Get Retargeting Right with Better Segmentation

Retargeting is an SEO technique using paid advertisements to target audiences that visit a company’s website or social media pages but do not convert into buying a product or service. This visitor is considered a warm lead, as they already know something about your brand, products, or services.

With retargeting, the purpose is to bring them back to the website and convert them into customers. Retargeting improves search engine optimization (SEO) by increasing website traffic and potentially search engine rankings. It is a cost-effective advertising strategy for ecommerce marketing.

To convert successfully, segmenting your remarketing audience is crucial. Find and use all available information on the user and how they interacted with your brand. Retargeting builds brand visibility by appearing to the target audience on platforms other than your website.

It serves as a reminder about your brand, products, and services.

Why Segment your Audience for Retargeting?

When you segment your audience for retargeting, available information is used to engage more personally with the audience. As a result, it creates better experiences with your brand and more opportunity for successful conversion through a call to action.

Audience segmentation uses data to do the following:

• Identify their intent when visiting the website
• Understand which products or services drew them to your site in the first place
• Identify audience demographics
• Learn which channel (for example, pay per click (PPC) marketing, social media, or live chat) was the source of the lead
• Find out if the interaction was on-site or off-site

There is a lot more information to access, but this knowledge allows for personalization by dividing the audience into categories or lists. It is also used to choose the most appropriate message, location, and time to re-engage, thus further personalizing the retargeting experience.

Ultimately, brands need to understand the needs and motivations of their audience, and segmentation makes it more possible.

Avoid These Common Pitfalls

Thinking that a single retargeting strategy will work with all users is a common pitfall to avoid. So much information is available about the audience—their intent, needs, and motivations—that not using it to personalize their experience will result in lower conversion rates and loss of sales.

Segment the audience based on where and how they interacted with your business or brand. If it’s on-site, create a category or list based on the web pages they visited and how far into the conversion path they went. Address the barriers that caused the audience to drop out in the retargeting strategy. Then think of the most appropriate message or incentive to convert the user.

Tools such as Google Analytics automatically divide users into lists based on where they were on the conversion path.

Think Users, Not Channels

Retargeting is about the individual user, not the channels used to target them. A strategy is compartmentalized when too much thought is given to channels instead of the audience, resulting in missed opportunities.

Run retargeting campaigns across multiple channels and create lists of website users based on the traffic source. Again, a quality analytics tool makes this easier.

For example, if you create a list of users that visited your website after clicking on a Facebook ad, you already have information about the user. You can retarget them on Facebook and other platforms within the Meta network like Instagram. If users were referred by an affiliate site or clicked on an email, they can be targeted again.

Think of Your Competitor’s Users

Have you ever thought of targeting your competitor’s users when using retargeting as part of your digital marketing campaign? One of the ways to do so is by using Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) from Google.

It allows you to target users that have been on your website but are also searching for your competitor’s websites. For example, using Remarketing Lists for Search Ads might return them to your website for a sales conversion.

With the extensive information you have after segmenting your audience, it is easier to know where you might want to bid higher, show on broader keywords, or present different advertisements to these potential customers, for improved results.

Use Storytelling and Sequential Marketing

Consider using storytelling and sequential marketing in your retargeting campaign. Most people love a good story. So if you cannot target the audience immediately with a call to action, why not build a story around the brand to attract them to your website or social media pages? 

Create segments where the one informs the next one, much like Facebook’s sequenced approach. So, for example, when the potential customer clicks, sees or engages with an advertisement, the next part of the story appears.

Storytelling will make your brand meaningful to potential customers by engaging them, especially if they are tired of being bombarded with advertisements. Building this brand awareness through storytelling could result in more significant goodwill and a higher possibility of customers clicking on your website—and converting with a purchase.

As the largest and most successful digital marketing network globally, WSI is ready to support you. Contact us if you’d like to dive deeper into your data and start leveraging better segmentation.