How to reach the 98 percent of people who leave your website without converting sales
Getting customers to your website is only half the battle. The question is are they converting into customers?
As a small business owner, you want to know how to reach the 95 to 98 percent of people who leave your website without converting into buyers.
Retargeting converts window-shoppers into buyers. Generally 2% of shoppers convert on the first visit to an online store. Retargeting brings back the other 98%. Retargeting works by keeping track of people who visit your site and displaying your retargeting ads to them as they visit other sites online.
For that reason, retargeting has emerged as a must have marketing channel, and all of the major companies are doing it. Retargeting is the cornerstone of any online advertising strategy since it improves the results of every other channel out there if it is implemented correctly.
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Retargeting advertising allows you to “capture” all website visitors and add them to a list. Then once you have a list of your lost prospects, you can display banner ads to them on other websites to convert them to leads and sales.
So retargeting gives you another shot (or multiple shots) to convert website visitors that left before buying or giving you contact information to follow up.
HOW RETARGETING WORKS
Retargeting may sound complex, but it’s really quite simple.
Have you ever looked for an item online, but didn’t buy it, however when you visit other sites on the Internet, you see adverts for that item following you around? THAT is retargeting.
Technically speaking, retargeting relies on browser cookies. So when a potential customer visits your website, a cookie is saved on their browser. This is no different than how Google Analytics or any other analytics program works. Browser cookies are totally safe and completely legal. In fact, nearly every advertising platform relies heavily on cookies for tracking and reporting capabilities.
So once the cookie is saved on your prospects browser, then you immediately have the ability to “retarget” that prospect. As more and more prospects visit your website, your retargeting list will grow and you’ll be able to display ads to a larger audience.
When someone on your retargeting list visits other websites like CNN.com, you’ll be able to display banner ads promoting your business or a special offer.
WHY IS RETARGETING SO EFFECTIVE
Retargeting generates greater online sales by keeping your brand front and center and bringing “window shoppers” back when they're ready to buy.
Every time your customer sees your retargeting ads, your brand gains traction and more recognition. The high click-through rates and increased conversions that are typical with retargeting campaigns underscore the value of good branding and repeated exposure.
That’s pretty cool, but it gets even better.
With retargeting, you do NOT buy ad space directly from CNN.com or any major site that displays your ad. As you may know, big websites like these are very expensive and typically require large minimum media buys. And it may not make sense to target everyone visiting those websites right? However, it makes perfect sense to target the people visiting those websites who previously visited your website. Those are your ideal prospects.
So rather than buy ad space directly from a website like CCN.com, you can buy from a retargeting ad network that has access to that ad inventory. By going through a retargeting ad network, you’ll get a huge discount because your ads are only showing to a small percentage of the entire website’s audience.
Plus, because retargeting is fairly new, there are very few competitors driving up the costs. This means retargeting is a very cost effective tactic to follow up with your lost website leads and give them the impression you have a million dollar brand image.
WHAT RETARGETING IS NOT
Retargeting is an amazing tool, but it’s not a silver bullet solution for lead generation. First, it’s important to understand retargeting will not fix your online conversion rate. So if you’re not currently converting any prospects to customers on your website, then retargeting is not going to magically solve your conversion problem.
In addition, retargeting does not help websites that do not already have traffic. This one should be obvious. If no one is visiting your website now, then no one will get on your retargeting list and you will have no one to display ads to.
Also, retargeting is not unethical or against any online privacy laws. The cookie used to create a retargeting list does not include any personal identifiable information (PII). Therefore, retargeting is completely anonymous. The only information you have is the total number of people whom you can retarget ads to.
Finally, retargeting is not a replacement for online forms to capture contact information on your website. Since retargeting is anonymous, you still need to collect contact information whenever possible to follow up via email, phone, and mail.
6 STEPS TO PROFIT WITH RETARGETING
STEP 1:
CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
The first step is to choose a retargeting ad network. Most of the big ad outlets are adding retargeting as an option so if you’re already advertising then ask your rep. If you’re not yet advertising or your ad outlet doesn’t have retargeting capabilities then here are a few specific retargeting networks we recommend:
AdRoll
Retargeter
Fetchback
AdWords ReMarketing
AdRoll is the best well known in terms of ease of use and performance. They reach 95% of all websites on the internet (including Facebook) so they are one of the big players if you want to reach a wide audience.
STEP 2:
ADD RETARGETING CODE
The second step is to add the retargeting code to your website. To keep it simple, simply add the code to every page of your website.
