Over the last decade, online shopping has grown exponentially, and consumers continue to get smarter. Savvy shoppers are known to scour several different sites for the best deals on holiday gifts. But how do you stay relevant in a sea of tabs?
To make sure you don’t get lost in the shuffle, we have five remarketing tips retailers can use to stay top of mind, drive shoppers back to their site, and capture more sales this holiday season.
Start Early
This may seem like a simple idea, but it may be one of the most important. Facebook, Google, and Bing all require a minimum number of users to be collected within an audience before they allow any ads to run. Without it, your remarketing campaign is finished before it ever gets off the ground.
If you’re looking to run remarketing ads, you should start your audience TODAY in order to capture as many qualified users as possible before big shopping days like Black Friday and the last Monday before Christmas.
Are you new to remarketing? Here are some resources on getting started and how to build basic remarketing audiences in Facebook, Google, and Bing.
Ask For More Information
During the holiday season, shoppers are more willing to provide their information than usual, and businesses need to be taking advantage of this opportunity.
Most websites only ask for an email upon sign up and stop gathering information about their users after that. If possible, try to entice users with special offer to open an account and begin collecting more data about who they are. Ask for information like birthday, hobbies, important dates, relationship status, parental status, brands affinities, or any other data that may be useful for your business.
Gathering consumer information can be difficult, but during the holidays customers are on the hunt for discounts. Having them create an account for additional offers is a great way to personalize your remarketing messages — and help secure the sale.
Target the Entire Marketing Funnel
Often, when there is a big influx of website traffic, marketers can become too focused on targeting one end of the marketing funnel. A lot of marketers would say to just target the bottom of the funnel since those shoppers are the closest to completing a transaction.
While any remarketing campaign worth its weight will target users who have added items to their cart, a complete campaign will target users at various stages of the funnel. Creating remarketing lists for engaged users who visit multiple pages or stay on the website for more than one minute is an excellent way to target users further up the funnel.
Targeting these visitors is an effective strategy for capturing shoppers who are still in the decision phase but need an extra nudge to make a purchase. When creating a remarketing plan make sure to include lists for users who are still in the consideration phase as well as customers who are right on the edge of making a purchase.
Create Ascending Offers
It’s standard practice to advertise a discount or incentive of some kind when remarketing to potential customers. Coming out of the gate with a substantial offer can help generate more sales but can hurt overall profitability. Conversely, offers that are too small make it difficult for websites to stand out among other retailers offering similar deals and products.
Creating an ascending order of offers for users over time is the best way to drive sales without leaving money on the table. When users first come to the website but don’t convert, you could start small by crafting your remarketing message to include an offer for free shipping.
If a user doesn’t convert after the initial small offer, move them into the next phase and offer a 10% – 15% discount, if the product margins are available. Finally, you could provide a flat dollar amount off a purchase as these offers generally provide shoppers with greater savings than a standard percentage off.
If users don’t buy after the final incentive, more than likely, they won’t be making a purchase. It’s safe to say that you can then remove them from the remarketing funnel. Creating a plan with ascending offers can help drive sales without giving away your best offers to users who may be ready to buy without any discounts.
Use Different Marketing Channels
The last tip for holiday remarketing is to remember to advertise on various marketing channels.
Most businesses have a few marketing channels that return the greatest benefit for their marketing efforts. However, there are a number of marketing avenues beyond just Email, Google, and Facebook.
Depending on the particular vertical there are niche websites that offer direct remarketing on their website. Marketing platforms like Redditt, eBay, Bing, and others that may not be as big as Google or Facebook, but they can still drive significant sales.
Showing ads outside of the main marketing channels can help brands stay top of mind when shoppers are doing research. Over the holiday season, traffic for these resource sites is notably higher, and it’s also the best time to try new marketing platforms.
Black Friday is just a few short weeks away, and now is the time to get your remarketing efforts in gear. By integrating these five tips into your remarketing strategy, you can help drive more long-term sales and build a marketing funnel full of customers for future use.