In today’s world of marketing automation, Internet users are getting ads thrown at them left and right, and there are definitely those out there who have said they think it's really freaky that they see advertisements for sites they recently viewed on another page. If you’ve ever done any online shopping, then you know what it’s like to feel like you’re being stalked by a creepy Internet ghost.
Whether or not you decided to buy the shoes, the sweater, or the laptop, something out there now knows you were thinking about buying something, and it won’t let you forget about it. Creepy, right? Maybe to the uninformed consumer, but to your business, it’s an effective marketing tool that just might bring an undecided shopper back to you for a sale.
Some believe this is an invasion of privacy, but most businesses believe it is a necessary marketing tactic. As a business, as long as you follow the retargeting/remarketing best practices below, you’re less likely to send your site visitors running scared from your ads that follow them around the Internet:
Retargeting Best Practices:
- Keep it simple. Don’t try to use all types of retargeting at once! You will definitely overwhelm your site visitors and potential customers, and you may lose some of your customers as well. Focus on what types of retargeting makes the most sense for your business, and stick to that.
- Impression caps are your friend! By setting up your retargeting campaign so that it automatically stops serving ads to customers after they’ve been exposed to a certain ad a certain amount of times. After a certain amount of exposure, if they haven’t bought it yet, they aren’t going to. Leave them alone.
- Make your site easy to navigate and easy to use. Make sure there are clear calls to action everywhere they need to be on your site, so if someone is interested in purchasing your products and services, there is no confusion as to how to do so. Hopefully, this will keep them from leaving in the first place.
- Vary the content and images in your ads. If you continue to show the exact same ad to the people you are serving retargeting ads to, they may get annoyed, or bored with your ads. Switch things up a little and show them a variety of what you can offer for the best results.
- Give visitors the opportunity to opt out of your ads. There’s nothing worse than feeling like your computer is being attacked and all you see are ads for a t-shirt that you clicked on to get a closer look. The more respectful you are of your potential customers, the more likely they are to respect your brand and consider purchasing your products and services when they’re ready.