Ad retargeting campaigns can generate amazing results.
You might have tried different ad images…with no noticeable increase in conversions.
But you’re not alone. There are many things you can do to make things work better for you.
If you’re not getting the results you are hoping for, then this article is written for you.
You’re on the right track if you’re testing ad images
Testing different images is so important but many advertisers don’t pay enough attention and give enough resources — because truthfully, coming up with new ad images is time consuming.
However, simply testing ad images alone will not yield the results you are looking for either. You need to involve strategic thought process into your ad images.
What does that mean?
Whatever ad images you put in front of your audience must be relevant to their experience.
By taking into consideration your shoppers behavior, timing, budget, demographic, etc., and incorporating those into your ad images you will increase your success rate, conversions and drive more sales.
With that in mind, here are 6 strategic ways to use ad images in your ad retargeting campaigns.
#1: Use featured and recognizable landmarks for local audiences
A good way to command the attention of local audience is to use a familiar and recognizable landmark.
Familiarity instills comfort and trust — and it connects with the local audience more effectively than a random stock image.
What ad would you pay more attention to? An ad with a generic stock photo or one with a landmark you recognize from your local area?
The answer is obvious. Of course you would click on the ad that you resonate with — hence the image with a recognizable feature.
There are so many businesses still missing out on the opportunity to put in the extra effort in their retargeting ad images.
You cannot afford to be complacent when it comes to retargeting campaigns. You’ve already paying for every visitor click to your website. Retargeting is one of the most powerful and effective ways to drive a return on your ad spend.
#2: Include your value proposition in the ad image
If you’re offering a discount or cost savings, show it in your ad image. Showing and telling your audience what they will save is a great way to get their attention.
Remember, these are people who have already been to your website, viewed your products or services, but just haven’t purchased.
Your value proposition could be in the form of any of these:
- discounts
- offers
- customer testimonials
- reviews
- certifications
- before and after
By using the most relevant value proposition in your retargeting ad image, you will dramatically increase your engagement, traffic, and sales.
Familiarity is powerful. Use it to your advantage.
#3: Use images that appeal to your audiences emotions
This tactic has been used since the dawn of advertising.
Appealing to your audience’s emotions can work in practically any marketing medium you can think of — whether it’s print, digital, or audio — it’s time-tested and used by brands across all industries.
Translate your emotional connection into your ad images:
- how will your product or service make their lives better
- what will they miss out on if they didn’t buy from you
- who in their demographic has benefited from your product or service
The image you use is important to draw your audience into your website, app, webinar, download your case study, whatever it is.
#4: Rotate your ad images to prevent fatigue
Anybody will get tired of seeing the same ad over and over again.
When I see the same retargeting ad images repeatedly, I visually ignore it because it simply doesn’t offer anything exciting or new.
The best way to maximize your retargeting campaign is to rotate your ad images to serve your audience fresh creatives.
You can do this by:
- changing the entire ad altogether (images, ad copy, offer)
- change your ad image
- try a different ad copy
Ad rotation lets you test different creatives and measure your audiences feedback to your ads.
Truth of the matter is your ad image will not appeal to everyone. By rotating your ads, you will find out methodically, what visuals work better for some than others.
#5: Target specific locations for your brick-and-mortar business
If you’re running retargeting ads and to serve a local community, consider narrowing your target audience.
Audience segmentation will be your best friend here. By creating specific audience sets, you can drive relevant visitors to your business with relevant ad images.
For example, if you have an food catering business, running retargeting to everybody who visited your website may not be as effective. Especially if your website has a blog and it’s getting traffic from all around the country.
But if you specified, in your retargeting ad image, target specific audience segment around the areas that you serve, you will get better engagement, more relevant traffic, and convert more visitors.
Geo-targeted retargeting ad images will drive the results you are looking for without wasting advertising money on irrelevant traffic.
#6: Add a Call-to-Action in the ad images
The good news about retargeting is that you are putting your product or service in front of people who’ve already considered your brand.
Shoppers have very short attention span. Why? Because there are many competitors targeting them as well. So you need to give them a clear and straight forward call-to-action.
When people scroll through their social feeds or website they’re on, ad copy is often missed — especially when it is not designed well in the ad image.
Additionally, make sure your CTA buttons are obvious and contrasts with the rest of your images in the ad.
This is your opportunity to get someone to click back to your website to complete their purchase.
Pro tip: Too many people will use CTAs like “Shop Now,” or “Buy Now.”
These are your standard CTAs. They are OK to use but it’s boring – right?
Try something more relevant to what you are selling. If you are in the catering business, you might try something like “Book Your Event Today.”
If you are selling women’s clothing, your CTA can be “Shop This Look.”
