent customers
* Returning customers
So make sure you break your audience down and set up your buying and messaging strategy accordingly.
You’ll usually break down audiences based first on any previous purchases (new versus return customers), and how deep they have been in the site (baskets and product views). You can then segment further based on recency and frequency.
How recently a user has been on your site will dictate user intention (and therefore conversion rate), as will how often they have visited your site. This will be different for every retailer.
2) Explore factors that change user intention
Not every visitor is looking to buy online, right now. Understanding user intention will help establish the value of the visitor for retargeting. Store locator pages mean they are more likely to buy offline, and product information pages may suggest they are still considering and are not quite ready to buy. You also want to compare the user intention of different devices, mobile, tablet, traditional PCs and emerging devices like games consoles and TVs.
And finally, explore what else changes user intention, such as different product lines, credit applications, delivery information and location.
3) Map your buying strategy to your segments
Once you’ve identified your audience segments you need to plan appropriate goals and strategies for each one. Every segment will have different volumes, conversion rates and opportunities. Here are some suggestions:
* Target customers to increase lifetime customer value and repeat custom
* Target lapsed customers to encourage them to return
* Target baskets to ensure you don’t lose sales to competitors
* Further up the funnel, target product views to ensure they buy your products from your store
* Re-engage landing page visitors and persuade them to come back and take a closer look (don’t expect these to convert like baskets or product views)
4) Gain consent
In today’s post-GDPR world it’s essential you have a lawful basis to use visitor data for your retargeting program. Gaining user consent is the best way to do this as it provides long-term protection and, just as important, it builds trust with your customers.
Our consenTag Consent Management Platform (CMP) is a complete solution for ensuring you gain web user consent for all your site and internet marketing activities. So, if you don’t already have a GDPR-compliant method for gathering consent we recommend you take a look.
5) Get your messaging and frequency right
It’s essential in any display campaign that you get your message and frequency right. Targeting users too frequently can frustrate and annoy them – resulting in a lower brand equity, and ultimately hurting sales.
Equally, targeting users who have already bought is a wasted opportunity (and budget) and can annoy and alienate a potentially loyal returning customer. You can read more about targeting users without annoying them here.
Too many brands mistakenly assume that leading messages with prices and offers is the best way to increase conversion. But it’s not always the case, especially if you’re not particularly price competitive. Instead, focus on what is best about your brand and the opportunity – like easy returns and speedy or free delivery.
A more intelligent approach is to test and tweak different messages to different segments and at different times.
6) Develop quality creative
Targeting users with low quality creative will ultimately hurt your brand equity and adversely affect campaign results. Users expect to see high quality imagery and production values, such as animation and video, so it really is essential to invest the time in developing high quality creative.
7) Test and learn
At every stage of your retargeting campaign you need to test each audience segment with different images, additional data and alternative messaging. While this can be time consuming, learning and adapting campaigns bit by bit to improve your results is essential to get the most from your display marketing budget.
8) Make use of sales periods and other macro events
While you may not want to always lead on price, if you’re currently holding a sale, get it in the creative. Too many brands waste the impact of their sales periods. Equally, if you’re sponsoring an event, increase targeting and change messaging appropriately.
Be proactive about upcoming dates and create an events calendar of relevant events for your brand. From obvious big events like Christmas, Valentines Day and back to school, to music and sports events and TV shows.
9) Listen to social media
Use social media mentions of your brand to understand changes in ‘buzz’, thenamend messaging and increase or decrease targeting to match.
10) Spend enough time and money on attribution
Incorrect attribution can lead to wasted money or lost opportunities, so be sure to devote the right amount of time and money on attribution to drive success. You can read more about getting this right here.
Need help to improve your retargeting results?
We’re experts in planning and running retargeting display campaigns that frequently exceed our clients’ expectations. Indeed, our clients rate us so highly that we’ve achieved recommended agency status with The Drum, and are listed on their Recommended Agency Register.
We were also one of the first companies in the UK to have been certified Gold Standard by the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau UK).
We’d love to discuss how we can help you improve your retargeting display results. Please call us on 020 3262 0415 or email Jon Weeks and we’ll be very happy to help.