Video ad retargeting has transformed the marketing industry. Businesses now have a way to appeal to buyers based on their unique interests and online behaviors.
Content marketing would be super easy if everyone followed the same route to make a purchase. The truth is, though, the buyer’s journey is often incredibly unique, particularly from one audience to the next. Some prospects may fill out a form first while others choose to contact you by phone or email. Some may not even talk to a sales rep. Instead, they make a purchase on your website without ever speaking to one of your employees.
The buyer’s journey is rarely a linear process.
More often than not, a buyer will come into contact with your brand at least once before making a purchase. It’s during this moment of brand interaction that you must move the customer further through the sales funnel. For some, it takes only one to two interactions. This only applies to about 2% of shoppers. (1) With retargeting, you get to approach the other 98% in a unique way. Marketers must target customers according to their positions in the funnel. Strategically targeting these shoppers starts with retargeting ads.
Video Ad Retargeting for Beginners: What Does It Mean to Retarget Video Ads?
Retargeting ads is unique because the ads appeal to a person based on products and services they have already shown an interest in. 60% of online shoppers consider making a purchase based on a retargeted ad. Retargeted ads garner a click-through rate that is 10 times higher than those associated with traditional display ads
72% of shoppers put items in a cart only to abandon it. Without retargeting, 92% of those shoppers never return to finalize their purchase.
Retargeting works by using cookie-based technology. As shoppers visit various websites, Javascript code follows them around anonymously and keeps track of their online behaviors, including the sites they visit, products they click on, items they put in a shopping cart, etc.
If you want to take advantage of retargeting ads, you’ll need to place a piece of code (don’t worry, it’s very unobtrusive) on your website. Much of the time this code is called a pixel. It’s unnoticeable to those visiting your site and in no way impacts the performance of your site.
When a new person lands on your site, regardless of the page, the pixel drops an anonymous cookie into the visitor’s browser. From there, as the visitor leaves your site and visits others, your retargeting provider will use intelligent software to serve ads that lead the person back to your brand/website. Your ads are only shown to those who have shown an interest in your brand by previously visiting your site.
Retargeting is the ultimate form of targeting your target audience.
The key benefit to video ad retargeting ad is the ability to focus your ad spending on consumers who have already shown an interest in your brand. When compared to other forms of online marketing, 91% of marketers find it more effective. (4) In fact, more than 70% of marketers spend up to half of their entire online advertising funds on retargeting.
Video ad retargeting other benefits, too. Some marketers (70%) use it specifically for increasing brand awareness. Others tap into it for enhanced social engagement (60%) and better customer retention (58%).
Although retargeting performs well as a standalone tactic, it tends to perform much better when integrated with a refined and larger online digital strategy. More specifically, when used alongside inbound and outbound marketing strategies.
Content marketing is key to spreading brand awareness, but it does little to convert customers. This applies to the use of AdWords and targeted display methods, as well. Retargeting on the other hand, while it can increase conversions, doesn’t specifically work to drive visitors to your website.
When you combine inbound marketing with retargeting, you form a powerhouse marketing strategy that boosts both conversions and site traffic.
What Is List-Based Video Ad Retargeting?
List-based video ad retargeting is a bit different from the pixel-based retargeting that we discussed above. This method of retargeting tends to perform exceptionally well on social media platforms. You’ll upload a list of contacts, including their email addresses. You then target your ads toward people on various social media platforms who have profiles with matching emails.
It’s somewhat surprising that list-based retargeting isn’t as popular as pixel-based. With list-based retargeting, your ads are highly customizable and based solely on the customer behaviors. Plus, you get to decide which contacts go on which list, meaning you have full control over the ads being shown to them.
The downside to this type of retargeting is you need email addresses from your prospective customers. If the email they give you is different from the one they are using with the social media platform, then you’re essentially targeting a ghost. Also, because you have to collect and organize email addresses according to the ads you want each person to see, list-based retargeting is time-consuming. It requires ongoing refinement to work well.
Are There Tools for Video Ad Retargeting?
Once you decide to incorporate video ad retargeting into your online marketing agenda, you’ll need to choose which tools you’re going to use. And just to be honest, there are tons to choose from. First, you’ll need to decide whether you’re going to do web or social retargeting, or perhaps both. You may want to consider using social media-based retargeting tools provided by the actual platforms. Facebook has an amazing retargeting ad tool to take advantage of. (5)
Don’t want to tackle retargeting on your own? We don’t blame you. It can be a bit confusing at first. Partner with us and we can show you what a remarkable retargeting video ad campaign looks like, and even better, we can build one that’s customized for your brand.
Sources:
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https://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2013/11/20/15_Stats_Retargeting.html#gs.uaVCvpI
https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Online-Buyers-Notice-Retargeted-Ads/1010122
https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2014/09/infographic-retargeting-advertising-statistics.html
https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/US_AdRoll_State_of_the_Industry.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-ads-pixel
