🟣 Issue No. 16: The Ultimate guide to retargeting - how best in class brands get it right

In this issue, we cover why retargeting is crucial for making the most of your ad spend. It ensures you’re not wasting top-of-funnel traffic by helping you convert high-intent visitors into paying customers. Learn how to squeeze more value from your existing traffic and boost your ROAS with effective retargeting strategies.

Bottom line: Retargeting is the key to getting more out of every visitor.

Keep reading…

On the Pod 🎧

Lastest episodes:

• How NIFT Offers Consumer Brands A New Way to Acquire Customers at SCALE → Elery Pfeffer
  

• Turning Your eCommerce Operations into a Profit Center → Kunle Campbell

• How to Win this Q4 → Kunle Campbell

• How to Maximize Your eCommerce Marketing Efficiency with the PROFIT Framework → Kunle Campbell

• S9 EP54: Product Innovation Deep Dive: How to Develop a Best-Selling SKU → Kunle Campbell

• S9 EP53: The New Playbook for Scaling Health & Wellness eCommerce Brands in 2024 → Kunle Campbell

• S9 E52: From $10M → $20M: How Tiege Hanley Doubled Revenue While Staying Profitable → Kelley Thornton, CEO

• S9:E51: Ex-PepsiCo Strategist Unveils Brand Positioning Frameworks that Transform DTC Brands → Kathy Guzman

COMMERCE TIPS

The Ultimate Guide to Retargeting – How Best-in-Class Brands Get It Right

Most eCommerce teams are already running retargeting campaigns and know how crucial it is for driving conversions. However, the question is: are you using retargeting to its fullest potential? To truly capitalize on its power, you need a strategic approach that goes beyond the basics—tailoring your campaigns with dynamic ads, precise audience segmentation, and optimized budget allocation.

This guide will show you how best-in-class brands are refining their retargeting strategies to convert more high-intent visitors, improve return on ad spend (ROAS), and capture additional sales from every visit.

1. Retargeting 101: A Quick Refresher

What is Retargeting?
Retargeting is the strategy of showing personalized ads to users who’ve interacted with your website but haven’t yet converted. It’s a critical tool for turning high-intent visitors into customers by keeping your brand front and center.

Main Types of Retargeting:

• Site Retargeting: Serve ads based on specific user actions, like product page visits, cart adds, or checkout abandonment.

• Social Media Retargeting: Retarget users on platforms like Meta (Facebook/Instagram), Pinterest, TikTok, and Snap based on their previous interactions with your site.

• Dynamic Retargeting: Automatically display ads featuring the exact products a user viewed or added to their cart, delivering a personalized experience that increases conversion likelihood.

• Email Retargeting: Send triggered emails (e.g., abandoned cart recovery, browse abandonment) based on user behavior, offering a direct and personalized follow-up.

• Retargeting Video Views: Re-engage users who watched your video ads but didn’t convert. Be mindful, though—this can create a siloed funnel if not integrated with your broader retargeting strategy.

2. Feeding the Funnel: Why Top-of-Funnel Traffic is Essential for Retargeting

For retargeting to work effectively, you need to consistently fill the top of your funnel with new traffic. Retargeting thrives on data from users who have visited your site, engaged with your content, or interacted with your ads. Without fresh traffic, your retargeting audience becomes stagnant, limiting your ability to scale conversions.

Top-of-Funnel Sources:

• Influencer Collaborations & Shoutouts: One of the most effective ways to drive traffic is through influencers. Whether it’s through paid partnerships or organic shoutouts, influencers have highly engaged audiences. Brands like Gymshark and Fashion Nova have used influencer shoutouts to skyrocket traffic.

• Content, Content, Content:

  • Long-Form Video on YouTube: Educational or product-focused videos build trust and authority.

  • Short-Form Content on TikTok & Reels: These platforms are incredible traffic generators when you create snackable, shareable content. Viral TikToks or Reels can draw thousands of new visitors to your site.

• TV Features: If you’re lucky enough to get featured on a popular TV show or news segment, you’ll see a flood of traffic. A single appearance can create a massive spike in awareness and website visits.

• Celebrity Shoutouts: Nothing builds buzz faster than a well-placed celebrity endorsement. Even an organic shoutout from a well-known figure can generate a surge of top-of-funnel traffic.

• Communities: Leveraging online communities, forums, or niche social media groups can also drive relevant traffic to your site. Engaging directly in spaces where your target audience hangs out ensures you’re building rapport and trust.

• Offline Events, Sponsorships & Podcasts: Attending or sponsoring events, securing podcast sponsorships, or speaking at conferences are powerful traffic sources. For example, AG1 effectively used podcast sponsorships as a top-of-funnel driver, then layered retargeting ads to convert that traffic.

