Marketers have long talked about the “rule of seven,” which states that it takes seven touches for a customer to finally make a decision. That thinking is more relevant than ever, as consumers are bombarded all day, every day, with marketing messages.
Luckily, technology has made it easier than ever to remarket to consumers who’ve already seen your brand messaging. Through retargeting, you can identify those customers and aim your ads their way. On Facebook, retargeting is done through a combination of a pixel on your website and Facebook’s built-in tools. Below, I’ll get into how to retarget ads on Facebook in detail.
How Does Facebook Retargeting Work?
Facebook retargeting works through a pixel on your website. The pixel is a piece of code that tracks activity coming from Facebook, and that data can then be used to create custom audiences when you’re placing your Facebook ads. In doing this, you deliver ads specifically to users who’ve previously interacted with your website.
How to Set Up a Facebook Retargeting Campaign in 3 Steps
Step 1: Install the Facebook Pixel
You’ll find the Facebook Pixel in the Events Manager. Simply click the plus sign to connect data sources.
Choose Web.
Name your pixel.
Choose the method you want to use to add your pixel to your website.
Step 2: Create a Custom Audience
Once your pixel is set up, it’s time to place your ad. When setting up your ad, choose Custom Audience under Create Audience.
Select Website.
Input your pixel name and your website URL. The Ads Manager will recognize the pixel from the connection you made in the previous steps.
Step 3: Design and Launch Your Retargeting Ad
An important part of retargeting is the ad creative. Setting multiple ads geared toward a warm audience and testing them can help you see which messaging converts best. Using AI-powered predictive analytics can help you further narrow your ideal audience.
Benefits of Facebook Retargeting
Increased Conversion Rates
Retargeting displays your ads to customers who’ve already shown at least some interest in your brand. This means you’re reaching out to warm audiences, who are more likely to convert than a cold audience learning about your brand for the first time.
“Retargeting is a great strategy to keep brands, products, and services top of mind with an audience that has already engaged with an advertiser’s content in some way,” says Michael Merring, associate media director at LevLane Advertising. “We typically see remarketing audiences convert at a higher rate, and at a lower cost, compared to prospecting audiences.”
Personalized Ad Experiences
Retargeting lets you customize your ads to individual customers based on their previous behavior, which improves relevance. Zarina Bahadur, CEO and founder at 123 Baby Box, primarily attributes her company’s rapid growth to Facebook Ads retargeting. The key, she says, is executing them properly. “These ads work because they feel relevant,” she says. “The familiarity of your brand increases the likelihood of turning interest into actual sales.”
Improved Brand Recognition
If your branding is on point, retargeting can help familiarize customers with your name and your offerings. Over time, that recognition can lead to engagement. “Online users tend to return to web pages when they see customized ads at just the right moment, to discover fresh site content,” explains Daniel Roberts, CEO of Lava Roofing. “Different engagements between users and your brand through time promote both brand recognition and trust, thus increasing the credibility of your brand in the market.”
Cost-Effective Advertising
Since, as mentioned, retargeted ads focus on warm audiences, they’re more likely to get conversions than those that target cold audiences, and that reduces your cost. AI-driven performance marketing platforms can help take this to the next level, measuring results and placing ads where they’re most likely to get engagement. “Retargeting audiences are smaller than broader prospecting audience sizes, so the cost to deliver an ad frequency that drives results is less for retargeting,” confirms Merring.
Useful Tips for Running Your Retargeting on Facebook
Segment Your Audiences
Bahadur stresses the importance of aggressively segmenting your audience with Facebook Ads. When someone visits your website for the first time, that person should see different ads than a customer who has already added three products to their shopping cart, she says, adding that, in her experience, “When ads are personalized, they achieve click-through rates that increase by at least 40%.”
Test Different Ad Creatives
Facebook makes it easy to test different ad creatives, and Roberts encourages businesses to use that feature, if only to keep customers engaged. “Every small business owner should heed my suggestion to minimize repetitive ad display,” Roberts urges. “Use different creative approaches together with message variations to maintain viewer interest.”
Monitor Performance Metrics
Whether you’re retargeting or not, it’s essential that you monitor your key performance indicators like click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on ad spend. When retargeting, though, Merring also recommends keeping an eye on your audience size.
“If you’re only running retargeting ads, your audience size will decrease over time and be less efficient,” Merring cautions. “I also recommend watching your ad frequency. This helps determine the right budget to serve to your retargeting audience without appearing in their feeds too often.”
Considerations When Facebook Retargeting Doesn’t Generate the Expected Return
If you notice diminishing returns from your Facebook advertising efforts, it may be time to explore additional marketing channels and diversify your strategy. Channel exhaustion can occur when your target audience becomes oversaturated with frequent ads, leading to reduced engagement and conversion rates.
To counteract this, consider expanding your marketing efforts to include Facebook alternatives, such as Google Ads, LinkedIn, or even traditional media like email or direct mail campaigns. Each channel offers unique advantages and can help reach different audience segments, potentially revitalizing your overall marketing performance.
Performance marketers might consider advertising on the open web to extend growth opportunities beyond traditional search and social media, leveraging AI-powered predictive marketing platforms to target and drive engagement based on user behavior. This mid-to-low funnel strategy will ensure marketing budget is spent efficiently while driving performance results, at scale.
Outcomes Over Everything. Total Performance. realize:.
By spreading your advertising efforts across multiple channels, you can optimize your reach, reduce dependency on a single platform, and discover new opportunities for growth and success.
Key Takeaways
Facebook Ads retargeting displays your paid ads to consumers who’ve previously interacted with your brand. To retarget on Facebook, you’ll first need to add the Facebook Pixel to your website, then create custom audiences to use the information. Performance-focused solutions that are designed for scalable user acquisition can help take your retargeting campaigns to the next level.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I enable Facebook retargeting?
The first thing you need for retargeting Facebook Ads is a Pixel on your website. You’ll couple that with Custom Audiences — set up in the ad manager — and a retargeting ad campaign in the Facebook Ads Manager.
“Utilizing specific website URLs or Facebook Product Catalogs are great ways to retarget your products and services that a user has already viewed, but may not have acted on yet,” Merring adds.
How does the Facebook Pixel work?
The Facebook Pixel rests on your website, gathering data on incoming traffic from Facebook that includes page views, purchases, and signups. As Roberts explains, this tracking system lets you monitor visitors who don’t immediately convert.
“The installed Facebook Pixel enables you to create customized audience groups for your advertisements, based on particular activities like website users who viewed pricing information, but did not complete contact forms,” Roberts explains.
How do I synchronize leads from our retargeting campaign?
Facebook Ads retargeting is a great way to capture leads. But, Merring points out that you’ll need to set specific parameters to do this. “For website leads, it’s important to append Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters to your URLs, identifying Facebook as the source that drove that lead and any targeting and creative identifiers that are important for evaluating campaign performance,” Merring says. “You will want to test your lead forms and confirm that UTM parameters are passing through to your CRM correctly.”
