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Don't Forget To Retarget For Bonus $$$! (2)

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I was having a discussion on the STM mod Slack the other day, and the topic of "what things don't affiliates do enough?" came up.

All the usual suspects were mentioned - email lists, split-test more, and so on.

But there was one thing in particular that we agreed where affiliates, particularly newer affiliates, tend to leave piles of money on the table:


Retargeting.


What's Retargeting?

For those of you who don't know what Retargeting is: it's basically using the traffic source's tracking to show ads only to people who have shown some interest in your product before. - clicking through your banner to your landing page, for example, or even actually purchasing a product.

On Facebook, for example, you can easily set up a Custom Audience of people who have viewed your content. You then simply target that group of people with new ads - for the same thing, or for something else.


Why's it good?

Why does that work? Because you already know that group was at least somewhat interested in your product or offer. That's the best targeting you can hope to get! All you have to do then is to overcome whatever objection stopped them converting in the first time. And in a lot of cases, that objection was just "eh, I'll remember about that and come back later" - which people never do, unless you remind them to.

Retargeted ad groups routinely show very low click costs or high CTRs, and also very high CVRs. One marketing consultancy's study showed 10x higher clickthroughs and 70% higher conversion rates on retargeted ads.

It's data you already have lying around - put it to work for you!


Who can use retargeting?

• Ecommerce sites are pretty much the ideal users of retargeting. You've built a defined brand, and you have detailed offer-level information on customer activity. You can show them ads for products they've viewed, you can offer them time-limited deals (combining FOMO and scarcity - very effective), you can persuade them to sign up to your list with much higher optin rates - retargeting is pretty close to being a magic bullet for ecomm.
• Anyone advertising on FB can make use of their audience creation to do sophisticated retargeting. Here's FB's guide to retargeting and Custom Audiences. FB retargeting tends to work very well, and of course you can also use the data to build Lookalike Audiences for added reach.
• Other traffic sources can retarget to FB too! If you're advertising on pops, for example, but your offer is FB-compliant (or you have similar offers which are), there's no reason you can't run your primary campaign on pops but then retarget on FB. Place a pixel on an appropriate page that shows the user has some interest - you can even use a hidden interstitial page - and then use the Custom Audience that generates.
• Google Adwords If you're doing Adwords, Google has powerful retargeting tools too. Again, remember that you don't need to be using Adwords initially to retarget on there - if you're using Google Analytics, you can generate a "remarketing" audience from that and use it for your marketing.
• Other traffic sources Many other traffic sources, particularly DSPs, have retargeting options available too. Check and see!
  

Tips and Tricks

• Exclude purchasers Ever been followed around the web by ads for something you just bought? That vendor didn't set up their retargeting properly. Make sure to exclude your list of purchasers from your retargeting audience - or retarget that audience seperately with upsells, list optins, or similar products.
• Use new ads Whilst just showing the same ad again can be effective, there's lots more you can do with retargeting. Try adding scarcity or opportunity - time-limited deals, as mentioned above. Try addressing specific common objections. Or just test fresh ads and do optimisation as usual. All of these approaches reduce banner blindness in your prospects, which can mount fast if you're retargeting aggressively.
• Don't just advertise the same thing. You know that the audience is interested in sweeps, for example - so don't limit yourself to just the one sweep offer. Maybe they didn't convert on that, but they will convert on a similar offer. For ecommerce, this is particularly powerful: your audience for camping supplies might have purchased your innovative new stove, but they'll probably also be interested in everything else camping-related from tentpegs to, well, tents!
• Remember trust hierarchies. People tend to buy small items first, then once they trust a vendor, they're more likely to consider larger items. So use your purchaser lists to pitch higher-ticket items, whilst also using your "viewed content" list to pitch them cheaper things to get them to consider you as a company they trust.
• List-build. A retargeting list is a great list-building opportunity. They're already aware of your brand, meaning they're far less cautious about you than they would be if you're approaching them cold. You can often get even potentials who have no interest in buying now to opt in to a relevant list, meaning you now have a free way to contact them in the future.
  

And that's it! Have you tried retargeting in your campaigns? How did it work out for you? Any additional tips to share?

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Great reminder! Any suggestions for Health & Diet niches supporting retargeting platforms? FB and AdWords is out of the question.

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