If this has made absolutely no sense to you or you find it daunting, then don’t worry! You don’t have to do it alone. This is a simple task for any Webmaster or company like ours, and we can do this for you.
Once the code is on your site, then everyone who visits from that point forward will be added on to your retargeting list. So if you typically get 500 visitors in a month, then you can expect to have 500 people in your retargeting list within a month. Most retargeting platforms recommend you wait until you have about 500 people to target because otherwise there are just not enough opportunities to display your ads.
STEP 3:
DESIGN BANNER ADS
The third step is to design your banner ads in all of the major dimensions. Here’s a list of the dimensions we recommend you create in order to get the most exposure:
- Banner – 468×60 pixels
- Square – 250×250 pixels
- Small Square – 200×200 pixels
- Leaderboard – 728×90 pixels
- Medium Rectangle – 300×250 pixels
- Large Rectangle – 336×280 pixels
- Skyscraper – 120×600 pixels
- Wide Skyscraper – 160×600 pixels
When you are designing your ads, make sure you include the following 3 key components:
- Benefit focused headline
- Phone number call to action (Important: Use a trackable phone number!)
- Business logo
The first component is the headline.
Make sure your headline is all about the benefits of your product or service. For example, if you’re a dentist then the benefit might be a brighter smile. It’s not how long you’ve been in business or how many patients you’ve helped. Think about the problem you’re solving and how your customer’s life will improve by using your product or service.
The second component is your phone number call to action, which should be a unique trackable number. For example, “Call 646-470-3753 Today!” or “Call 646-470-3753 to Schedule Your Appointment Today!” By including your phone number in your ad you give the prospect the opportunity to call without having to click on the ad. Always make it as easy as possible to contact you and remove as much distraction as you can.
The third component is your business logo. With direct response advertising, we would normally never recommend you add your business logo. Especially for a small, local business where most people will not recognize the name and logo. However, with retargeting, you’re only showing your ads to prospects who already visited your website and should remember your name and logo. Therefore, your business logo will improve your conversion rates because prospects will recognize and remember you.
STEP 4:
DEPOSIT MONEY & SET BUDGET
This is easy. In order to start any ad campaign you’ll need to deposit money or add a credit card to your account so pay for the ads. While you’re adding money to the account, also set a daily and/or monthly budget to ensure you don’t exceed the money you set aside to invest in this retargeting campaign.
STEP 5:
ENABLE ADS & MEASURE RESULTS
The final step is to enable the ads if they are not already and measure your results. We recommend you log into your ad account to check the stats every day for the first 3 days. If you don’t see any ad impressions after 3 days then contact the ad network to see if there is a problem with your account setup. It’s possible you didn’t add the code correctly on your website.
If you do see ad impressions and possible a few clicks after 3 days, then we recommend monitoring every other day to every week for the first month. After one month you should have enough data to calculate your return on investment (ROI).
STEP 6:
TRACK YOUR ROI
When designing your banner ads we strongly recommend you use a trackable phone number so you know exactly how many calls come in from your retargeting ads.
Also, if you have a contact form on your website, then you can add conversion tracking so you know exactly how many contact form submissions come in from your retargeting ads.
To get conversion tracking set up, you or your Webmaster will add some code to your contact form “thank you” page. The “thank you” page is the page immediately after the contact form is submitted that typically says something like “Thanks for contacting us.”
If you need help adding conversion tracking to your website, then contact your ad network and they’ll help you get set up.
Armed with your trackable phone number and contact form conversion tracking, you can calculate the ROI from your campaign. For example, you may find that you generate 5 phone calls and 10 contact form submissions after the first month.
To calculate ROI, you need to know the value of a phone call and the value of a form submission. Note that the values will typically be very different because phone calls tend to be more qualified prospects than contact form submissions.
If you’re not sure about these values, then you’ll need to track all of your calls and form submissions over the next month or several months to see how many convert to sales. Then based on the value of each sale, you’ll be able to calculate an average value for every call or form submission.
Call In the Experts
As you can see, retargeting advertising is extremely lucrative and helps businesses get customer that they would otherwise have lost.
Thee are lots of points that you need to consider in order to run a profitable campaign. We have lots of experience so it is second nature to us.
If you are struggling with your campaign, please don’t let that stop you missing out on huge profits using this strategy. Contact us today and let us help you reach the customers you lost when they visited your site and turn them in paying customers.
