Site retargeting is a display advertising technique used by marketers to display advertising to people who have previously visited their website. The marketer includes a pixel within their webpage which sets a cookie in the user's browser. That cookie allows the marketer to target the website visitor with advertising elsewhere on the internet using retargeting. A related technique used by retailers involves dynamic creative, which allows the marketer to customize the ad displayed to any site visitor, for example displaying a picture of a product the visitor was viewing earlier, but did not purchase. Site retargeting is now commonly considered a "standard practice" among digital marketers.

How Retargeting Campaigns Work

There are two main types of retargeting: pixel-based and list-based. The way each works is slightly different, and each has different advantages based on your campaign goals.

Pixel-Based Retargeting

Pixel-based retargeting is a way to re-display your material to any anonymous site visitor. This is probably the most common type of retargeting. When someone comes to your website, an unobtrusive piece of JavaScript (often referred to as a pixel) is placed on their browser — making their browser "cookie-d." When they leave your site to surf the web, that cookie notifies retargeting platforms to serve specific ads based on the specific pages they visited on your website. The advantage of pixel-based retargeting is that it is timely (they can be retargeted pretty immediately after leaving your site), specific to a particular page on your site, and behavior-based. Downsides to this method are that there is a lower volume of people in the campaign at any given moment in time since it's all based on how often people are coming to your website, viewing certain pages, and leaving. It also can be complicated or time-intensive to implement JavaScript on many website pages.

List-Based Retargeting

List-based retargeting works after you already have someone's contact information in your database. You can also use lists of your existing contacts for certain types of retargeting ads. To do this, upload a list of the email addresses to a retargeting campaign (usually on a social network like Facebook or Twitter), and the platform will identify users on that network who have those addresses and serve retargeting ads just to them. Though it's a little less common than pixel-based retargeting, list-based retargeting allows you to have highly customizable criteria for your ads because it's based on more than behavior — you're choosing who goes in which list. On the flip side, it's possible that a person in your list gave you one email address and the social network another — and in that case, they won't see your ads. Also keep in mind that because you are in charge of uploading and maintaining the list, list-based retargeting also is less automatic and timely than pixel-based retargeting. If you've ever heard of the term "retargeting," it's likely it was in comparison to remarketing. And while the two are often mistaken for each other, they do have differences. Let's talk about when you would use either.

Benefits of Retargeting

Retargeting is a valuable online marketing strategy for several reasons:

• It reminds customers of forgotten information: Whether generic or product-specific, retargeting ads put your business back in front of customers, reminding them of the brand's value or the appeal of specific products or services.
• It boosts return visits to your website: Research has shown that retargeting increases the likelihood that a customer will revisit a business website even when the ad itself has no more information than the customer gained from their initial visit.
• It can increase sales and revenues: Every return visit provides another opportunity to sell and bring in revenue.
• It can help you win over the competition: Retargeting reduces the reach of competitors' ads by serving your firm's ads on external websites.

Types of Retargeting

Retargeted strategies can be classified as follows:

• Generic retargeting: With this type of retargeting, customers are shown generic brand ads when browsing external websites. For example, if you run a travel agency, the ad network might serve general ads for your brand featuring an image of a travel agent or vacation-related imagery.
• Dynamic retargeting: Firms can also use retargeting to display product-specific ads relevant to an earlier product or service a customer earlier browsed on the firm's website. Going back to the travel agency example, the customer might see ads for a current discount on flights to a certain location.

Retargeting Ad Goals

Now that we have the background for how retargeting works and the different types of audiences you can segment by, we can focus on goals. The main types of retargeting campaigns you should consider running are those for awareness and those for conversion.

To generate awareness.

Awareness campaigns are useful when you want to re-engage website visitors and tell them about relevant products, features, or announcements. These ads are usually served to pixel-based lists. The obvious drawback to awareness campaigns is that you're serving less targeted content to people who haven't engaged heavily with your brand. They're not in your contacts database, and often, there are lower expected clickthrough rates than other types of campaigns. However, since the goal is to make prospects aware of your business, impressions and engagement are acceptable metrics to track. Often awareness campaigns are precursors to a much more effective campaign goal: conversions.

To drive conversions.

Conversion goals are just that — you want to get people to click on your ad and take a next step, such as filling out a landing page form. Conversion campaigns are best used to align a specific list with a clear next step in the flywheel, and can be measured with typical conversion metrics like website clicks, form submission, and cost-per-lead (CPL). The best thing about a conversion campaign is that you can use it for multiple parts of the flywheel. Pixel-based ads, for instance, generate leads and will direct people to landing pages where they can give over their information. List-based ads better qualify those leads. Ads will appear to contacts who gave you limited information and lead them to longer forms with additional fields.

To complete the buyer's journey.

Additionally, retargeting can be used to move qualified leads to complete the buyer's journey cycle. For example, you might use retargeting to send a list of contacts that have downloaded an ebook an invite to sign up for a free trial of your product. When they see how your tool can help them meet their goals, they may be inspired to become a paying customer.

To increase customer lifetime value (CLTV).

Customer lifetime value is the amount of money you can expect from a single customer throughout their entire relationship with your business. When using retargeting, customers are reminded of your brand and encouraged to continue making purchases. The more purchases they make, the higher their CLTV.

To reduce cart abandonment.

Cart abandonment is when a customer places something in their shopping cart in your online store, but leaves your website instead of checking out and making a payment. Retargeting can help you recover these customers that have abandoned their carts and serve as a reminder that the item they were interested in is still available and ready for purchase.

To introduce new products.

When you know that customers have visited your website, made a purchase, or shown general interest in your business, retargeting helps you share new products with them that align with their interests. When they see your ads, you can lead them directly back to your site to discover your new product and entice them to follow through with a purchase. Regardless of your goal, it is important to align the positioning, creative, and next step in the conversion process — whether that's an offer landing page, site page, or request for more information — with your audience list. List-based retargeting can have low match rates (users synced with accounts on each platform, usually by email address), so make sure you're fueling your retargeting activities with inbound content.

Retargeting Platform and Tools

Truthfully, you've got quite a few options for actually implementing your retargeting. Specific platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn offer native tools, and there are also tons of third-party platforms to do web and social retargeting, and we’ll recommend some below.

SharpSpring Ads

SharpSpring Ads, formerly Perfect Audience, is a retargeting tool that allows you to create dynamic retargeting ads and display them in newsfeeds, websites, and social media platforms for your audience members to see. You can measure the impact of your campaigns to ensure you’re on the right track, and use their powerful analytics to get up-to-date information on click through rate (CTR), revenue, and conversions.

AdRoll

AdRoll uses 10+ years of consumer data and behavior to help you create retargeting ads that are effective, relevant, and shown to your audience on the platforms they frequently use. If you’re a HubSpot user, AdRoll can integrate with Marketing Hub, helping you easily sync your existing contacts and create a list of targetable audience members.

ReTargeter

ReTargeter helps you create campaigns that are customized to your individual business needs and will help you stand out from your competitors. With this high-quality tool, you’ll be able to keep your business top of mind with your audience, wherever they spend time online.

Criterio

Criterio helps you retarget your audience through contextual retargeting, where they use commerce data from your existing customers to understand which channels have been successful in inspiring purchases in the past. Your ads are then placed in these same channels for users to see, as they have shown to be high-impact and effective.