So you clicked on an ad that caught your eye, and now you feel like you’re seeing promotions for that product everywhere. Are you imagining it? Or are you really being followed by advertising?
No, you’re not under the influence of frequency illusion1—when you learn about something new and then suddenly start seeing that something everywhere you go. What you’re experiencing is an advertising strategy called retargeting.
What is Retargeting?
Every second of every day, there are 6.59 billion GB of internet traffic2 flowing through the world’s networks. Even the highest-end websites can’t successfully convert every potential new lead at first contact. Statistics for 2021 show that initial web visits have a conversion rate between 1 and 5% depending on your industry.3 Retargeting, also called behavioral retargeting, is a marketing strategy used to capture the visitors who leave your website without taking action.
Essentially, retargeting allows you to market directly to a group of people you know have some level of interest in your services, because they’ve already visited your website. Retargeting uses previous online behavior to show your ads to those high-value users.
How Does Retargeting Work?
Let’s pretend you’re a dentist looking for help running your practice. You do a little research on Google and find a few potential DSOs who look like they might have good solutions to alleviate some of your operational pain paints. If one of those DSOs is using retargeting on their website, their retargeting tool tags you by placing an anonymous cookie in your browser.
The cookie allows the tool to track where you go on the web without collecting any sensitive personal information. (Websites should always prompt you to “accept” the cookies tracking tool.) As you visit other websites or research further, the cookie tracks and shares your digital movements with the tool.
With this information, ads for the DSO appear throughout your online journey based on the parameters of the retargeting strategy. Think of it like being a regular at a lunch counter. You walk in, sit down, and are given your favorite meal without speaking to a server.
Most retargeting tools work by adding a small piece of code to your website to track visitors and their online habits. You’ll likely be using Google to retarget, though some businesses also retarget using Facebook, and each offers several options for each campaign you run. You can choose to focus on users who visit specific pages or products on your site, display certain behaviors elsewhere online or who input a particular term in a search engine. You can also target current clients for upsells by uploading a list of their email addresses.
The options and methods for retargeting are practically endless.
Why Retarget Your Leads?
As we’ve already mentioned, not every dental practice will convert the first time they visit your website, especially if they’re considering a significant change in how they manage their practice. Fortunately, when you’re using the retargeting strategy, not converting on first contact isn’t the end of the story. There’s an opportunity to appeal to that user over a period of time.
Adding retargeting to your campaigns is worthwhile because it works. The click-through rate (CTR) for retargeted ads is ten times that of traditional display ads.4 And guess what? Those clicks are 70% more likely to convert!5
Retargeted ads are also affordable, because you don’t pay unless the user clicks. And overall, they average a very low cost per click. Website visitors gained through retargeted ads cost about eight times less per click6 than those acquired with typical display ads.
How Do You Know Retargeting is Working?
What’s the point of retargeting if it isn’t generating leads? A vital element of a successful retargeting campaign is making sure it actually works.
Both Google and Facebook provide extensive analytics so you can easily determine when your campaigns meet your goals and when you need to tweak your approach. If you’re retargeting with Google, visit Google Analytics7 and log in to your Google My Business account to see your campaign results. There, you can see impressions, CTR, and more to make sure your retargeting efforts have a good ROI.
If you’re retargeting with Facebook, log in to your business account and go to the Events Manager section of Ads Manager. Events manager will show you campaign metrics, similar to Google’s, so you can evaluate how well your retargeted ads are working.
If you notice you aren’t getting the best response, you may be running the same ad for too long. Studies show that the CTR decreases by 50% for ads8 that have run for more than five months. There is a benefit to users seeing the same ad several times in a row, but they’ll tire of seeing the same thing and tune your marketing efforts out after a while. You don’t want that.
Ready to set your retargeting strategy in motion? Dreamscape Marketing can help. Contact us today at 888.307.7304 to learn more.
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