Retargeting: The High ROI Tool That You Need to Be Using

Does your B2B company offer trials or test runs, or feature promotional products or services? Do you run active lead generation campaigns? If the answer is no, you might consider incorporating some of these tactics into your forward-facing presence to get people talking about your business. If the answer is yes, you get a gold star! You’re making attention-getting thrusts like these, but are they enough? Are you doing all you can to promote your efforts?

Let’s talk retargeting, a high ROI tool that can add some serious mileage to your message.

What Is Retargeting?

You’ve probably heard about retargeting, but a refresher never hurts. In brief, retargeting puts ads in front of viewers based on their previous engagement with that content, product, or website. So, if you visit a site, click around for a bit, and eventually leave without making a commitment of any kind, you might see an ad for that seemingly follows you around the web—in social, in search, in sidebars, etc. Congratulations, you’ve just been retargeted.

Retargeting is pretty cut and dry in a B2C scenario. (It’s important to note how retargeting works from a B2C perspective so we can note the similarities in the process for B2B companies, as there are many.) Imagine this scenario: You’re selling a product. Your consumer looks at it but doesn’t bite at first, so you show him that product or related ad repeatedly, reminding him or her why they wanted it in the first place. Eventually, the ad gets clicked and a purchase is made. Or, maybe they don’t end up purchasing—but they have at least reengaged with your company in a meaningful way, simply by revisiting. Note that even if that add never gets clicked on, your message is still seen. (Remaining top of mind isn’t the worst thing your business could be doing.)

The world of B2B retargeting is conceptually identical to B2C retargeting, only the process takes much more time because sales and other conversions don’t happen as quickly. In a B2B environment, the “product” you’re promoting is your brand, your expertise, or your experience. You can run targeted ads that promote eBooks, talk about your latest and greatest webinars, or create other robust campaigns designed to hold onto your site-visitors (aka leads), keeping them warm throughout the longer buying cycle. In both versions of retargeting, this top of mind concept is key to capturing results. 

Why Should My Business Use Retargeting?

Retargeting can grow online visibility. The more visible your company is online, the more opportunities exist for customers to interface with your brand. Your audience has already shown interest in what you have to say, right? So shopping your brand message to them as they navigate the web on their own terms can build familiarity and up your mindshare. With retargeting, you get all this built-in branding often for less than the cost of magazine ads or billboard space—that’s another nod to ROI, but we’ll get to that next.

Retargeting has a high ROI. Budget determines a lot for a business, indicative of where it’s been and where it’s going in the coming year. Investing wisely can pay off with returns that propel companies into the green—I’m not giving you new information here, though. Any businessperson can tell you that ROI counts for a lot, and a major reason you should consider retargeting is that it is chock-full of solid ROI potential.

According to an ITSMA poll, overall B2B budgets were anticipated to increase by four and a half percent this year, and over half of the marketing personnel who responded said they anticipated their departments would be on the receiving end of some of those extra dollars. Marketers also reported that of their allocated funds, 45 percent would be spent on digital sources. (This is just one study—others report upwards of 50 percent going the way of digital.) The point here is that marketers are putting more money than ever into digital efforts, and for good reason—it works. According to AdRoll, B2B advertisers can see 229 percent more conversions with “cross-platform, cross-device retargeting.”

Retargeting is versatile. Retargeting allows you to tailor your message so you can be sure not to overwhelm (or underwhelm) those who are absorbing it. Construct your content to fit exactly where your prospect is in the B2B purchasing “full funnel,” as shown below in Figure 1, making the process as versatile for you and as relevant for them as possible.

Figure 1: B2B marketers are winning sales with full-funnel retargeting, AdRoll blog

Tips for Getting Started

If you think you’d like to give retargeting a try, keep these tips in mind as you get started:

• Don’t forget to track your conversions. You want to prove that ROI, after all. And keep your efforts measurable so you can make the business case for more retargeting down the line. Use tracking code to tie users back to the campaigns behind their action. You can also track ads that may convert offline, like in the form of a phone call or in person visit.
• Consider starting with your existing customer base and look for ways to nurture (and potentially upsell) those clients. It’s easier to reengage an audience that’s acted in the past than come at new prospects cold.
• Think about using a third party platform—or even a social site like Facebook or Twitter—to test the waters.

Retargeting Truths and Takeaways

By now, I hope you can recognize retargeting as a potential game-changer for your business. This high-ROI tool is customizable and can put your ad (regardless of company size) right in front of engaged audiences more apt to act. What about B2B retargeting appeals the most to you? Is anything holding you back from trying this method? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Additional Resources on this Topic:

Tips for Retargeting B2B Leads: A Beginner’s Guide
The Psychology of the Web Searcher
Is Customer Journey Mapping Effective in B2B?

This article was first published on The Marketing Scope.

Photo Credit: latevaweb via Compfight cc