Capture Lost Leads with an Introduction to Retargeting

A potential customer stumbles on your website.

…and then they stumble away. Never to be seen again.

A potential customer vanished with a click of the mouse. Lost to a link that took them off site, or even the back button.

Back into cyberspace they go. Perhaps they never end up buying what they were looking for, or worse, they fall into the arms of your competitor.

That’s where retargeting comes in.

Instead of letting all those potential customers just slip through your fingers, grab them again when your brand and your offering is at the top of their minds.

Retargeting is a cookie-based technology that originally had its start in B2C marketing. It features ads that remind your customers that they just visited your website.

If someone comes to your website and doesn’t answer your CTA, then they are a candidate for retargeting.

While retargeting has been slow to get adopted in B2B, it has been used for years in B2C. It is easy to see why it’s so effective for B2C, seeing as the process between brand exposure and conversion is so much shorter.

But now retargeting has been retooled for the longer sales cycles of B2B.

How?
 

There are several ways that you could go about segmenting your retargeting audiences, but one of the easiest is to separate your efforts based on where a lead is in the buying process.

How you treat each of these groups makes a significant different in how well they respond to your retargeting efforts.

Top-of-Funnel

These are the people who might have had their first exposure to your brand in this interaction. They are interested in your content and some may never progress beyond that stage. Drive them towards becoming an actual lead in your system. Offer them a free ebook in exchange for their contact information. That way, instead of getting lost in cyberspace, the leads will remain in content with your brand.

Middle-of-Funnel

These are those who might look at product pages, but aren’t doing so in any serious manner. They know the industry and have been idly looking at your product. Retargeting this group can be done through whatever channels you may have to contact them. Think display ads and sponsored social content on top of traditional favorites like email. This pushes them closer to the bottom of the funnel while also aiming to establish credibility and get leads to trust your brand.

End-of-Funnel

These are those who are nearing the end of your funnel. They are thinking about purchasing soon, you can tell by their visits to your product pages. Any messages you feed them through retargeting should be pushing them towards the sale. In some cases that might mean comparing software features in a white paper or even offering them a free demo. Retargeting here is focused at getting the lead to the sale.
 

Now that you know who to retarget, it’s time to talk about the technologies that will enable you to do so:

Facebook

Facebook ads are one of the most common and arguably one of the most effective retargeting platforms.

After all, 58% of Americans are on Facebook and 30% of ad impressions are from Facebook.

Your ads will show up in and beside their news feeds, reminding them of your brand and increasing their chances of coming back to your website.

Twitter

A simple solution to your retargeting woes, Twitter now offers a option to retarget anyone on your website that does not convert. Twitter is still widely used in business and news contexts so it makes this tool a good choice for B2B.

AdRoll

By far one of the most commonly-used advertisers in the world, what makes AdRoll a top choice is its ability to advertise across channels. It offers Twitter Retargeting and Facebook Ads as well as integrating custom segments directly into the platform.

This is one of the most effective tools out there.

Google Adwords

There are a couple different options for those who want to use Google to retarget.

The first is AdWords, which offers simple but useful retargeting tools.

Then there is Google Analytics, which offers reporting and analytics functions. When linked with AdWords, it allows deeper segmentation than AdWords on its own. Together, the two make a powerful retargeting tool.

Proceed Slowly

Take caution when retargeting, as retargeting can often make users somewhat uncomfortable or annoyed.

Keep this to a minimum by keeping your content relevant and switching up the content often. Additionally, limit the time that your ads will run for each potential buyer. Don’t keep showing them ads, weeks and weeks after they’ve visited your website one time.
 

 
Do you use a retargeting tool? Is it effective? Let us know in the comments section.