Imagine you work in a brick-and-mortar store. A customer stops in and starts looking around. Something catches their eye, and they’re so interested that they come up to you at the cash register.
They set their item down in front of you. Then, just as they’re pulling out their card to pay…they turn around and walk out.
This is too awkward to happen in person very frequently. But online, abandoning a cart is common.
How do you make those online customers do a virtual double-take?
Simple: Facebook retargeting ads.
Why you need retargeting ads
Old-school marketers often cite the classic “Rule of 7,” which states that a possible customer must get an impression of your brand at least seven times before making a purchase. Retargeting ads give you a way to keep grabbing the attention of a possible customer, increasing the likelihood that they’ll complete a purchase.
What Facebook retargeting ads actually are
Facebook retargeting ads are the ads that seem to “follow” you around the web. They’re dynamic ads, as Facebook likes to call them, because they change to fit the consumer they retarget.
How they work
On your website, you should have a Facebook pixel installed (I’ll expand on this in a bit). The pixel records which consumers look at which products. Then, Facebook shows those consumers the corresponding ads as they browse the Internet.
Who they work for
If you sell products – whether virtual or physical – you can make retargeting ads work for you. Instead of pushing a regular, single-image ad and hoping it finds the right people, you can specifically target potential customers who were already getting to know your brand.
Basically, retargeting ads can work for anyone in any niche.
1. Lay the foundation
To set up a retargeting campaign, you need two things:
- Facebook Pixel installed on your site
- A Facebook catalog
Here’s what they are and how they work.
Facebook pixel
A pixel is a piece of code on your site that allows Facebook to track site visitors and their actions. This is how Facebook knows who to retarget with your dynamic ads.
See Facebook’s thorough guide to setting up your pixel here.
Facebook catalog
On Facebook, a catalog stores data about all the products you want to advertise with dynamic ads. It allows retargeting ads to match the right products to the right users.
Click here for Facebook’s guide to setting up a catalog.
2. Choose your audience
You can pick from several different types of audiences for your retargeting campaign.
Here are the audiences you can choose and some pointers on developing their corresponding ads:
Viewed or added to cart but not purchased
Remember the scenario I introduced at the beginning? This is the remedy for the online version of that scenario. Show products to users who either viewed or added an item to their cart but didn’t check out.
For these ads, you can focus on showing potential buyers the product they abandoned in their cart or similar items they may be interested in. Carousel ads are great for this.
Example: Someone viewed the product page of one of your handmade purses, but she didn’t add it to her cart. Your dynamic ad shows her the product again while she’s browsing her Instagram feed, and she reconsiders adding them to the cart.
Added to cart but not purchased
This is like the first audience type, but it only targets those who actually put an item in their cart. Those who viewed an item but didn’t add it won’t be part of this audience.
These ads should focus on reminding potential buyers about the product(s) they abandoned. They were obviously already interested, so give them a nudge by showing them the product again.
Example: Someone added a few books to her cart on your website but didn’t follow through with the purchase. Now, you can show her dynamic ads that remind her of the books she had in her cart.
Upsell products
Think someone who bought a particular product may be interested in something a little more expensive? Use a retargeting ad to upsell.
For these ads, rely on the fact that consumers are already familiar with your brand. Remind them of the value they already gained and enforce the idea that another purchase will bring them even more value.
Example: Someone recently purchased your introductory eBook. Now, he sees dynamic ads that advertise your higher-value online course. He checks it out and considers making the more expensive purchase, because he already has interest in your brand.
Cross-sell products
Similarly, viewers of a product may be interested in a different but related product. Retargeting ads help you introduce these related products to an audience that already recognizes your brand.
Cross-sell ads should emphasize the added value that the related product will give to the potential customer.
Example: Someone recently purchased your curated spice collection for their kitchen, so you already know he’s cooking something! He now sees dynamic ads for your custom cookware sets as he searches for recipe blogs online. Since the items are related and he trusts your brand, he considers buying.
Custom combination
Using a custom combination audience lets you get even more granular with how you target users. You can set time limits and be extra-specific with how a targeted user interacted with your site.
The design of these ads will vary widely depending on the audience. Use some of the examples above to get some ideas about which other audience your combination audience is like.
Example: A potential customer added one of your baby blankets to her cart a few months ago. She didn’t make a purchase. You set up a retargeting campaign to display dynamic ads to site users who viewed products 90 days ago or earlier. Since she falls into this category, the user sees the blanket again and reconsiders buying it, even though she hasn’t thought of your brand in a while.
Advanced audiences
Facebook also gives you the option to use custom audiences and lookalike audiences. This means you can upload email lists of current customers (a custom audience) or let Facebook choose users that are similar to your current customers (a lookalike audience).
After you’ve played around with some of the other audiences, give these advanced options a try. If you set them up well, they could be even more effective.
3. Test and refine for maximum conversion
Whenever I tell other marketers to keep testing, I know I sound like a broken record. But seriously, it’s the only way to find out if what you’re doing is actually working.
Plus, you can design retargeting ads in an infinite number of ways. Use single images, carousels, videos, news feed links…anything, really. I guarantee you will never run out of things to test.
Stick to what the analytics tell you about click-through rates and impressions. Let the data steer your campaign decisions, and it will be hard to go wrong with Facebook retargeting ads.
