Alexis Kestler
My friend, as a digital marketing analyst with over 10 years of experience running retargeting campaigns, I cannot stress enough the value of remarketing for boosting brand awareness and conversions. The data clearly shows that basic display advertising or organic reach leaves most website traffic uncaptured. But strategic remarketing helps us re-engage lost visitors to increase sales. Please allow me to elaborate further.
Retargeting’s Massive Missed Opportunity
Let’s examine retargeting through the lens of a typical ecommerce site. According to metrics across thousands of online stores, the average website conversion rate is only 2-3%. That means a shocking 97-98% of traffic disappears without making a purchase as shown below:
| Website Visitors | 100 |
| Purchase Conversions | 2-3 visitors (on average) |
| Lost Visitors | 97-98 visitors (on average) |
This analysis mirrors my personal experience managing campaigns across various online retailers. Now 97-98 visitors disappearing forever seems hugely detrimental on the surface. But here lies the opportunity to recapture much of that lost traffic through retargeting.
Retargeting’s Proven Business Impact
Let me reference a 2020 study conducted by Barilliance examining millions of shopping carts across 1500+ ecommerce sites. They found that by leveraging retargeting, brands could recover 24.86% of abandoned carts on average.
Factoring in this 24.86% recovery rate against a standard 2% baseline conversion rate amplifies overall sales as follows:
| Website Visitors | 100 |
| Original Conversions | 2 visitors |
| Abandoned Carts | 98 visitors |
| Carts Recovered via Retargeting (@24.86%) | 24 visitors |
| Total Conversions | 26 visitors |
Expanding beyond cart abandonment, retargeting allows us to re-engage all types of site visitors including:
- Product page viewers
- Blog subscribers
- App users
- Promotion redeemers
- And more
Intelligently designed remarketing campaigns make sure to not over-target customers or present irrelevant information. But they do provide timely, personalized messaging matching individual interests and behaviors.
Over 10+ years managing digital advertising initiatives, I’ve continually witnessed firsthand how dialing in thoughtful retargeting strategies pays off. When done right, you build meaningful customer connections that bolster brand loyalty and community.
Now let’s explore how leading platforms and ad networks enable successful remarketing execution.
Sophisticated Self-Optimizing Solutions
Mastery of any advertising channel involves an intricate balance of creative messaging, audience segmentation, bid strategies, budget allocation, performance analysis and campaign optimization.
The top enterprise-level choices like Adroll, Criteo and Sizmek excell by offering robust automation to simplify this complexity. Platforms handle the heavy lifting so that you can focus solely on big picture strategy.
For example, Adroll’s artificial intelligence self-tunes campaign parameters to meet specified cost and conversion goals. The system tests billions of combinations daily to determine optimal targeting, creatives, landing pages, placements, bidding and budgets. Hands-off machine learning beats any manual trial-and-error process.
Criteo similarly adapts everything from product recommendations to bid rates using predictive machine learning algorithms. Their spokesperson shared that AI-optimization often drives on average 20-30% higher campaign performance compared to manual best practices.
I always encourage clients to embrace self-optimizing solutions when available. Let the machines crunch the numbers so you can prioritize higher strategic impact.
When evaluating platforms, consider automation capabilities around:
- Audience Segmentation
- Customized Creatives
- Media Buying + Pricing
- Performance Analysis
- Multi-Channel Integration
Enterprise partners with mature capabilities like Adroll and Criteo provide ideal solutions here. Though for simpler needs, choices like ReTargeter and Meteora offer more basic yet still effective options.
No matter what route you choose, always be sure to track clear ROI metrics to quantify impact and unlock greater budget. Demonstrated performance leads to increased leadership buy-in and prioritization.
The Power of Cross-Network Reach
Now beyond core specialized remarketing platforms, it’s smart to augment efforts with major ad networks’ built-in tools as well. Expanding to platforms like Google, Facebook and more compounds your visibility.
Let’s examine Facebook’s audience scale to showcase the possibilities. Reports show that over 2.96 billion people actively use Facebook or one of its family of apps like Instagram each month. And they spend huge amounts of time consuming content daily across devices.
So once you install Facebook’s Pixel and identify lost website visitors, you gain access to an enormous qualified audience. Segmenting users by interests and behaviors via Custom Audiences then applying automated promotion strategies allows you to target exactly the right people to influence.
And Facebook‘s AI works behind the scenes to achieve specified cost and conversion benchmarks through ongoing optimization. This expands your brand impressions greatly without any added heavy lifting.
Twitter, Google and Instagram offer comparable built-in remarketing options to engage users beyond website visitors. Their unique audience reach and ad placements enhance multi-channel impact when combined thoughtfully with a platform like Sizmek or ReTargeter.
I always advise clients to diversify beyond a single partner or network. Cast a wide net by leveraging both specialized remarketing tools plus dominant ad channels. Orchestrating holistically amplifies brand lift and conversions attained.
Turning 97% Lost into Quantifiable Growth
I hope breaking down the numbers and possibilities inspires you to embrace retargeting, my friend. Too often brands pour tons of effort into lead generation then fail to nurture those in progress down the funnel.
When leveraged strategically, data-driven personalized remarketing enables you to re-activate up to 98% of site traffic that goes uncaptured. This means magnifying conversions without necessarily having to drive greater traffic volume. Optimizing for more value per visitor holds tremendous ROI potential.
Now if questions remain about how to build an effective approach for your business, I offer complimentary 30-minute consultations. Reach out anytime to strategize leveraging my digital advertising expertise.
The numbers don’t lie – executed intelligently, retargeting delivers fantastic returns. Let me know how I can help you turn more window shoppers into loyal customers. This guide merely scratches the surface of achieving true marketing impact.
