It is estimated that only 2% of click-through website visitors convert (aka: make a purchase) on their very first visit to an online store and about 96% of all website visitors visit websites when they’re not ready to buy.
So how do you make your business’s website visitors ready to buy?
Many marketing professionals advise that a prospect will purchase after an average of seven interactions with that prospect. But seven different interactions would take a lot of time and money. Therefore, savvy business owners will opt to target prospects on different parts of the sales funnel using a single tactic.
This tactic is called retargeting advertisements.
Retargeting is an extremely popular and effective online advertising method that targets bounced-off website traffic (aka: website visitors who did not convert) and serves to re-engage those people via online ads that will persuade them to re-visit the website and convert. Retargeting has become an incredibly effective way to increase sales.
Website visitors can be targeted with either pixel-based retargeting or list-based retargeting.
- Pixel-based reaches anonymous website visitors
- List-based reaches contacts in a database
The most common goals for retargeting are to increase awareness of a brand and increase conversions. Retargeting gets prior website visitors to re-engage with your brand by reminding them of your products/services, as well as offering them other information that could help coax them into purchasing. It also is unique because it allows marketers to reach website visitors on different parts of the sales funnel.
Although retargeting is viewed as an integral piece of an online marketing campaign, it also can be used as an effective a la carte online advertising tactic for small businesses. Whether or not your business has an e-commerce store, getting conversions is your website’s ultimate goal, no matter if a conversion on your website means a purchase or if a conversion is if someone fills out a contact form (called a lead capture form).
If you still have questions about retargeting, check out this beginning’s guide to understanding retargeting (by Hubspot, a leader in online marketing tools and data).
To help you determine if retargeting ads would be a helpful strategy for your business, we gathered up some of retargeting’s best benefits:
Benefits of Retargeting ADs
Promotes branding
As I mentioned above, retargeting easily enhances brand awareness by showing previous website visitors the same content, logo and slogan repeatedly. These types of ads promote branding and visibility. Make people remember your brand, make it memorable, and thus, make it powerful.
Maximizes the customer lifetime value
The online ads help keep your products or services on the visitors’ minds and increase the customer lifetime value by greatly extending the amount of time a prospect will remember your business.
Increases the conversion rate
Since the vast majority of people who first visit a website are not ready to buy, retargeting increases the likelihood of reaching people who finally are ready to buy, because they have already accomplished the first step: visiting your website. Therefore, prospects who click on a retargeting ad are much more likely to have an Internet of purchasing.
Cost-effective
Connected to the above-mentioned point that retargeting is focusing on people who are more likely to buy, you are getting a bigger bang for your PPC buck. Retargeting narrows the audience to the most interested website visitors who haven’t yet converted, making it incredibly cost-effective.
Creativity
These types of ads can have creative messaging, compared to an informational advertisement you would craft to reach new visitors. The ads should be catchy, but should also remind the person of their last visit to your site. But all in all, there is a lot more freedom with creativity for retargeting ads.
Long-term commitment
Experts agree that a retargeting campaign is most effective after it has been running for at least a couple of months. In addition, as your quantity of your website visitors increases with time, the audience for the retargeting ad will increase, as well.
If your business has a website, then online advertisements should be part of your marketing strategy.