NEW Retargeting Strategies for 2014

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Contents

Introduction

Retargeting – A Brief History

Segmentation: Best Practices

Retargeting and Real-Time Bidding (RTB)

Retargeting through Ad Exchanges

Creative OptimizationCreative Optimization

Retargeting on Facebook

What’s next?

10 Tips for Highly Successful Retargeting Campaigns

Introduction

There was a time, not too long ago, when an abandoned cart more or less

guaranteed that you have lost a sale. A person visited your website, made the

effort to add some items to the online cart, and yet for some reason didn’t

complete the transaction. There could be any number of reasons behind this,

but the bottom-line is that you lost a potential customer.

RetaRetargeting has leveled the playing field for online retailers and ecommerce

websites. Now, even if a potential customer is lost, you can use retargeting

techniques to get him/her back to your website. If you are lucky, the lost sale

would then be completed. Retargeting is now widely used as a means of

tracking and convincing people who visited your website in the recent past to

visit again.

WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY Percent lift in number of people who searched for a marketer’s brand within four weeks of ad exposure in the U.S

Source: Adage

Retargeting Audience Premium

+1,046%

+514%+300%

+130% +126% +100%

Contextual RON Efficiency

mytennissite.com98% Leave

Visitors LeaveVisitors Enter

Lost Visitors Return

This short eBook is intended as a guide to help you learn about the most

effective retargeting strategies in 2014. We will go over a number of strategies

and provide tips you can follow to create a comprehensive retargeting

strategy. All you need to do is read till the end!

Retargeting – A Brief History

Over time, retargeting has evolved rapidly. In fact, you might find it hard to

believe that retargeting as we know it today didn’t exist until a few years back.

Modern online retargeting only came to the fore about 7 years back. You might

know that it was the time when online shopping began showing stellar growth

in popularity. Since the number of people making purchases online was on the

rise, it was only natural that marketers began to pursue their target audience

online as well. This led to a more personalized form of retargeting.

Instead of targeting their ads and other material at a broad group of people, a more personalized method of retargeting was developed. This meant that marketers could now focus on the customer as an individual rather than having to target a whole demographic.

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Obviously, there is nothing wrong with going broad but retargeting an

individual offers a better chance of a sale.

Initially, the ads used for retargeting lost customers were quite plain in design

and appearance. A single ad would be created and then used over the web as

marketers tried to track their customers. Back in those days, the tools available

to marketers now weren’t present. So, there was no choice but for marketers

to continuously update the means of retargeting.

TimesTimes have changed and how. Today, it is possible for an ad to be created and

displayed in real time hardly a few seconds after a visitor has clicked away

from your website.

To say that retargeting is perfect would be stretching the truth.

To say it would and should continue evolving is right.

Segmentation: Best Practices

Moving on to the business end of things, let’s start things off with perhaps the

most important of all retargeting strategies. When retargeting, you cannot

pursue each and every visitor who clicks away from your website individually.

That would take a lot of time and effort and you would have to constantly

monitor your website.

This is where segmentation can ease your burden. Through segmentation, you

can divide your targets into different segments and groups. Regardless of how

you segment your potential customers, you need to get it right. Here are some

segmentation best practices you should follow:

Segmenting by Sales Cycle

First off, you can segment your users by the position they were in on the sales cycle. For instance, visiting your website is the first step and completing the purchase the last. Since the purchase wasn’t completed (else why would you be retargeting), you can have different banner ads for users who only browsed your web pages and those who abandoned their carts.

Segmenting by Product Interests

You can segment users by the products or services they showed interest in. This is easier if you have different product pages for each product and service you offer. You can also get clues from the items that visitor added to his/her shopping cart before abandoning it. Have ads tailor-made based on the product the user showed interest in.

Segmenting through Optimization

Last, but not the least, you can optimize the segments you have created by adding different filters to it. This is known as creative optimization. We will cover creative optimization in detail later in this eBook.

These are some segmentation best practices you should follow for your retargeting strategy.

Retargeting and Real-Time Bidding (RTB)

2013 may well have been the year when real-time bidding (RTB) started being

used on a wide basis. As the name shows, real-time bidding enables marketers

to bid on an impression in real-time. The great thing about RTB is that the bid

is made and approved mere seconds before the visitors reaches the website

and it loads up.

