6 techniques to optimize your retargeting strategy

Personal data protection is a hot topic right now. You're quite right to be concerned, since your every move is monitored throughout your browsing experience!

The first thing you need to know is that the websites you browse collaborate with each other by exchanging information about you. This data is worth its weight in gold, since you have purchasing power and are therefore a potential target.

As a consumer, it can be frustrating to realize that the whole of the web has joined forces to make us consume more, but as a company, retargeting is a technique that must be used as part of your marketing strategy.

What is retargeting?

Believe it or not, you've probably been the target of retargeting at least once in your life. The way it works is very simple: you look at a nice pair of shoes on an online store and hesitate to buy them. Finally, you change your mind and decide not to make a purchase. You leave this site and go to another website which probably has nothing to do with the one you were on before. And then, surprise, you see an advertisement for the very same pair of shoes.

Coincidence? Not a chance. This product isn't there by chance, because it's retargeting. This technique is frequently used by online retailers to increase their conversion rate. In other words, retargeting is a call-to-action set up to act on human psychology. In fact, the more you see the product you're interested in, the more you'll be tempted to buy it.

Without realizing it, you're probably the target of retargeting every day, the principle being to mark visitors who have consulted a website without making a purchase. Advertising retargeting makes it possible to follow consumers through their browsing and offer them highly targeted content, since it concerns a product they have previously consulted.

It has been proven that it's much easier to convert someone who has already shown an interest in a product. Therefore, retargeting enables an advertiser's website to find visitors who have not converted into buyers, in order to increase their conversion rate.

How retargeting works

Statistics show that 98% of users who visit a website for the first time don't make a purchase - a huge loss of revenue for retailers. Retargeting solves this problem by encouraging consumers to return to the website to buy.

Technically speaking, retargeting is quite simple. All you need to do is place a JavaScript tag in your site's footer. Once installed, the code will generate a list of visitors by placing "cookies" to mark them. This list is then passed on to marketers like AdRoll, with the aim of displaying targeted advertisements to potential customers.

Retargeting techniques

1. Remarketing via a Google Ads (Adwords) campaign

Note that Google calls retargeting remarketing. This makes it possible to create genuine advertising marketing campaigns on Google Ads by creating remarketing lists for your website or application. Here's how to do it:

Once logged into Google Ads (Adwords) go to the shared library;
Click on audience to create a remarketing list;
Indicate the page you're targeting and its validity period;
Once finished, click on tag information and copy and paste the remarketing code after the end-of-body tag.

You'll then need to wait a few days for the data to be connected. When the audience is ready, simply launch a campaign on Google's display network, which is the only one that supports remarketing.

2. Retargeting on Facebook

Retargeting also works on social media like Facebook, where it's easy enough to create a retargeting campaign. In fact, retargeting techniques are very similar, whatever platform you use.

Log on to Facebook, then go to Manage Ads;
Head to Tools, then create a personalized audience;
As with Google remarketing, enter your website URL and the number of days before you click on create audience;
To retrieve the retargeting code, simply click on Audience and display the pixel;
Finally, copy and paste the code onto your website to set up retargeting.

Do you have a Facebook strategy project? Contact us to be put in touch with certified suppliers!

3. Email Targeting

With the development of Big Data technologies, an e-mail can be targeted in real time, according to the web surfer's browsing behavior: this is Real Time Emailing.

For advertisers, Email Targeting enables them to target prospects who have demonstrated an interest in their brand, products or services. Each e-mail can be personalized in real time with data relating to the Internet user's behavior and profile. There are marketing sites such as R-Target that are totally specialized in this behavioral emailing practice.

4. Video retargeting

As its name suggests, video retargeting uses video ad formats to retarget visitors who have not purchased from an e-commerce site. This technique can be used in its simplest form with a non-personalized advertising message, or it can be totally personalized with the exclusive use of the products consulted by the user.

Let's imagine that you consult two products you're interested in on a merchant site before leaving it to go to another site. The new site you visit will offer to show you an advertising video featuring the same two items you consulted. These videos are dynamically created from templates into which images or videos of the products you've viewed are inserted.

5. On-site retargeting

This technique aims to detect the user's intention to leave the site visited without having made a purchase. Detection is achieved by means of predictive mouse tracking, which enables real-time detection of mouse usage behavior that is always a precursor to action on the site visited.

In short, when the user indicates his intention to leave the page visited, a specific message will be displayed suggesting that he perform a specific action (this could be the subscription to a newsletter, a promotion, etc.). It should be noted that with on-site retargeting, the user is always present on the site, so this technique aims to prevent them from leaving long before they leave the page.

6. CRM retargeting

CRM retargeting (or customer relationship management retargeting) can be seen as an alternative to email targeting, which requires users to open their email. This retargeting technique uses data containing information about the user and the people with whom they interact. Data can include e-mail address, postal address and even geographical location. In addition, there are companies specializing in data onboarding that will collect information about users through partnerships with online sites. This CRM data is then cross-referenced with a cookie database, enabling the use of CRM retargeting.

Advantages and disadvantages

Retargeting has many advantages, as it targets users who are predisposed to purchase. CRM retargeting makes it possible to reach a wider audience. Retargeting is measurable, as Google Awords campaigns, for example, provide access to statistics to calculate campaign performance.

The disadvantage of retargeting is that it doesn't bring in any new customers, since only those who already know about a website are targeted. What's more, retargeting can sometimes be irritating for web users, since the product in question remains visible in banner ads even after the purchase has been made. It's also worth noting that Internet users have recently been given the right to refuse retargeting ads, in accordance with the company's privacy charter.

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