Why This Matters:
To maximize the power of retargeting, you need a steady flow of new visitors to engage with. The trick is finding the unique top-of-funnel formula that works for your brand—whether it’s influencers, content, TV, or podcasts.

💡 Pro Tip: Build & Retarget with Lookalike Audiences
Lookalikes are incredibly powerful, especially once you’re generating enough traffic and data. By creating lookalike audiences from your highest-converting customers or email lists, you can extend your reach to people who share similar characteristics. While pixels are great for tracking, email capture is invaluable. It not only gives you direct access to your audience but also helps you build stronger lookalikes since email is a reliable, first-party data source.

3. Retargeting Strategy Breakdown: How Best-in-Class Brands Do It

1. Dynamic Product Ads: Conversion Powerhouses
Smaller, fast-growing brands like Chubbies and Blenders Eyewear use dynamic product ads to show users the exact items they browsed or added to their cart. These personalized ads are highly effective in driving conversions.

• Why It Works: Dynamic ads are hyper-relevant and personalized, which significantly increases the likelihood of re-engagement and purchase.

2. Sequential Retargeting: Moving Customers Down the Funnel
Instead of showing users the same ad repeatedly, top brands like Gymshark use sequential retargeting to gradually move users through the funnel. For instance, starting with brand awareness messaging, then progressing to product-specific ads as the user becomes more likely to convert.

• Pro Tip: Tailor your messaging based on where the user is in the funnel (e.g., first-time visitor vs. cart abandoner).

3. Cross-Platform Retargeting
Brands that excel in retargeting don’t limit their ads to one platform. Instead, they use a multi-channel approach to retarget across Facebook, Instagram, Google, and other platforms, keeping their brand top of mind.

• Why It Works: Cross-platform retargeting increases your touchpoints with potential buyers, ensuring you’re engaging them across different contexts without oversaturating a single channel.

4. The Perfect Ad Budget Mix: Prospecting vs. Retargeting

Finding the Right Balance
A common budget split for eCommerce brands is 20-30% for retargeting and 70-80% for prospecting. However, brands that excel in retargeting often shift more budget—up to 40-50%—toward retargeting during key periods when they’ve already built up substantial top-of-funnel traffic.

• Why Retargeting Often Outperforms Prospecting: Retargeting focuses on high-intent visitors who’ve already shown interest in your brand, making these campaigns far more cost-efficient than prospecting cold audiences.

Q4 Mention
As November approaches, many brands shift even more budget toward retargeting to capitalize on the traffic built up earlier in the year. This strategy pays off especially well during high-conversion periods like Black Friday.

5. The Tech Stack Behind Effective Retargeting

Pixels: The Backbone of Retargeting
All major platforms—Meta (Facebook/Instagram), Google Ads, Pinterest, and Snap—use pixel tracking to monitor visitor behavior on your site. Properly implemented pixels allow you to create custom audiences based on actions like viewing products, adding items to a cart, or completing a purchase.

Meta Ads Manager
Meta’s Ads Manager enables you to create custom audiences, run dynamic ads, and extend your reach with lookalike audiences—all based on the data collected from your pixel.

Google Ads & Display Network
Google’s retargeting tools allow you to show dynamic ads across millions of websites and YouTube. This expands your reach while ensuring your ads feature the exact products users engaged with.

Third-Party Tools
Platforms like AdRoll and Criteo help streamline retargeting across multiple channels. These tools offer advanced segmentation, creative optimization, and consolidated reporting, making them ideal for scaling retargeting efforts.

CRM for Email Retargeting
CRMs like Klaviyo or HubSpot allow you to automate personalized email flows, such as abandoned cart recovery or browse abandonment, to nurture prospects and drive them back to your site.

6. Creative Best Practices for High-Performing Retargeting Ads

Tailor Your Messaging
Top-performing brands customize their retargeting messages based on audience intent. For example, offer a limited-time discount or free shipping to cart abandoners, while using social proof or customer reviews to build trust with first-time visitors.

Strong Visual Consistency
Your retargeting ads should reflect your overall brand identity while standing out enough to capture attention. Brands like Allbirds use clean, minimalist designs that reinforce brand recognition across platforms.

Test & Iterate
Continuously A/B test different creatives, ad formats, and CTAs to optimize performance. For instance, compare carousel ads with single-image ads or video ads with static images to see what drives the best results for your audience.

Conclusion: How to Make Retargeting Work for You

Retargeting is a powerful tool for converting high-intent visitors, especially when you leverage dynamic ads, personalized messaging, and cross-platform strategies. However, its success is highly dependent on keeping your top-of-funnel healthy with new traffic. Without a constant influx of new visitors, your retargeting efforts will lose steam.

Final Thought:
Now is the perfect time to audit your retargeting setup. Ensure your pixels are firing correctly, refine your ad creatives, and strike the right balance between prospecting and retargeting to maximize the value of every visitor.

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