You can the idea. Optimize your CTA — use words and phrases that tell your customers what they’re doing. Don’t be boring! Shopping should be fun!
#7: Use contrasting color schemes to highlight your ad image
We’ve all seen them at least once in our lifetime.
I am referring to the image ads that make your go blind — the ones with no sense of color coordination.
After testing thousands of ad images, we found contrasting color schemes outperform the rest.
It’s a no brainer for most of you. But you would be surprised how many businesses ignore this simple tactic.
However, don’t get obsessed about colors — what I want you to focus on is using colors to make your CTA stand out — or “pop” as the creative guys call it.
This is why I love digital marketing. If your color scheme doesn’t get you the results you want, you can change it right away — and the best part, it is all data-driven. Viva la analytics!
#8: Show results in your ad image
It’s great to see an add with a value proposition.
But the ad images that work really well are the ones that include results your customers are getting from your product or service.
There’s no limit on how creative you can get in showing results in your ad images.
A few effective results-driven ads are:
- customer testimonial videos
- increase in sales
- WOW factor (whatever it is in your industry)
Remember, my friends, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Everybody likes to be WOWed and see what you can do for them.
#9: Highlight certifications to build trust with your audience
The internet is flooded with so many self proclaimed “gurus” and experts these days.
It’s an entire project in itself just to sift through everything.
So, the tip is this. While everyone can claim to be the best, only the ones who are truly legit will have badges and certifications.
Many of these certifications take a long time to be awarded — so use them to your advantage.
I have walked into many clients’ offices and seen rows of awards and certifications hanging on their office walls. But none of those make it to their ad images. That’s one of the best way to gain authority and build trust.
#10: Consider retargeting with video ads
Video is all the rage right now. And it will be relevant for many years to come. As social media plays a larger role in your customers’ digital ecosystem, video cannot be ignored.
Retargeting ad images are effective when executed with high relevance. Video on the other hand, can supercharge your retargeting campaign when added to the mix.
Video ads take a lot of time.
But that’s the point. Don’t be afraid of putting in the effort to create retargeting video ads to test.
Pro tip: most of your competitors are not doing videos because of this exact reason — they are not willing to allocate time to it.
My friends, in marketing, you don’t need to produce the highest 4k quality video, or the most scripted video. Don’t try to be perfect — you’ll never be.
You just need do it better than the other guys. That’s the real “secret sauce.” If nobody in your industry is doing retargeting video ads, then you should be doing it.
If some are doing it, then study theirs and make yours better.
#11: Sequence your ad images to tell your story and build trust
This is a big one.
9 out of 10 prospects I talk to want the sale right away.
But there’s nothing to back it up. What do I mean? Before someone buys from you, they need to know who you are. What your brand is about. What makes you different or better than the others.
How can your product or service make their life or business better.
Selling should be the last thing on your mind. Not because I don’t want to see you drive sales — that’s important.
But it is business critical for your audience to continue to learn about your business, build that relationship and trust, then the selling comes naturally.
Here’s a framework that you can use for your retargeting ad images. Keeping in mind these are already people who have visited your website at least one time.
So here’s the 3-step retargeting framework:
#1. Reinforce – your visitors may or may not remember your website. It’s a good idea to remind them of who you are and what you do. Your reinforcement ad image should focus on your brand message, value proposition, etc. That’s it.
#2. Engage – ads in this step should drive desired actions from your visitors; comments, clicks, likes, watch video, shares, etc. These engagement actions will help you drive your visitors further into your MOFU from your TOFU.
#3. Convert – this is your BOFU! aka bottom of the funnel visitors. This is time to bring out the big guns. Your ads with customer testimonials, before-and-after results, sales increase, and your strong CTA. This is where it all comes together for you.
There you have it. You were probably expecting something more complex. I am simplifying the steps, you still need to spend time coming up with your ad image layout, design, colors, etc.
But you get the gist.
#12: Color speaks louder than words
Colors have meaning. It can invoke emotions and reactions.
Careful use of colors for your ad image can influence your visitor to take action right away by driving urgency or not.
There are two schools of thought here. Some marketers will say the color of your theme and CTA doesn’t matter if you have the right offer, etc.
Other marketers will stand behind the impact of using the right colors to invoke the desired reaction.
What do I think?
As marketers, we have to implement what make sense to the overall color theme of our ad image.
Color does matter a lot. But to say one color works better than another is simply a farce.
A red CTA may work for one site but not the other. There’s simply no universal color for CTAs.
Conclusion
Here’s a color guide for many of the top brands you know. You will find that their choice of colors carry the intent of their brand.
But the CTA on their site may not always follow this scheme.
It’s all about the relevance, placement, and contrast of your colors in your CTA. Experiment, test, and try different combinations in your retargeting ad images until you find one that works for you.