The bid is made for the display space up for grabs on that website. That being

said, RTB may well be the trickiest of all means of retargeting to execute. The

window available in which you have to make the bid is extremely short. You

hardly have a few seconds to make the bid. And it is unlikely that you are going

to be the only one making the bid.

Top 10 Advertising Sectors by RTB Market Share

Source: Marketingcharts

Q1 2013

Q2 2013

RetailTelecom Auto FinancialTravel

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87

53 5351

40

46

38 37

23 26

15 10 14

17

13 13Food & Drink Health BusinessMedia

100 -

0 - 10 - 20 - 30 - 40 - 50 - 60 - 70 - 80 - 90 -

There is a complex process going on behind the scenes that makes RTB

possible. It won’t be wrong to say that it is amazing that the process can be

completed in a matter of seconds. Here is an overview of the process:

A user lands on a webpage and triggers the ad units into

action.

While the website loads, the marketers bid for the display space on it. The marketer with the highest bid wins the impression.

A user lands on a webpage and triggers the ad units into

action.

The host server notifies the various ad exchanges that an interested visitor is on the website.

The exchange tracks the user’s browser cookies to determine whether or not he/she is worth retargeting.

The marketer who wins the bid can then pursue the lead and convince him/her

to revisit the website which he/she had visited before. The idea is that getting that

person to visit that website again would lead to a sale this time around. Even if

you lose out on one impression, you can still bid on the other display space

available on that particular webpage. An auction is conducted for each one.

The unique aspect of RTB is that it is not a gamble per se. Often marketers

purchase ad space in the ‘hope’ that it would lead to an increase in sales. When

it comes to RTB, they can pick and choose when and where to display their ads.

This means that the risk is minimal. Moreover, with experience, they can get

more sales in a limited number of impressions.

OverOver time, the cost per impression would decrease to a level where each lead

is highly profitable for the business. So, there is no doubt that RTB should be a

part of your retargeting strategy in 2014 if you are to maximize the number of

customers for your business.

Retargeting through Ad Exchanges

RRTB would not be possible for you if you don’t use

ad exchanges. In many ways ad exchanges are like

auction houses. They have online ad space to sell

so they advertise it. This attracts interested parties.

Then, an auction is held where they invite bids

from the parties. The one who bids the highest

gets to take that space to retarget customers.

TheThe first thing you need to know about ad

exchanges is that the inventory they have on hand

is always greater than the demand. Yet, they hold

auctions in order to get the best prices. So, this

means that if you are being made to bid an amount

beyond your ceiling, there is point in doing so. You

are better off looking for other ad space elsewhere

that suits your budget.that suits your budget.

Creative Optimization

UpUp till now, we have gone over the ‘broad’ retargeting strategies. Even though you may be pursuing an individual customer, there are no filters in place. This is where creative optimization comes in. Let’s say your website attracts 1000 visitors on a daily basis. It is quite possible that each person has different interests and tastes. The only thing common among them is that they have visited your website.

YYou have to make use of segmentation to creatively optimize your retargeting efforts. Through segmentation, you can pinpoint exactly what a person is interested in. Extra filters are then put into place to further narrow down the results. This way, you will have accurate and reliable information about what a person likes.

As you can tailor your display ads to suit the preferences of the individual lead, it is quite possible that the success rate would be higher.

This doesn’t at all mean you have to tailor each and every banner ad you publish. That would mean a ton of work and you would have to spend a lot of money on each ad. Rather, most of the leads you retarget can be pursued using the can be pursued using the generic ads you use.

It is only in the case of the users where their interests are disparate to your ideal customer that you will need to update the banner ads. If you feel your online display advertising campaign is not delivering the results you are looking for, creative optimization can make all the difference.

Retargeting on Facebook

RetaRetargeting on Facebook may well be your best bet when it comes to retargeting leads in 2014. Over the years, Facebook has proven itself to be highly useful and beneficial for marketers. Facebook took ad retargeting to a whole new level by introducing the Facebook Exchange (FBX) just over 18 months back. Through the FBX, marketers can purchase ad space in the right sidebar of the Facebook Newsfeed of the users.

