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Let us introduce you to a marvelous article originally shared by  Johnathan Dane on KlientBoost. You may also enjoy our recent article presenting a retargeting guide for beginners.

Have you ever thought of retargeting as playing fetch with a dog?

The goal is always to bring the ball back, just like your visitors and lost conversions.

And while you may not have a dog or started your first retargeting campaign yet, you know that getting good at something takes practice and experience.

Retargeting is no different.

retargeting

Remember: sucking at something is the first step to becoming sorta good at something – GIF source

 

So right now, I want to share 33 different types of retargeting campaigns that we run for our own clients and how you can run them too.

But first…

What Is Retargeting & Why Should You Care?

Let’s take a common example:

A visitor hits your website or landing page without converting. You then add a cookie/pixel to their browser or capture their email address to then have your image ads, text ads, or emails follow them around the rest of the web until they hopefully come back and convert.

what_is_retargeting

Kinda looks like this – image source

 

That’s retargeting in a nutshell.

Some people also call it remarketing, and for the sake of clarification, they’re essentially the exact same thing, although Google wants to keep calling it remarketing.

Now to the fun part:

If done right, retargeting can outperform all other digital ad channels. 

CMO.com published 15 mind-blowing stats on retargeting that almost had me pee my pants (I drank a lot of water and coffee that day):

  • Retargeting can bring the highest lift in brand searches by 1,046%
  • The average CTR is 10x higher than that of regular display ads
  • Retargeted visitors are 70% more likely to convert compared to ones who aren’t

As you can see, it’s easy to know that retargeting works, but it’s a lot harder to actually make it work.

Now, don’t get me wrong–grouping all your visitors into one audience and hitting them with the same message can definitely get you conversions. In fact, that’s what many people do.

You don’t have to be perfect about retargeting, but if you are interested in taking your efforts to the next level, then keep reading.

Let’s dive into the different types of retargeting campaigns that you can take advantage of, as early as today.

 

1) Sequential Retargeting

Do you have a long sales cycle? Or do you have a complex buying process with multiple touch points? If so, then sequential retargeting could be huge for you.

Just like email nurturing pushes visitors down the conversion funnel, depending on what emails are opened and clicked through, sequential retargeting works the same way.

You group your audiences in different categories or lists and include/exclude them depending on the landing pages, durations, or downloads they’ve been taking action on.

When those actions are taken, a new set of ads with new messaging are launched to get the visitor to take the next step in the conversion process, while excluding them from the old set of ads.

sequential retargeting ads

First, you learn more, then you buy – image source


Just like a regular
Google Analytics goal funnel, you can use sequential retargeting to create more touch points and also learn where your bottlenecks are in the conversion process (to then fix them).

To give you some ideas of what your different ads could look like, take a peek at this example from Pagewiz:

what is sequential retargeting

Incorporate a mix of different offers and messaging.


As you can see, the first ad is trying to get the sale as fast as possible. If that doesn’t happen within a certain amount of time, then the sequential ads are pushed live one by one.

Quick Recap:
Sequential retargeting is the practice of varying the ad copy and messaging depending on where the visitor is in the conversion process, with the end goal of pushing them along.

Your goal as the advertiser is to use education, features, and/or benefits to eventually get them to buy.

 

2) Time Delayed Retargeting

If you run any type of cookie/pixel based retargeting, then there’s a good chance that your audience eventually has an expiration date (Google has a max time of 540 days for example).

But in this case, time is your friend, not your enemy.

Similar to sequential retargeting, time delayed retargeting basically works this way without the need of any action from the visitors:

  • Week 1: All visitors see ad #1
  • Week 2: All visitors see ad #2
  • Week 3: All visitors see ad #3
  • Week 4: All visitors see ad #4
  • etc.

The best thing about time delayed retargeting, is that you don’t need accompanying landing pages or collateral to back up everything your ad says (although it won’t hurt if you do).

If you only offer one service, like how our PPC agency offers PPC management, then you can use your different time delayed retargeting ads to showcase different perks and values of working with you.

In fact, if you already have an email nurture campaign, you can take the subjects of those emails and turn them into retargeting ads. Here’s an example of how we could do it since our #1 goal is to get people to request a free proposal from us.

  • Week 1: Example proposal
  • Week 2: Screenshots of AdWords improvements
  • Week 3: Types of packages we offer
  • Week 4: Resources of thought leadership
  • Week 5: Case studies
  • Week 6: Example proposal
  • etc.

For one of our clients, we decided to break up the audiences in monthly periods of 1-30 days and 31-60 days. Here are the results:

retargeting

Next step would be to break it out in smaller time chunks.


