Ad retargeting has had an unfair reputation in the past, with online shoppers feeling as though brands are following them around the internet. However, today’s marketers and agencies now have a better understanding of how to win over the online consumer and the best campaigns are those who think beyond the initial purchase and strive to build a long-term relationship with their customers.
Here are five top tips for ensuring that your retargeting campaign remains on the right track:
1. Frequency capping
Previously, one of the key problems with ad retargeting was displaying the advert to the consumer far too frequently. If a user visits a website and suddenly every ad they see is for that brand then they are bound to find the experience overwhelming.
Implementing a frequency cap and limiting the rate at which retargeted ads are displayed will help prevent overload whilst maintaining impact. However, it’s also important to understand that the first, third, and fifth ad shown to a given web visitor aren’t all equal in value.
2. Duration limits
The industry has learnt that retargeting is only effective within a given time window and serving ads after this time frame is simply ineffective and unlikely to drive conversion rates. It is important to note that duration limits are also flexible dependent on product type – for example a travel purchase cycle might be a couple of weeks whilst a fashion one could be measured in days.
3. Customer data
Marketers now have access to better data about who visits their website. Therefore retargeting campaigns can now use this granular data to really refine their retargeting approach. By identifying and understanding ‘intent signals’ – for example are your visitors browsing or close to purchase? What product types are they looking at and so on – brands can more effectively target their advertising and in turn increase impact.
4. Social retargeting
Retargeting users on their social platform of choice can be hugely impactful but also risky in terms of creating perceived invasions of privacy. Social retargeting should therefore be deployed with care and form part of an overall, integrated campaign with tight frequency and duration limits, rather than a standalone, high density tactic.
5. Creative treatments
The most effective creative is personalised, incentivising and delivered to the user at the right time. Tailoring the creative to a specific user based on the products they have expressed interest in will help deliver a more powerful message and build that desired one-to-one conversation with the customer.
Advertising is all about reaching the right person at the right time and with the right message. Building a successful retargeting campaign is all about communicating with consumers on a personal yet non-intrusive level. Whilst it can be tricky to strike the right balance these top tips will help marketers get retargeting right.