In this article I will talk about how you can use retargeting ads  to both increase brand awareness and sales.  Obviously, as a small business owner  just getting your name out there really isn’t enough.  It can almost be a waste of time and energy  if your brand awareness is not also resulting in your sales.

Some important aspect that need to be considered: What is retargeting, why should you bother?  How to segment lists and choose  the platforms that you want to be on.  How to incentivize returning customers.  How to make the most out of the timing of these ads.  Then, obviously, how to analyze and optimize  so that you’re making good choices for your business  and great decisions to grow your own revenue. All of the above applies in equal measure to ecommerce businesses focused on selling dropshipping products.

What is retargeting?

At its very base form, what is retargeting really?  Well, retargeting is an online marketing strategy  that utilizes targeted advertising,  pixel-based or cookie-based advertising  to target consumers based on  their previous actions or sites visited.  Now, generally, what that means is that,  a real-world example, a user comes to your site.  In fact, you could probably even see this live.  If you go to salesource.io you’ll start to notice  that as you visit other websites,  and you are traveling or traversing around the internet,  you’ll start to see more ads that pop up from SaleSource (dropship spy tool).  You may have also noticed this from Amazon.  You go and you visit a particular page.  You’re looking for a certain product.  And then you start to notice in your Facebook feed  or in just regular feeds around the internet  that you’re reviewing that you start to see that product.  That product’s popping up.  And it’s got its price, it’s got little details about it.  And it’s all incentivizing you to get you back there.  At its basic form that’s what retargeting is.  It’s all about that top of mind awareness reinforcing  the idea that this was a service  or a product that you were looking at.  And the marketer or the business owner wants to stay  in front of you to ensure that you don’t forget about them.  You don’t just decide to go with somebody else.  You don’t take too much time, anything like that.  And a couple of reasons about this is, statistically 97% of people when they first visit  your website, they don’t choose to convert.  By convert I mean they don’t choose  to either make a purchase,  make a purchasing decision, or fill out a lead form.  Whatever you’ve decided is your conversion funnel,  that end result that you’re looking for the user to take.  97% of people won’t take that on the very first step  or very first time that they interact with your brand.

So, why is that?  Well, a lot of people just really aren’t,  they’re researching, they’re in a different mode.  They’re top of funnel, and not all the way down  at the very end to make that decision.  We’ll talk about that a little bit later.  Other reasons why you want to focus on retargeting is that, costs are actually pretty historically low.  If you’re spending time, and energy,  and money on pay-per-click advertising  or social advertising like Facebook or Instagram, costs can start to rise.  Especially if you’re in an incredibly competitive market.  If you’re talking about a market like doctors,  or lawyers, or anything like that, or insurance,  mortgages, things like that, costs per click  can get fairly high fairly quickly.  While retargeting is only targeting people  that have previously visited your website.  So those costs are significantly lower.  So a click that may have cost you 50, 60, $70  on Google may only cost 2, 3, $4  when you’re doing retargeting,  so there’s a lot of value there.  Additionally, a lot of users will browse on one device,  and they buy or they shop on another.  So that cross-device platform or that cross-device marketing  is just incredibly important for you.  If somebody is sitting on the couch,  and they’re using their phone to do a little bit  of research, and they’re not doing anything else  with their time, so they’re looking for services,  or products, or things like that.  Many people afterwards, later in the day, later that night,  that weekend, they’ll go to their computer,  and they’ll make a purchase that way, or even vice versa.  Computer, tablet, phone,  any type of device like that.  Many people utilize them to take different actions  depending on where they are in the buying cycle.  So you want to make sure that your retargeting  is set up for multiple devices.  If you do that no matter what device  they originally visited you on, they will be able  to see your ads cross-platform or cross-device  to ensure that they come back and they work with you.  Another good reason to use retargeting  is it increases your brand awareness.  You stay top of mind.  Marketers talk about this all the time,  that marketing law of seven.  Generally speaking, a user needs  to interact or at least witness your brand  at least seven times before they begin  to feel comfortable enough to make that next step.  Additionally, the more your ads are seen the larger  and more trustworthy your brand appears to be.  So that adds a lot of value as well.  If you can stay top of mind when they are ready  to make a purchasing decision you  are the obvious choice for them to go with.  Finally, retargeting, you’re leaving money on the table.  This is a very low, very cost-effective way to ensure  that customers are coming back to your site when they  are ready to convert and make that purchasing decision.  Additionally, this can be incredibly valuable  for additional purchases or add-ons.  Anything additional that you want to add to a purchase.  They started at a base level.  They can buy additional add-ons  or multiple pieces that can add to this.  Retargeting helps you to stay in front of them, remind them  about new pieces, and new services, or products coming up.  And ensuring that they don’t go somewhere else to get those.