As you can see, the 1-30 day campaigns and image ads are performing the best. The interesting thing is that both 1-30 and 31-60 have different offers, but none that are different in
threat levels or channel temperatures.

What I mean by this is that the lead magnets in these campaigns are very identical (both PDF guides), so we could potentially ask for a bigger conversion commitment in the 1-30 day campaigns since they have the highest performance so far.

Quick Recap:
The longer visitors have been part of your time delayed retargeting campaign, the bigger the offer/incentive they need to act.

You may find that for the first two weeks (depending on your conversion cycle) your ads are just product/offer specific with your logo and unique value proposition.

For the next two weeks, you may offer a bonus or 10% discount to get them to act, where you then have a burn pixel excluding past visitors who have already converted so they don’t see the discount ads and complain.

 

3) Offer Change Retargeting

If you’re in the unfortunate bucket of having 98% of your visitors not convert after the first visit, then don’t fret. You could be in luck.

What I mean by that is that it could be your initial landing page offer/call-to-action that’s holding you back.

Many times when people chose not to convert (especially in lead gen situations), it’s because the offer was too threatening to them or you didn’t do a good enough job explaining the value of the offer. In other words: They may not be ready for a free consultation or free proposal just yet.

When this happens, you can actually use your retargeting ads, not only to drive more conversions, but also as a research tool to learn whether or not you should change your initial offer on your landing page to something different.

Let’s say that your initial landing page offer from search network PPC traffic is a free consultation that has a 2% conversion rate (only 2 out of 100 visitors want your consultation).

To retarget to the other 98%, you can pick an idea from the list below as your educational lead magnet, to bring them back to eventually want a consultation.

offer change retargeting

Which retargeting bait will you try first? – image source

 

Quick Recap:
There’s a reason why most people don’t convert on your site or landing page.

It could be that you’re not explaining the value of your offer well enough, or, it could that a different offer will work much better for you.

Remember: Visitors have options, and you’re not the only one who offers that product or service. Take the time and effort to educate and nurture.

 

4) Up-Selling Retargeting

Have you ever heard the saying “a buyer, is a buyer, is a buyer”?

It took me almost five years from hearing it, to actually understanding it.

What it means is that if someone has already bought from you, then they’re much more likely to buy from you again. 

In fact, 41% of overall revenue for eCommerce sites in the US are from repeat shoppers.

And that’s not even the crazy part. According to Adobe, repeat buyers are likely to spend 5x more than first time shoppers.

Here’s an email retargeting example from Amazon showing which cameras you can upgrade to.

up-sell retargeting

Let’s be real, Amazon even knows what I had for breakfast – image source


But what if you’re not an eCommerce shop?

If you’re in the lead generation business, then repeat buyers could mean referrals in the form of leads as you often see for service based businesses.

You can essentially create new retargeting audiences by targeting people who have visited yourpost conversion pages with new offers in the forms of upgrades or complimentary service add-ons.

Quick Recap:
When visitors buy from you, it’s because they trust you.

Don’t feel greedy or ashamed to ask them to convert again and to buy something at a higher price. If you truly bring value in your products and services, then they’ll be upset if you keep them secret.

 

5) Down-Sell/Cross-Sell Retargeting

Okay, maybe your visitors don’t want to buy more from you.

If that’s the case, then showcasing a different offer from their recent “No Thank You” on the up-sell offer could make a lot of sense for your retargeting campaigns.

Let’s say that we get you on board for our PPC services. Our next logical step as an agency would be to offer our landing page services as a cross-sell to you.

The beauty of this is that a true cross-sell is something that’s complementary to the original thing your visitor converted for, and it should help the performance of it too.

If we wanted to down-sell our landing page service, then we could potentially offer a free guide on it, with the goal of converting them in the future.

Quick Recap:
If someone buys an orange, up-sell a juice presser.

If someone buys the juice presser, cross-sell a recipe book.

If someone doesn’t buy the juice presser, down-sell them an orange peel artbook.

types of retargeting

And then sell this “attraction” to SeaWorld – image source

 

6) Layer Retargeting (Google Analytics Features)

Have you ever thought of using Google Analytics data to create unique remarketing audiences?

If not, then here’s something new to take advantage of:

In a recent case study from ThinkWithGoogle, Periscopix helped Watchfinder (a leading watch store in the UK), create over 20 unique retargeting audiences that were split between location, languages, and on-site behaviors like cart vs non-cart visitors and time on site.

In addition to that, they found that certain ISPs (internet service providers) from the London financial district showed interest in their products, where they could then target visitors from banks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.

retargeting tips

They also created multiple ad variations – image source

 

After just six months, ROI from the retargeting campaigns proved to be around 1,300%, with average order values increasing 13% as well, ultimately leading to a 34% reduction in cost per acquisition.

