Facebook retargeting (AKA Facebook remarketing) is a form of marketing that involves using Facebook ads to re-target people who are already somewhat engaged with your brand. You do this by placing cookies on their computers to track what things they are viewing on your website.
For example, if someone spends a little bit of time on the checkout page of your website, with a specific product (or category of product) in their shopping cart, you can then subsequently show them that same product or a similar one.
This significantly increases their likelihood of buying. But even if they don’t buy, it can still have numerous benefits for your strategy in the long term.
Over the rest of this article, we’ll be taking a look at the reasons for this – the reasons that Facebook remarketing is so extremely beneficial for anyone who is looking to sell a product or grow their business online. And by understanding this, you’ll not only be fired up and raring to start Facebook remarketing, but you’ll also have a better understanding of how to use this incredible tool and turn it to your advantage.
Targeting
Targeting in advertising is one of the most important concepts to understand. It basically means showing your ads to the right people, rather than just as many people as possible. That means defining your ‘buyer persona’ who is most likely to buy from you and then showing them the ads.
To give an example, imagine that you have a wedding dress shop that is located in Santa Monica, USA. Chances are, that you want to show your products to women who are currently engaged, living in that area (seeing as you really need to try on a wedding dress before you buy one).
The dresses are quite expensive, so you probably want to aim at people with big disposable incomes. And they are all plus sizes. Plus they are Disney-themed.
So, if your ad is showing to skinny, broke, married men, who hate Disney, living in France… then you’re not going to get many purchases. And the money you spent on those ads is wasted.
That’s where targeting comes in: trying to market only to the right people. Problem is, that even an engaged, wealthy, woman, in Santa Monica, may not ensure you get a purchase. Some women might have their dresses made for them, inherit them from their Mothers, or perhaps not want a traditional wedding dress at all. That’s still wasted money. Or they may simply not have shared their relationship status with Facebook.
So instead, the best way to ensure you show your dresses to the right people, is to show them to people who are looking at wedding dresses. Better yet, show them to people looking at your wedding dresses!
Brand Engagement
One of the most important things when it comes to making a successful business online, is to create lots of brand engagement.
That means you want your audience regularly visiting your site, regularly buying things, regularly commenting and talking about you.
You want them to be constantly excited about your brand. The worst thing they could possibly do is to forget all about you, at which point they might not even notice your advertising.
But how do you ensure brand engagement stays high? This is where remarketing comes in: you can keep showing your ads to the same people. This way, even if they don’t buy from you, they will be ‘followed’ by your brand. They will watch your video on YouTube, read your blog post, then go on Facebook only to see an ad for one of your products.
If they don’t click the ad, then that display hasn’t cost you anything. But the fact is that you’re still in their mind, and they’re still more likely to buy from you the next time as a result.
Big businesses recognize the absolute crucial importance of this, which is why they are constantly showing their ads on TV – even though the conversion rate for something like toilet roll is miniscule!
The Power of the Customer List
There’s more than one type of Facebook remarketing. The other type that often gets overlooked is something called the customer list. This is a list of already established contacts that you have built somewhere other than on Facebook – perhaps by generating a mailing list for instance, or maybe through a registration form.
So, there are no cookies involved this time, but the basic concept is the same: you’re still reaching out to people once again who have already made some kind of contact with your brand and shown an interest.
And by doing this, you are still able to hopefully push them into clicking buy when previously they might have just been ‘window shopping’.
The customer list is extremely powerful though, because chances are that you have already been in discussion with them through the mailing list.
Chances are that engagement was high if they were willing to sign up in the first place! The issue is that a lot of people simply forget to check their mail, and that this is a far less multi-media platform.
So if someone signs up to your mailing list to get their free ebook (or what-have-you), then forgets all about you, Facebook gives you a way to wake them back up to your brand and remind them you exist – with a product very similar to the thing they had already shown an interest in! This gives you FAR greater value for your mailing list, by allowing you to reach them in a way that lets you use video, social commenting, big bold images… This can make a huge difference to the kind of interactions you see with that audience and is actually one of the biggest ‘secret weapons’ in the arsenal of any marketer.
Familiarity
Familiarity is another extremely beneficial reason to use remarketing that often goes overlooked.
Simply: using Facebook remarketing allows you to show ads for things people already have some familiarity with, and thereby to increase that familiarity further.
And this is the other reason companies are willing to spend so much on those TV and magazine ads that don’t convert. Think of it this way: if a stranger comes up to you and tries to sell you a computer you’ve never heard of for $1K, you will likely say no thanks and keep walking.
QUICKLY.
But if a friend or a boss comes up to you and offers you an Apple Mac computer for the same amount – you MAY consider it if you’re in the market for that kind of thing.
Simply: we put much more trust and confidence in things that we have some familiarity with. And it’s not just the fact that we know the reputation of iPads. It is literally the familiarity alone that makes such a big difference.
Did you know that one of the biggest hurdles Marvel had when marketing the film Ant Man, was the fact that people thought the name was silly?
But they found that the more they repeated the name, the less silly it sounded. After all, how is it really any sillier than ‘Bat Man’ or ‘Spider-Man’?
The same thing happens with your product. If someone sees it once on Facebook, they might think it’s nothing but a knock-off, or cheap piece of junk.
But the more they see it, the more it starts to establish itself in their minds – eventually, they will consider it to be ‘legitimate’ and be far more likely to buy it!
Receptivity
Receptivity is basically how well the person is going to receive your marketing message at any given time. It’s not just about the content of the message, or even the delivery: of equal importance is how well-timed that message is.
So, if you send someone an advert when they’re out partying with friends, chances are that they will simply ignore it and move on.
But if you send them that same advert when they’re at home in the evening feeling a little tired (which reduces our impulse control) then they are much more likely to buy.
This is how remarketing can help you to clinch a deal. They have already been looking at your product, so you know they’re interested. They might even have added it to their cart!
But if they then left the site, it might be because they were feeling a little frugal at that time – or literally because they got distracted, or didn’t want to get their wallet out in public.
So, if you remarket – show them the same product again at a time when they are feeling more receptive – then you might find that the planets align and you make the sale.
And if you can offer them a special deal or offer – one that is only available through this remarketing campaign – then you might sweeten that deal even more.
If they were already on the fence and now they have the option to get it for less only if they act quickly. Well, it’s hard to resist!
Facebook Remarketing can be a powerful tool to increase sales for your business. If you would like to learn how we can help, schedule a discovery call today.