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
and that way tracking the things that they’re interested in.
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 increase 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 short report, 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. 1 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!
2 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 for 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!
3 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 all 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.
4 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!
5 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..