Quick Recap:
Use additional insight from Google Analytics like time on site and geography to create unique retargeting audiences to target with matching ads.

The more data points you have on certain visitors, the easier it will be for you to determine how likely they are to convert from your ad messages.

 

7) Page Value Retargeting

Each page on your website has a different value when it comes to retargeting ROI potential.

If a visitor has only visited your homepage and no other pages (like you’ll often find when you look inside Google Analytics), then there’s a good chance that targeting them with retargeting is a waste of time, money, and impressions.

From single page bounce visitors to people who have been on your site or landing page for say, 2 minutes plus, it’s important that you spend and bid proportionally with those thoughts in mind.

Paying an average of $1.00 a click for an audience that has been on site for 2+ minutes will usually pay off quicker than paying an average of $0.50 for all visitors.

In addition to the value of these audiences being different, you’ll also find that they are more likely to convert on different retargeting offers.

People who have bounced from the homepage are more likely to convert on a soft/less threatening offer like an eBook download, compared to 2+ minute visitors who might be okay to convert on a free proposal offer.

Quick Recap:
Look inside your Google Analytics dashboard and find which pages on your website holds the most attention. Sometimes this is a demo page or the about page.

Once you’ve identified them, you can add multiple layers like certain page URLs, time on site, and geography to help craft your ads to be more tailored to that audience.

 

8) CRM Retargeting

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool is usually one you’ll find companies using when they have to keep a lot of leads and prospects in order.

This type of retargeting campaign doesn’t actually need cookies or pixels to retarget. It runs on email addresses.

By exporting your CRM email list to a retargeting platform like AdRoll, you’re able to match the email addresses to social media accounts and other platforms (like Gmail) that know when the email address owner is logged in.

retargeting 101

There’s no expiration needed on this type of retargeting – image source

 

In a case study done with Kiehl’s, AdRoll helped them use their CRM emails by creating unique audiences/segments specific retargeting ad offers.

That gave them:

  • A 12.9% ROI
  • A 38% conversion rate (eCommerce mind you)
  • A 3.2x extended web reach.

But what if you don’t use a CRM?

You can export emails from email providers like MailChimp, or even a list you already have. You can also rent email lists from publishers who have your target audience, which is what a lot of financial institutions do.

Quick Recap:
Your CRM potentially holds a motherload of information about the behaviors of your visitors.Use that data to create unique audience groups to then retarget to.

Many times, you’ll find the best uplift in performance from targeting old users/visitors that were once hot. This could help reignite them.

 

9) Bulk Email Retargeting

Staying on the topic of emails, you also have the option to target your email list directly through Google AdWords, Facebook, or Twitter.

Google AdWords has a feature called Customer Match, Facebook as a feature called Custom Audience, and Twitter has a feature called Tailored Audience.

how to retarget

Here’s a look at how Facebook Custom Audiences works – image source

 

The biggest thing to keep in mind when it comes to bulk email retargeting is the “match rate” of emails to users on a given platform.

According to WordStream, the match types between Google, Facebook, and Twitter breakdown like this:

  • Google = 50.4%
  • Facebook = 48.99%
  • Twitter = 10.2%

As you can see, the behemoths of the ad world (Google and Facebook) have such a strong match rate because of the usage of their platforms. Whereas not as many people are on Twitter (or use an email address that matches).

Once you’ve decided on which platform to use (maybe multiple), you can take advantage of thedifferent types of ads and networks (especially on Google) to get your email list to convert.

Quick Recap:
Just like any retargeting campaign, don’t forget the power of segmenting your audience into specific buckets. Targeting all emails with the same message won’t be as powerful as it could be if you split things up.

 

10) Individual Email Retargeting

Did you know that’s possible to add a hidden HTML image tag to your emails that adds a cookie/pixel to the browser of the person who opened that email?

One of my favorite tools for creating this type of retargeting campaign is SiteScout.

email retargeting

Here’s a look at their retargeting tag creator – image source

 

If you’re running promotions with your email campaigns, then you can create an additional ad set to follow people who have opened that email to amplify the promotion.

The retargeting ads also give targeted visitors a quick way to take advantage of the promotion instead of having to go back to the original email and clicking the link there.

Please note, that this will only work with web-based email providers like Gmail and Hotmail, and you want to make sure that the email recipient is allowing images to show in the email you send.

A quick tip would be to add other actual images to your emails so the recipients have a reason to allow them to show, now and in the future.

Quick Recap:
If you want to squeeze the most ROI from specific email marketing campaigns, then strongly consider using hidden HTML image tags as retargeting codes.

