In the digital world, it’s good to know what you can do for your business through retargeting. If you do this well, it can be a powerful thing that results in gaining the “re-attention” of many non-purchasing readers of your website, even after some time has passed since they visited it.
Do you aim to do better at sales conversions, at reconnecting your brand with people who have previously expressed an interest in buying your products, and also at casting a wider net out in a sea of audiences who haven’t yet heard of you? Then keep on reading.
“Search Engine Retargeting” – How It Works
When it comes to strategies to remarket your business or brand online, search engine retargeting falls right at the top of the list. Why? Think about all your potential customers who have never come across your website, never interacted with or even heard about your brand. With search engine retargeting, you’re allowing your business to present ads to people who’ve demonstrated behavior or interests that make them very likely to engage with your brand.
There is data that suggests that visitors to websites due to search engine retargeting are approximately 40% more likely to purchase than the average customer (2-4% of which end up converting). Therefore, this type of method clearly works in expanding your reach and making your business known to new audiences, who are naturally more inclined to learn about and buy from your brand upon seeing those retargeting ads on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Now that you understand the importance of search engine retargeting in the world of digital marketing, here are 5 ways you can best take advantage of it.
1. Identify the Most Valuable Keywords for Retargeting
This is the fundamental, initial step when it comes to your retargeting campaign. Do a thorough review of your marketing data and based on that, compile a list of relevant, valuable, and high-volume search engine keywords that can be associated with your brand and what you have to offer.
It’s worth bearing in mind, particularly for smaller businesses, that the best way to stand out quickly and build momentum in reaching large audiences is by playing the search engine game. You want to capture searchers’ attention from primary, high-cost keywords that otherwise might be financially out of your reach. Using this method, you’ll be able to collect a significant part of your website’s core traffic while minimizing the risk of unsuccessful pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns for uber-competitive keywords, which can be expensive.
2. Determine Search Intent Concerning the Keywords
This is about taking a good look at search intent around the keywords that you’ve chosen, and from here, you’ll be analyzing them for ways you can expand your campaign to reach out to more prospective customers in a most strategic way, which will get you your money’s worth.
For example, consider how someone might be typing on a Google search the term “camping sites.” Given this individual is trying to find new places to explore for an upcoming camping trip, then it may be worth paying attention to similar and related terms such as “most popular camping spots,” or “guide to local camping sites,” or even “camping trips in the summer.” So basically, your objective is to get in front of these people and anticipate what they’re likely searching for. Once you’ve got the intent figured out, it makes it easier to do necessary optimizations related to keywords including creatives you’ll use for ads, as discussed below.
3. Have Your Ads Well-Optimized
It’s imperative the content for ads in your retargeting campaign are both optimized, based on your keywords, and also strategically written – aimed specifically at customers who are unfamiliar with your business or brand. What does that involve? Be mindful about the headlines you use (are they striking and punchy?). Consider the copy text as well (is it informative about the values of your brand, what products your business sells, and what true benefits you can offer your customers?).
In a nutshell, your ads ought to represent your business well while speaking to people in a manner that engages them and compels them to learn more about you. As a side note, know that you don’t need to focus these ad campaigns solely on product pages. Certain ads that align with the idea of helping buyers make an informed decision will work wonders for enhancing the voice and authority of your brand.
4. Set Up Search Tagging for Your Website
Another essential component of search engine remarketing is data capturing, the core of which is tracking user behavior as your people visit your website. Therefore, you’ll want to make sure the ad platform you utilize (such as Google Ads or AdRoll) enables tagging to track audience behavior regularly, and this is set up accordingly.
Furthermore, you must head to the settings of the CMS platform you work with and find the ‘audience’ category. There, you’re very likely going to notice a tracking code that can be inserted within the HTML of your site. Keep in mind, however, that this tag has to appear on every website page and be positioned right in between the <head> tags at the start and end of each page. This, in turn, will allow search engines to associate your brand with certain search terms, for which your ads will be suitable for display in corresponding results pages.
5. Expand to Retargeting via Facebook & Instagram
Finally, consider social media in your retargeting efforts as well. Invest in some work to generate paid traffic on Facebook and Instagram, as these dynamic platforms offer great options to apply retargeting for online direct responses.
Remember the common reason you don’t always succeed in getting website visitors to purchase an item before they leave, which is the fact that people don’t have a “buying” mindset at the moment they’re browsing your site or viewing your products. According to HubSpot, the “buying” crowd is roughly just 4% of your visitors, which again stresses the real importance of retargeting in general. But fortunately, both Instagram and Facebook grant you the option to grab these potential customers’ attention later on.
Over on those channels, there is the Create Custom Audience feature designed to only target individuals who previously visited your site. From there, you can work on creatives for online ads that successfully reach out to those individuals, given these ads have been carefully crafted to reflect their demographics, interests, living situations, pain points, etc. Moreover, a huge plus of retargeting via Facebook is the ability to transition to other modes of outreach like email marketing. Once a current or prospective customer submits their email address to your website, Facebook can download this piece of information directly, and you can complement your efforts in retargeting via social media with an email marketing campaign aimed at those people.
Without a doubt, retargeting is an effective maneuver in the digital space. With time, dedication, and consistency on your part, rest assured that there’s very little chance your retargeting efforts yield zero results in the end. Hence, make sure it’s a priority among all your marketing endeavors.