Establishing a solid digital marketing campaign is a must for any business. It allows you to familiarize people with your brand, and ultimately to bring droves of users to your website — many of whom will hopefully go on to become loyal customers.

But while some may buy your products or services after only one visit, the majority probably won’t. When you look at your website metrics, you’ll see plenty of people leaving without making a purchase. That doesn’t mean they’re not interested — they just need another nudge.

Enter retargeting ads. Digital retargeting is an advertising method where you send ads to people who have previously visited your website, encouraging them to come back and convert.

But how do you make that work? How can you make your retargeting ads the best that they can be? Below, we’ll answer that question by looking at seven tips for how to retarget site visitors.

Read on to learn more, and then consider partnering with WebFX for the full benefits of our retargeting services. Just call us at 888-601-5359 or contact us online to get started!

7 foolproof ways to make the most of your retargeting campaign

Retargeting offers many benefits if done correctly. As one of the most valuable marketing tools available for your business, it’s something you’ll definitely want to take the time to get right.

Below, we’ll talk about seven ways to retarget customers that will encourage sales.

1. Use cookies and banner ads

One of the two biggest ways to gather information on users who visit your site is to use cookies. You’ve likely encountered the term before during your own website visits, when the sites displayed pop-up messages notifying you that they use cookies.

Cookies are pieces of data that store themselves in your browser when you visit a website. They then follow you around to other sites you visit. When you go somewhere that displays banner ads, the cookies can be used to display ads for the site you visited earlier.

By using cookies on your own site, you can create an easy way to retarget people who visit your site with new ads.

2. Use email lists

The other major way to establish a point of contact with site visitors is to create email lists. The easiest way to do this is through email capture forms on your website.

Email capture forms prompt users to enter their emails in return for something. Often, these forms can appear as pop-ups that occur as users are about to leave the site, encouraging them to sign up for special offers or useful information.

Alternatively, you can require users to submit their email to view content on your website. This tactic is called gated content.

The goal, however you choose to reach it, is to get as many site visitors as possible to submit their email addresses to you. Once you’ve created a list of these addresses, you can start sending out emails to them.

3. Track specific URLs

When people visit your website, they could be there for different reasons. Someone who shows up to read a blog post probably isn’t there for the same reason as someone who goes straight to your online store.

A simple retargeting strategy to ensure that you’re targeting visitors with the right ads is to use cookies that trace the specific pages users visit. Depending on which parts of your site they indicated interest in, you can set up your ads to target them with the appropriate content.

This also allows you to retarget people based on where they are in the buyer’s journey. If someone bounced from your site after a quick glance at a product page, you’ll want to target them differently than someone that bounced before hitting “purchase.”

4. Use actionable calls to action (CTAs)

A crucial part of all successful retargeting ads is to include a call to action (CTA).

It’s probably not effective for your ads to say “please come back to our website,” so, if you want users to click on them, you have to give them specific actions you want them to take, and make it easy for them to do so.

The first thing you need to do to craft a riveting CTA is to tell users exactly what you want them to do. Whether it be checking out your most recent piece of content or buying your newest product, tell users what they should be doing — and encourage them with detailed CTAs.

The second component involves giving them a button or link they can click to be directed to the page where they can perform that action. So, if you encourage them to buy a product, give them a button that takes them directly to that product page. This is called a landing page.

5. Target abandoned carts

One digital retargeting strategy you can’t miss out on is targeting abandoned carts. Sometimes a user will come to your site, view some product pages, find something they like, and make it as far as their shopping cart before leaving your site.

In those cases, users are so close to converting, but they just need one final nudge to finish their purchase. With just a single reminder, you could turn each of your site visitors into a new customer.

For that reason, you should prioritize retargeting ads for abandoned carts.

You can encourage users by simply sending them ads or emails that encourage them to finish their purchase and buy the items that they left in their cart.

6. Retarget existing customers

Though it might seem counterintuitive at first, one of the best groups of people you can retarget are those who have already converted.

This is an effective strategy since existing customers have already proven their interest in your company by purchasing from you before.

A good retargeting strategy for existing customers is to encourage them to buy things related to what they previously purchased, or to recommend things they might like.

So for example, if someone buys nails, you could recommend a magnetic glove to help hold those nails as they work.

7. Set time constraints on retargeting ads

Throughout the process of running your retargeting ads, keep in mind that timing matters. When users leave your site, they typically leave for a reason. You don’t want to send them an email five minutes after they bounce since they probably won’t be interested so soon after leaving.

Instead, you need to consider how long to wait before beginning the digital retargeting process.

Give users time to be more receptive to the notion of returning to your site. Likewise, don’t make your ads too frequent. If you’re sending people emails five times a day, they’ll get annoyed.

And finally, consider how long you’ll continue to target them. If you spend a whole month targeting someone and they never exhibit the slightest interest, it may be time to focus your resources elsewhere before you start to get on their nerves.

Get more help with your retargeting ads from WebFX

Now that you know how to retarget online users with ads, you can begin to put it into practice yourself. But if you’re still struggling to make it work for you, don’t worry — WebFX can help.

With over 20 years of experience in the digital marketing industry, we know digital retargeting inside and out, and can optimize it for your business. Once we help you get everything in place, you’ll start seeing a significant increase in conversions.

To get started with us, just call us at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!