This will allow you to message match your email to the retargeting ads to reduce the time to convert.

 

11) Similar/Lookalike Audience Retargeting

When you’re creating retargeting audiences from your landing page and site visitors, PPC networks like AdWords and Facebook have ways to create similar audiences that show the same intent and browsing behaviors as your own list.

Through hundreds of different factors, you can target these similar audiences as regular retargeting campaigns, even if those people being targeted have never been on your landing page or site.

Google AdWords calls it similar audiences and Facebook calls it lookalike audiences.

Once you start creating your retargeting list from your own visitors, Google and Facebook will automatically create similar and lookalike audiences for you to take advantage of.

audience retargeting

Notice the audience at the bottom – image source


A lot of improvements have been made since Google first introduced similar audiences back in 2013, and today, you can expect around
40% increase in conversions using a feature like this.

Quick Recap:
Sometimes a similar/lookalike audience is much bigger than your original retargeting list.

Take advantage of it, but tread lightly. Your specific industry can have varying performance when it comes to how accurate and similar the borrowed audience truly performs.

 

12) Push-Along Retargeting

Do you have a conversion funnel with multiple touch points where visitors need help moving to the next step? If so, then push-along retargeting can be your new best friend.

Just like certain keywords can be tracked as to how far down the conversion funnel a visitor goes, you can do the same thing with your retargeting ads.

push along retargeting

Looks like the top keyword is winning the funnel race – image source


The goal here is to craft ads that hint to the next step the audience should take to get further down your conversion funnel.

Being similar to sequential retargeting, push-along retargeting focuses solely on action taken by the visitor in relation to the step in the conversion process. No time or other external factors are incorporated.

This is usually a stellar retargeting campaign tactic for SaaS onboarding issues.

Quick Recap:
Make sure your audience sizes are big enough for each step of your conversion funnel.

If you have less than 1,000 visitors in each step of step of your conversion process, then you may not get enough impressions, clicks, or conversions.

 

13) Geographic Granularity Retargeting

You may be advertising nationwide or even internationally, but that doesn’t mean your retargeting ads should do the same.

If you look inside your AdWords or other PPC account, you should be able to see the geographic locations of where your visitors are coming from.

Pair that data with geographic specific retargeting ads, and you could see a 53% increase in conversion rates like Mazda did.

retargeting tips

Mazda combined geographies and car inventories together – image source

 

With a mix of offline and online insight, Mazda was able to use IntelliAds from the Merchenta retargeting platform to “drive” (pun intended) more people into local showrooms based off the car models they were looking at online.

The crazy thing is that the average car sale value traced back to ad impressions was 98% higher than the offline average.

Now, you might not be a car brand. But that shouldn’t stop you from taking advantage of this tactic.

You can create retargeting ads that are specific to the geography of your retargeting audience. Pair that with a landing page that follows the message match, and you could be sitting pretty with some higher retargeting performance.

Quick Recap:
Pick the geographies that have the highest audience count first and start there. The more impressions you get, the higher your chances are for clicks that turn into conversions.

Once a success, repeat the process by creating unique retargeting ads and landing pages from the next highest visitor geography.

 

14) Redirect Link Retargeting

Ever wish you could retarget people that land on URLs or pages that you don’t control?

Well, you kinda can, and it’s called redirect link retargeting.

As another retargeting tactic you can use with the SiteScout platform, redirect link retargeting allows you to add anyone who clicks a specific link to a specific retargeting audience.

redirect link retageting

You just wrap your original link with the pixel link – image source

 

This type of retargeting can work great in a few different scenarios:

  1. Your site is a comparison site of multiple options where you’re potentially making money off referral conversions. Creating retargeting ads could help get you more conversions.
  2. If your company has uniform email signatures, then you can track clicks on certain links and create unique retargeting audiences that way.
  3. You can also do this within forums, blog comments, or author bio links in guest posts.

As you can see, there are tons of options and you can even use a secure SSL variation of it as well.

Quick Recap:
Redirect link retargeting is perfect for people and companies to try and cookie visitors who are going places they don’t control or own.

 

15) RLSA Retargeting

Remarketing list for search ads (RLSA) is a feature Google unveiled in 2012 that allows you to create specific text ads that are exclusive to a retargeting audience list you have.

RLSA also allows you to set bid modifiers across search and shopping ads to bid more aggressively or passively depending on searches from people who are on your audience list.

One of my favorite use cases for RLSA is when you’re in a very competitive industry and you want to bid on competitor names, but only want your ads to show if the visitor has been on your site before (shoutout to LunaMetrics for the idea).

