The Facebook Ads platform has become an increasingly complex beast and we all are looking to maximize our ad spend, as online advertising costs continue to increase year over year. This is exactly why the importance of retargeting with Facebook Ads has become more and more important over the years. The idea of advertising is generally to get the highest reach or conversations possible for the least amount of money possible per event. While there is a range of different ads types on Facebook, retargeting also known as remarketing can really help in accomplishing this end goal.
When running retargeting ads your conversion rates will almost certainly go up. Remarketing audiences are populated by those that have already interacted in one way or another with your brand or website and are therefore more likely “in market” for the ads you are running. This is why retargeting on Facebook can be such a powerful tool in your online advertising arsenal.
What is Retargeting?
For those not familiar with retargeting, I can almost be 100% certain that you have experienced it while browsing the net. Remember the time when you were shopping for something and then started to get served ads on multiple platforms after not purchasing? Yep, that’s retargeting advertising. The goal for the advertiser is to bring interested parties back to the point of purchase or conversion to get them to take the action that we ultimately want them to take. Creepy, yes, effective, also yes.
Types of Retargeting on Facebook.
While there are many creative ways to implement retargeting campaigns on Facebook, I will outline here two of the most popular options that we use as a Facebook Ads Agency. Bear in mind this is not an exhaustive list and every need is different, so for this example, we will use a scenario in which we are attempting to get online purchases via Facebook. That said, replace a purchase with whatever your conversion event may be and the same concepts will apply.
Retargeting Web Traffic on Facebook
The first and often most used retargeting method is to remarket to those that have already visited your website off of Facebook. Looping back to the scenario of a purchase these ads would likely be for those that hit the page to purchase a product but didn’t actually complete the purchase. Think of it as similar to a cart abandonment email, to engage the user to come back and buy your awesome product.
This works by using Facebooks advertising pixel which then fires when someone visits your website. The pixel injects code via cookies that then allows you to create “remarketing” audiences on Facebooks platform and then advertise to that market segment directly. Often times as a Facebook Ads Agency we will spend a lot of resources on this retargeting audience as they have already proved that they may have some interest in purchasing our product, or again whatever your conversion event is.
There are a variety of ways to create the audiences that are often debated. For instance, do you want web traffic from the last 7 days, the last 30 days, or the last 365 days in this pool? All in all, I say test it, but every need is different and depending on your conversion goals the set up of the remarketing audience may be different.
Retargeting Video Views (Engagement Remarketing)
Another highly effective way to use retargeting on Facebook is to use the engagement remarketing strategy. This for the last couple of years has been highly effective by building audiences that have “engaged” with advertised or organic video content. If you are in a business that has quality video content, this could be a great option for you!
Facebook allows you to create advertising audiences based on how long and how long ago they engaged with your video content. For instance, if someone watched 50% or more of your video in the last 7 days, they may be a more qualified prospect to purchase your product, than you would find with more standardized Facebook targeting via saved audiences. Again, this all takes into consideration that every need is different, but this has continued to be a really effective approach for us as a Facebook Ads Agency.
Wrapping it up
As online advertising costs continue to rise, you want to be sure that you are getting the most out of every penny that you spend online. Retargeting on Facebook can be a highly effective way to ensure that your efforts advertising on the platform are maximized to their full potential. Social Media marketing can help your business in a number of ways, but there's no doubt that remarketing is one of the best. Disclaimer: you may be retargeting just by reading this article 🙂 Hope it helps!