Retargeting via Facebook Ads

I find myself pointing to this proverb when thinking about the idea of remarketing/retargeting and how I can apply it to my business.

Birds of a feather flock together

In a world of information overload, where consumers are found to have only an 8-second attention span, it makes sense to focus on those that are more likely to convert. Instead of casting a wide net of ads out to reach a huge audience, you target a specific group of people who share the same interests and behaviors as your ideal customers.

When I first started my business, I never thought of including any sort of paid advertising into the marketing fix, and I still feel that way. This is because I am a believer that growth doesn’t come from lavish ad campaigns but from organic searches online or word-of-mouth offline. With advertising, you may be able to lure people in with the promise of discounts or a “free lunch”, so to speak, but ultimately you are training them to buy from you only when there are incentives.

I was also under the misconception that you used Facebook to buy “cheap” likes, which doesn’t necessarily help your business grow in the long run. However, my misconception was shattered after last week’s class on Facebook’s targeting capabilities. And now I’m steering toward a different direction in terms of using Facebook for my business.

The advantage as I see retargeting/remarketing is an implication of the 80-20 rule—80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your existing customers. It’s also analogous to the idea of a win-back program for an email campaign. You offer customers who haven’t bought from you in a while a special discount in hopes for their return. Like this email I’ve found from Starbucks below:

Image source

With the goal of driving traffic and acquiring new customers in mind, here are some potential Facebook retargeting opportunities for my business:

Retargeting existing customers :

1. For customers who reach the check out page but didn’t complete transaction, we can target them by offering free shipping or discounts to offset the shipping cost.
2. Target existing email subscribers who opened our newsletter but didn’t click through to our site.
3. Upsell/cross-sell existing customers with new products.

Retargeting people who have visited our website:

1. For people who have visited a specific product page but dropped off at the add to cart page, we can target them with information on first-time customer discount to entice purchase, e.g., 15% off discount on first purchase if sign up for our newsletter.
2. Target people who searched for a specific topic on our site but left as a result of not being able to find what they were looking for.

Retargeting lookalike customers:

1. Target people who share similar interests and lifestyles as our ideal customers.
2. Target people who buy from our competitors.