Let’s say the visitor was comparison shopping you in the past, but never converted (not on your site or your competitors). A month later, they’re now researching your competitors by typing in their names to Google.

retargeting help

Quick snapshot of RLSA bid modification possibilities – image source

 

With RLSA audiences, you can actually be broader in your targeting when it comes to keyword selections, among other advantages:

Long story short, RLSA works wonders for search network targeting.

Quick Recap:
To get your feet wet with RLSA, use regular bid modifiers by adding in your retargeting audience and select “Bid only” from the “Target & Bid” option. This allows you to be a little more aggressive (or less aggressive) with people who have already been on your site.

 

16) Anti-Bounce Retargeting

This point is more of a retargeting tactic, and not a standalone retargeting campaign (but it could be if you’d like it to).

If you take a look at your Google Analytics account, I’m sure there’s one metric you’re sort of obsessive about, and that’s bounce rate.

types of retargeting

Here’s how it’s defined – image source

 

Now consider your retargeting audience.

If you have a bounce rate between 60-80% or higher, then why would you put 60-80% of your retargeting budget towards people who weren’t even remotely interested in what you have to offer?

See where I’m going with this?

To make this happen, you’ll want to create a cookie insertion delay of a certain amount of time (like 60 seconds or higher). It will then only cookie visitors who have been on the site or landing page for at least that amount of time.

Quick Recap:
A bounce isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

This tactic is especially great if you have an isolated landing page (with no external links) where all exits are considered as bounces.

 

17) Non-Cookie Retargeting

As marketing technologies continue to improve and make lives easier for us marketers and advertisers, you’ll find that the old methods of cookie/pixel based retargeting will quickly become obsolete.

Since more and more people are using mobile devices with browsers that are inherently “anti-advertising” (damn you iOS 9!), it’s easy to see how regular cookies may expire or get deleted relatively quickly. And while still in its infancy, non-cookie based retargeting is becoming more and more popular.

If you find that your current retargeting cookies might not be working the way they should, then consider looking at these options:

Fingerprint retargeting is similar to device ID retargeting where certain identifiable pieces of information are used to identify a visitor across different devices.

fingerprint retargeting

This is exactly what it looks like, not really – image source

Without the need of cookies or pixels, advertisers can narrow down cross device retargeting through data like browser types, installed software, time zones, IP addresses, and more.

Quick Recap:
Know why Google was so in love with the idea of a social network?

It’s because companies like Facebook are leading the pack in the ability of cross-device retargeting, due to the fact that you’re most likely logged into your Facebook account on desktop and mobile devices.

 

18) Dynamic Retargeting

Dynamic retargeting helps you create image ads at scale so you don’t have to individually create hundreds or thousands of product/offer specific image and text ads.

In the example GIF below, you can see the difference and depth of detail and dynamic retargeting ad could have.

dynamic retargeting

Dynamically created retargeting ads also perform better – GIF source

 

If you’re an online retailer with hundreds or thousands of products, then you can use ad templates from providers like AdWords or AdRoll that grab info like product images, pricing, and availability from your shopping feeds.

retargeting

It usually works like this – image source

 

The retargeting cookies take note of which product pages you’ve visited so that your dynamic retargeting ads only show products that you’ve shown interest in.

This type of retargeting can also be used in the travel or hospitality industry for showcasing dynamic ads based on travel routes or vacancies.

Quick Recap:
Google AdWords and other retargeting vendors like AdRoll allow you to create dynamic retargeting ads that can instantly showcase ads on the AdWords Display Network and inside social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

You can then use time delayed retargeting to showcase stronger offers/discounts depending on the length of the visitor being part of the retargeting audience.

 

19) Content Retargeting

Are you investing quite a bit of money into content marketing?

If so, then a content retargeting campaign could be a great way for you to earn trust and gain conversions in the future.

Here’s how it works:

  • You create a retargeting audience to target people who have been reading a certain blog post or content piece on your site.
  • You create a retargeting audience to target people who have shown interest in your offer or product.
  • You create image and text ads that showcase a complementary piece of content, a piece of content they might like, or better yet, a soft sell/low threat offer like a free guide.

Here’s an example from Dax Hamman from Rubicon Project written on the AdExchanger blog:

“A consumer who is looking for information on picking the best mortgage visits
citimortgage.com. They could be retargeted with a recommended link, “5 things to watch out for when deciding on a mortgage,” by Citibank on usatoday.com/money.”

In the example above, Citibank is actually sending the visitors to a co-promoted piece of content on USAToday. Something you can do with Forbes BrandVoice as well.

retarget

This allows you to piggy-back off Forbes for a price.

 

But if you’re not looking to shell out at least $50,000 to make that happen, then you can always bring the retargeted visitor back to content that’s hosted on your own properties.