Retargeting impressions among online display and Facebook exchange ads worldwide, H2 2012 (% of share)

Dec-12

Nov-12

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Aug-12

Jul-12

Facebook Non-Facebook

63% 37%

47% 53%

27% 73%

13%

3% 97%

100%

87%

At the same time, this also means that the competition is high on Facebook. Nearly every marketer wants to use Facebook for retargeting. This is why it is crucial that you master Facebook retargeting. First, let’s look at how it works:

Facebook retargeting works in much the same way as retargeting on Google does. The FBX has made it possible for marketers to track customers when they click on the ads.

You can follow the users around the internet, tracking their browsing activity, to determine whether or not they would be interested in buying what you have to offer.

Once a visitor gets on Facebook after clicking away from your website, your ads will be shown to him/her in the right sidebar or on the Newsfeed. This way, you can reiterate your message to that person.

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In terms of cost per impression (CPM) and cost per lead, Facebook has proven itself to be far superior. The chart below shows data from the second half of 2012. Even in 2013, the CPM for Facebook was over 75% lower than that of other retargeting platforms. The CPC and other costs were also considerably lower. The only area where Facebook lags behind is cost per unique lead and CTR.

Close to 13% of the world’s population uses Facebook on a daily basis.It is the place where you will find most of your target audience.

(among advertisers running both campaigns, % to FBX relative to standard campaign)

Facebook Exchange vs. Standard Web Retargeting Campaign in H2 2012

Source: Marketingcharts

CPM CPC CTR Cost/Unique

-82% -70%-40%

86%

0

What’s next?

So, having gone over the retargeting techniques that have been around for a while, what does the future hold for marketers who want to dabble in retargeting? The answer to this is Twitter. Only recently the second-favorite social network of the world has provided the platform for marketers to retarget and pursue lost customers.

It can be said that Twitter has been late coming to the party but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it offers you hundreds of millions of targets to pursue. So, what do you need to know about Twitter retargeting? Here are a few things you would do well to keep in mind:

The process of retargeting remains the same. You track a person who has been on your website and then left without performing the desired action. You have to locate him/her on Twitter.

On Twitter, you can target that user through Promoted Tweets. These are similar to display ads. Since that person just left your website, it gives you the chance to reinforce your brand message to him/her. There is a good chance he/she would follow the tweet and go back to your website.

Source: Flicker

As you can see, Twitter offers a pretty basic form of retargeting for marketers. It will take some time to come up to the level of Facebook. That being said, you should keep in mind the fact that Facebook has a full-fledged Ad Exchange which Twitter doesn’t at the moment.

ThereThere is a genuine concern among Twitter users and also marketers that using email addresses to find users constitutes a breach of privacy. However, Twitter has cleared the air by announcing that email addresses would be scrambled in the future. This would ensure that their users can remain anonymous. Marketers would have to be shrewder to pursue them on Twitter.

10 Tips for Highly Successful Retargeting Campaigns

Before you create and implement a retargeting strategy, it is important you understand how retargeting works. So, take the time to learn about retargeting and each technique you can use.

Segment your audience. Remember which audiences to include and which to exclude in each retargeting campaign.

Continue

Add a clear call to action to each and every display ad you publish. Getting straight to the point is important when retargeting customers.

Your retargeting ads should direct users to a landing page where they can perform the desired action, not to your main website.

Constant creative optimization is extremely crucial. Keep testing your ads to maximize performance.

To conclude this eBook, here are 10 tips for highly successful retargeting campaigns:

10 Tips for Highly Successful Retargeting Campaigns

Combine a few retargeting channels. Utilizing web with Facebook retargeting will deliver the best results.

Don’t annoy customers. Retargeting doesn’t mean you have to stalk them, so keep the frequency capping down.

Keep it relevant. Make sure your ads are relevant to your niche.

Stick to one vendor for purchasing inventory. This is important to keep performance in check.

Place tracking and conversion pixels on the sales/landing pages. Don’t waste time and resources pursuing people who have already made a purchase.

These are the 10 golden rules of highly successful retargeting campaigns. Keep these in mind to ensure that your 2014 retargeting efforts deliver

results beyond your expectations.

Sales@dispop.com | 1-800-903-1882