Getting new traffic to your site is one thing, but creating customers out of that traffic is an entirely different proposition. As little as 2% of visitors to a website will actually become customers or take some sort of action towards a purchase, so how can advertising entice the remaining 98% to become customers? With retargeting that's how.

What is retargeting?

Retargeting is a cookie-based technology that uses a small snippet of code to 'follow' your audience around the Web. Here's how it works: a small piece of code is placed on your website. The code is unnoticeable and won’t affect your site’s performance. Every time a new visitor comes to your site, the code drops a browser cookie. Later, when your cookied visitors browse the Web, the cookie will let your retargeting provider know to serve ads, ensuring that they are served only to people who have previously visited your site.

When does retargeting work?

Retargeting is a powerful branding and conversion optimization tool, but just like anything else in life, there is a right and a wrong way to use the strategy. To ensure your retargeting ads are primed to drive results, we have put together a list of best practices to boost performance:

1. Segment Your Audience

With one retargeting pixel, you can segment the audience you would like to retarget into distinct groups. Each of these audience types will have a different motive for visiting your website.

Segment your audiences into groups based on which page or piece of content they visited on your website. This allows you to display more relevant ads that cater to their unique needs and emotional triggers.

2. Be Specific with Your Creative

Once your audience is separated into segments, serve those visitors a relevant ad based on their website behavior.

Your ad should:

• Be branded, so the audience knows who the ad is for
• Have a clear call-to-action to prompt action
• Contain personalized copy which is tailored to the users’ needs

3. Think about the Click-through

Setting your ad destination as your homepage can be too broad, and lead to a poor user experience. This causes repeat visitors to leave your site quickly.

• Think about specific pages on your website or landing pages that:
• Mention the product or service that the visitor was previously browsing.
• Include a clear call-to-action.

4. Watch Your Impressions

Retargeting can be off-putting to consumers if they are seen continually throughout the day. Luckily, there is an option known as frequency caps. This limits the number of impressions. As a guideline, 3-4 impressions a day is an acceptable number.