Quick Recap:
Content retargeting is mostly used to nurture and increase the trust between the visitor and the brand, and doesn’t necessarily have the goal of a direct conversion like so many other retargeting campaigns do.

Content retargeting works especially well for industries and verticals that have long buying cycles (i.e. the conversion isn’t cheap to the visitor), since having your brand front and center with the goal of educating the visitor instead of getting them to buy can make you come across much more trustworthy than your competitors.

 

20) Referral Retargeting

You got your visitor to buy, but the up-sell, cross-sell, or down-sell didn’t do so well.

What if your visitor knows another person who could benefit from your product or service? Wouldn’t you want them to let their friends or network know about you?

Of course you do.

When you get people to convert, you create a new audience from your post-conversion URL that groups the audience into a “referral bucket”.

Your image and text ads then showcase a message of what’s in it for the referrer (like, get 10% off every person that you invite who joins), and then you have a dedicated landing page, and this is vital, that makes it super easy for the person who has already converted to send the link to their network.

When it comes to referral retargeting, you can get inspiration from a lot of “coming soon” landing pages, or look at companies like Uber and Lyft who crush when it comes to referral marketing.

retargeting helpful tips

Lyft partnered with Vistaprint to make it super easy to spread the word – image source

 

Quick Recap:
Your business type determines the type of referral virality you can expect.

B2C companies usually have great reach and potential compared to B2B companies who deal with lower customer volumes.

 

21) Social Retargeting

As a retargeting opportunity that all advertisers and marketers should be taking advantage of, social retargeting should definitely be higher up on this list.

Although you can create specific retargeting audiences within social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, I tend to go with retargeting providers that allow me to target multiple networks within one dashboard.

AdRoll is one of the leaders of social retargeting, along with Perfect Audience, Criteo (and others), that allow you to retarget your visitors on Facebook, Twitter, and other publisher websites.

LinkedIn also has their own retargeting solution called Lead Accelerator that you can use for,you guessed it, retargeting on their network.

social retargeting

Snapshot from their data sheet – image source

 

Quick Recap:
Many traditional PPC channels like AdWords and Bing Ads don’t have access to ad inventory on social networks.

Go directly to the social network or use 3rd party tools to keep as many of your campaigns under one dashboard.

 

22) Competitor Retargeting

You read that right, and there’s a way to do it.

AdRoll, Quantcast, and AdWords all offer the ability to target audiences (almost like the “similar audiences” we’ve covered earlier in this post), that have shown intent or browsing behavior that have led them to land on competitor sites.

There’s also a tool called ReTargeting BASE that has a solution called “Pre Retargeting” that states it can add cookies to visitors who visit competitor sites.

Is it ethical/legal to use that type of service? Probably not, but I’m sure some people have been tempted to try. You can read this Reddit thread from a person who asked the right questions.

In addition to what’s mentioned above, you can use these tactics as well:

  • AdWords RLSA targeting by using competitor names as keywords
  • AdWords Gmail Sponsored Promotion (GSP) ads bidding on competitor domains as keywords
  • AdWords Search Network w/ Display Select campaigns – this helps you showcase display ads based on keywords that have been typed into Google as a prerequisite for your display ads to show.

Quick Recap:
No well respected ad platform will launch a competitor retargeting solution in it’s purest sense (being able to have your retargeting code on competitor sites).

But there are ways you can mix and match to get similar/desired results.

 

23) Partner Retargeting

Also known as let’s share each others retargeting pixels retargeting, partner retargeting is basically the partnership between two sites that allow each other’s pixels to be used.

You may find that a website that only sells ketchup would be interested to retarget visitors from a site that only sells mustard, and vice versa.

partner retargeting

You can’t have one without the other – image source

 

As a better (and more realistic example) you could find partner retargeting happen between airlines and hotels. Both are separate companies, but have complementary offers that usually go hand-in-hand.

Perfect Audience has a tool named Connect, that allows you to do just this.

different types of retargeting

Find a retargeting partner that’s already there – image source

 

Oh, and did I mention that the costs of targeting visitors like these are on average 80% cheaper than regular AdWords retargeting audiences?

Quick Recap:
Extremely similar to renting or buying email lists, partner retargeting allows you to borrow other websites visitors for a fraction of your regular retargeting costs.

 

24) Re-Engagement Retargeting

Do you have outdated and super-old visitors with no activity who are still cookied or maybe you still have their email address?

If so, then you may benefit from re-engaging many of your old visitors (to also learn why they became unengaged).

This tactic is borrowed from the email marketing world, but works just as well with retargeting ads too.

