6 tips to segment your audience for effective retargeting

Grabbing attention once is a challenge in itself, to continue to nurture that attention into a conversion takes even more effort. That's where retargeting or remarketing comes into action.

What is retargeting?

It's the strategy of reaching out to those who have expressed an interest in your product or service but have not completed the path to conversion.

It may be someone who abandoned their shopping cart. It could be an individual who asked for a quote but didn't commit. Either way, these are warm/hot prospects that need to be segmented and targeted again so they convert.

This article will give you 6 tips to consider when it comes to retargeting. We’ll be looking at:

1. No generic messages

2. Think about your audience

3. Create an engaging story

4. Contextual retargeting

5. Passive searchers

6. Don't ignore personas

1. No generic messages

The scatter gun and 'one-size fits all' approach is dead! If you're using the same messaging for your retargeting ad campaign, then you shouldn't be surprised when it doesn't work. You need to use the information at your disposal to get the right message across to your retargeting audience.

For instance, online behaviour (on your website), search queries, location and more, can form a vivid picture about your prospective and existing customers.

Segment your users based on who’s visited your site or even your product page. Look at who's abandoning their carts. A great tool you can use to segment your users is the Google Analytics 4 Ecommerce feature (Enhanced Commerce in GA). This helps you slice and dice your audience into manageable segments you can retarget.

2. Think about your audience

It’s easy to focus on channels. That's not to say they're not important and that you shouldn't retarget on multiple channels, but maybe you should also think more about your users.

You could look at those who visited your website from Facebook ads. Doing so will not only give you the opportunity to amplify your retargeting message to the Facebook network like Instagram and WhatsApp, but also those who clicked the Google Display Network Ads, and by association YouTube.

3. Create an engaging story

Creating a series of retargeting adverts adds a lot more meat to the bone. Rather than having a one-dimensional narrative you could try a series of ads that follow a theme. This can potentially increase engagement with your target audience. For instance, ad 1 will set up the story and subsequent ads will continue it.

A great and simple example of this is the 'Clock is ticking' campaign by J. Crew Factory. The retargeting ads gave the impression of urgency - to take advantage of a limited opportunity within a limited period of time.

4. Contextual retargeting

Retargeting based on social and demographic profiles is another avenue to explore. For example, a children’s clothes wear company could create ads that are triggered when its users are in a specific location like in the proximity of its shop or a school.

Let’s assume the same company targets users who have looked at stationery related websites (for the kids in the lead up to a new school year). This retargeting tactic will point potential customers to a landing page via clothing ads.

5. Passive searchers

If you have on-site search you need to be looking at those users who passively search for things but don't act.

The Google Analytics Audience Builder feature allows you to create rules to really drill down on data.

You could set up a rule that filters passive searchers and then retarget them through Google Display Ads. In the example of our kids' clothes wear business, people who performed a site search for 'school shoes' could be retargeted with a special promotion and call to action.

6. Don't ignore personas

Personas aren't a new thing. They're effective at segmenting your audience. They enable your business to have a better understanding of whom you're offering your products and services to.

Use personas to create new audience segments and re-target them accordingly. This could be based on interests, device, browsing behaviour and more.

What are the benefits of retargeting campaigns?

• Shortens the sales cycle (especially in B2B marketing)

• Builds trust and loyalty

• Accelerates the buyer journey

• Lowers CPA’s (cost per acquisition)Improves conversion rates

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