In a post of 10 email re-engagement examples, Impact shows us how well known brands try to sell you more frozen yogurt, like Pinkberry:

email retargeting

I suddenly got a little hungry – image source

 

With this type of retargeting, you can decide to keep sending emails via email channels, OR, you could upload those unengaged email addresses into AdWords or Facebook to serve up companion ads as well.

Quick Recap:
Your past visitors already know you, they just need a reminder of why they should love you again.

Use re-engagement retargeting to breathe new life into old subscribers and visitors with new offers to bring them back to life.

 

25) Search Retargeting

Ever wanted to target people who have never been on your site, but searched for keywords that are interesting for you to capture?

Search retargeting allows you to do just that with image and text ads. Here’s an overview of how it works from Bannersnack:

retargeting tip

Imagine the benefit for high CPC industries – image source

 

The search engine (Google, Bing, etc) is the platform that drops the retargeting cookie, which then communicates that data to the ad platform and campaigns you use to target the visitor.

Quick Recap:
If your business is plagued by high costing cost per clicks, then search retargeting can help youmarry the keyword intent with the cheapness of a banner click.

 

26) YouTube Retargeting

Being the second largest search engine in the world, YouTube is a hotbed for insanely cheap cost per views with their TrueView capabilities.

youtube retargeting

A look inside our YouTube page from our proposal deck – image source

 

Just like you would create regular image and text ads for a traditional retargeting campaign, you can now create video ads that allow you to add in additional audience data to granulate your targeting.

The only downside to this type of retargeting is that it’s not as easy, quick, or cheap to split test a video ad compared to a static image ad.

In a Samsung case study, YouTube retargeting helped reach 80% of its impressions to TV users who could have been reached through a tradition TV ad campaign.

Quick Recap:
In addition to regular display and social retargeting, YouTube offers a 3rd channel where your audience may be hanging out.

If you’re curious in testing that channel, that with a lost cost video that proves an ROI before investing further.

 

27) Browser Tab Switch Retargeting

Being more of an “on-page” type of retargeting (without the use of cookies or fingerprints),Mention.com does an interesting job in keeping their visitors engaged if they decide to leave their blog in favor of other open tabs.

browser retargeting

“Don’t forget about us!” stands out among the tabs you normal view.

 

As you can see in the screenshot above, Mention’s tab changes as soon as you try to leave their blog post.

How they do this, I’m not quite sure (yet), but I’m certain there’s a person reading this that would be able to figure that out very quickly.

I’ve reached out to Brittany Berger who’s the head of content at Mention, and will update this post as soon as I hear their secret and results from using this tactic.

Quick Recap:
As a classic example of thinking outside the box, Mention takes advantage of that feature and others on their site to keep visitors engaged and to spend more time on their site.

 

28) Onsite Retargeting

I’m quite certain you’ve seen onsite retargeting before, maybe even while you’re reading this blog post.

It’s usually in the form of that rectangular box that pops up while you’re scrolling down or even when you’re about the leave a page.

The goal of onsite retargeting is to get people to take advantage of an offer or a discount, or even to subscribe to your blog. Here are two examples of different exit popups we’ve been testing:

onsite retargeting

Go a little out there to grab visitors’ attention before they bounce.

onsite retarget

Here’s another popup we tested right before “CRO Day.”

 

We also created a post outlining the different types of onsite retargeting, methods, and tools you can use to get started.

Quick Recap:
When it comes to onsite retargeting, you have a lot of options to not only split test the message and offer of your popups, but also the targeting of it.

Duration, frequency caps, scroll depth, exit intent, devices, and other factors will all perform differently. Granulate your campaigns with these different criteria to see what performs the best.

 

29) Push Notification Retargeting

You know those push notifications you get on your phone?

Now you can take advantage of that via visitor browsers like Chrome, Safari, and FireFox.

A tool named PushCrew allows you to have visitors opt-in to getting push notifications from you, so no matter what site they’re on in the future, you can alert them that a new blog post is live (or other news you’d like to share).

push retargeting

See that little notification in the right corner?

 

Our good friends over at ConversionXL are currently using PushCrew, and if you go to the PushCrew site, you’ll see quite a few case studies and the results websites have been getting with the tool.

push retargeting case study

Here are some results for an eCommerce store – image source

 

With competition continuing to rise and attention spans continuing to decline, you have to start thinking of how you can get to your visitors beyond the inbox or ad spaces.

Quick Recap:
Even if your visitors’ browsers are completely closed, push notifications can still come through.

 

30) Abandoned Cart Retargeting

If you’re an eCommerce store, then you probably have some abandoned carts.

And like any business owner, your goal is to turn those abandoned carts into sales. One way to do that is using email retargeting that takes visitors back to their saved carts.

Considering your sales volume, cart recovery retargeting can have a huge impact to your overall revenues, as shown in the chart with actual results from a Rejoiner campaign.

abandoned cart retargeting

Cart abandonment can be fixed – image source

 

As you can see in this example, email retargeting can help bring back 3% – 11% off previously missed sales.

Tools like Rejoiner and CartHook are out-of-the-box solutions you can use to implement via your shopping cart right away.

The email retargeting tools capture the email address people type in on your checkout page, but register whether or not the person actually went through with the purchase.

If they don’t then finish the purchase, then an automatic email will be sent to them with pictures of the shopping cart items, along with a call to action to bring them back to buy.

Quick Recap:
Shopping cart recovery is a huge deal in the eCommerce space. And without having to offer discounts or specials, you can recover quite a few lost sales just by reminding people that they didn’t finish their purchase.

Split testing subject lines and email layouts should be one of your main focuses after you’re up and running.

 

31) CPA Retargeting

Retargeting offers a mix of different bidding options.

You have the option to pay per click (CPC bidding), pay per thousand impressions (CPM bidding), or pay per conversion (CPA bidding).

While it’s not guaranteed, you can go the route of Google AdWords and set CPA bidding targets, or you can go with a managed retargeting service like Merchenta that offers CPA retargeting at a fixed rate.

You set the max you’re willing to pay for a sale, install, lead (or other conversion), and the people behind the solution like Merchenta get busy for you.

Quick Recap:
If you’d like to take advantage of hired CPA bidding, then be aware that you should most likely pause your other retargeting campaigns.

You don’t want different campaigns competing against each other and drive the average CPC up due to impression competition.

 

32) Mobile App Retargeting

Most of what we’ve covered so far involves eCommerce and lead generating businesses, but what if you’re trying to retarget people to download your app,or instead, getting people to take advantage of an offer within your app?

When it comes to overall user base in the mobile app world, retargeting has proven to be thecheapest and most effective way to acquire new users.

mobile app retargeting

AppsFlyer has mobile app stats for days – image source

 

Someone may already have visited your app’s site or landing page but didn’t download. In this scenario, you’ll want to retarget them with ads with the goal of getting the app download.

If someone has already downloaded the app, then your next retargeting goal may be to get them to make an in-app purchase or increase their overall engagement.

Regardless of your goals, mobile app retargeting can be taken advantage of via traditional ad platforms like Google AdWords, with more insight for you once you integrate the tracking and advertising systems with your app’s SDK (for conversion tracking purposes).

Quick Recap:
Mobile app retargeting possibilities are on the rise. More and more companies are creating new mobile ad formats and leaders like Google and Facebook are making it easier and easier to track anything you want to from an ad to app standpoint.

Mobile deep linking is also possible if you want to take users to a specific place within your app.

 

33) Smother Retargeting

The name almost gives this retargeting campaign away.

A lot of best practices tell you to use frequency caps (the amount of times a single visitor will see your retargeting ad over a given period of time) to not annoy visitors.

But while that’s correct, who’s to say that you can break the rules and get a great ROI from it?

When it comes to smother retargeting, you only have one goal: hit your visitors, as often as possible.

retargeting done well

This sums the tactic up pretty well – GIF source

 

Use multiple retargeting networks like AdWords, AdRoll, and SiteScout to retarget your ads anywhere your visitor might go – regular sites, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Then take that same approach with cart abandonment (if you’re an eCommerce shop) through email retargeting as well.

You can then take it one step further and create this type of audience around people who almost converted. Maybe they started filling out your lead gen form, or they were on the checkout page, but didn’t buy.

Quick Recap:
The goal here is to fire off a BlitzKrieg for a short period of time to see if you can reduce the “time to convert” from when visitors first become part of your retargeting audience.

Make sure you have an option to retarget to all the potential areas a visitor can go to beyond your site and landing page.

 

Your Next Steps

Keep in mind that retargeting follows the same best practices as any online ad campaign.

Split testing your ads and testing new targeting criteria will always be at the forefront of successful retargeting growth.

In addition to that, here are a few other things to keep in mind:

  • Frequency caps: Limit people to your ad’s visibility so your message doesn’t dilute.
  • Burn pixels/URLs: Once people have converted, move them to a new audience. Don’t waste impressions on people who can’t convert again.
  • Audience diversification: Many of the tactics we talked about today involve unique audience segmentation. Take advantage of that.

Out of all the retargeting campaigns examples I’ve give you today, which one are you most excited to try out?

Oleksiy Kuryliak

Founder of Rioks. Marketing Strategist & Auditor. Advising startups and enterprises on digital transformation, marketing operations and go-to-market strategies.

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