What Is Retargeting: 5 Ways It Redirects a Prospect

Consumer behavior has become an essential topic of study these days. Especially after heading online, it has become even more important for advertisers to watch their target audiences. These target audiences can be anywhere from potential customers to existing customers.

With this plethora of opportunities among the high number of prospects for a product or service, it becomes even more necessary for advertisers to know consumer behavior. This helps them shape the marketing strategy accordingly to achieve the campaign goals.

What is Retargeting
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Retargeting is one such product of market study. But what is “retargeting?”

After rigorous research, the behavior of the users in different situations is studied to find out the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns.

Different marketing campaigns are used distinctly for varied situations. This extends the scope for user study in the field of advertisement.

1. The Role of Advertisements

Advertisements have a highly influential role amongst consumers. Its roots up to a subconscious level make it a powerful weapon in the hands of serious marketers today.

These ads can be seen anywhere. From our buildings as hoardings to our cell phones in our social media ads, from roads as billboards to our clothes.

These ads are present around us so effortlessly that we often don’t even acknowledge them as advertisements and more as part of our lives.

Photo by Negative Space on Pexels. Copyright 2016

Amongst the numerous roles of advertisements, a few that are known for having a direct impact are:-

  1. Information & Awareness
  2. Persuasion
  3. Brand Loyalty
  4. Brand Image
  5. Expansion of Markets

1.1 Information & Awareness

One of the key roles of ads is to decipher information and awareness among the viewers. In a world with high competition and competitors, a brand must make people aware of its presence.

The ad ensures brand awareness, its products, and services among the users. The purpose of an ad doesn’t end with the awareness, and it begins from there. To keep the brand name fresh in people’s minds, it is essential to create awareness.

It even shares information about the product and the services and hence helps convert prospects into clients and consumers.

The features and USPs of the product are shared via an ad by most marketers. It influences a buyer’s choice of making a purchase.

1.2. Persuasion

Amid a large market with numerous products, we are surrounded by products and services of all kinds from all pin to an airplane. From one brand selling 100 different products to 100 brands selling one product, we have several options while making a purchase, yet we tend to choose a specific product. Why?

Image by Mediamodifier from Pixabay. Copyright 2017

It is because of the persuasion by the ads. Ads make sure that the reasons to buy the product or service reach the right audience at the right time.

This ensures purchase by the target audiences and hence boosts the sale.

1.3. Brand Loyalty

Ads build brand loyalty. They ensure that customers repeatedly choose them for their new purchase over any other brand.

For example, when it comes to eating noodles, people prefer Maggie over any other noodle brand. Such is the brand image of maggie that people substitute the noodle with maggies, which is instilled in their brains.

This loyalty, in return, leads to repeat purchases and positive mouth publicity by the buyers. Hence, ads trigger a loop and make buyers buy based on their previous purchases.

1.4. Brand Image

Every ad tells something about the brand. The ad reflects a brand image within them. It portraits a brand as a humanly figure and evokes certain emotions related to it.

For example, who endorse the brand, what the brand promotes, its ideology behind selling a product, everything conveys something or the other about it. This makes a personal connection with the users and helps build brand image.

1.5. Expansion of Markets

The core purpose of the ad is to establish a brand presence that could help them in the expansion of their market. More the brand presence more will be their business.

It spreads awareness, builds trust, persuades, and eventually develops brand image to expand their limits and reach out to the world.

Showing ads has become a vital tool for business owners to move from local to global.

2. Platforms and Relevant Ads

There are various platforms available for advertisement, but not all platforms are apt for all businesses.

The advertisers do complete market research to analyze which platform would serve the purpose and help them achieve their market goals before choosing.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Copyright 2016

Similarly, while we talk about retargeting, it is important to note that it is a form of retargeting campaign specific to new media and is not operational in the traditional media.

3. What is ‘Retargeting’?

As it is popularly said, “What you see is sold.” Ads play the role of making things more visually accessible and hence making them sell in higher numbers.

Retargeting is used in online platforms where today’s consumer base is invested most of the time. Retargeting works on a targeted ads strategy that does not focus on new users. Instead, it focuses on people who have expressed interest in the brand earlier.

The stats reveal that 97% of the people who visit for the first time leave your website without buying anything! This is a massive number of banking upon. But how do we convert this huge number to business?

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Copyright 2016

Retargeting targets on this 97% user base that once visited but wasn’t persuaded enough to make a purchase.

According to consumer behavior, if the users visit a website and don’t make a purchase which is the case for 97% of users, it is lost forever!

And losing such a vast set of target audiences is a massive loss for the brands. Hence, marketers use retargeting strategies to gain past visitors back to their websites to target these target people.

4. How Retargeting Works?

But, how retargeting works? The idea to bring users back to buy your product who once visited your website but didn’t make a purchase for some of the other reasons looks fascinating, but how do we achieve it?

We often see ads of various products we surfed on the internet being projected repeatedly on different social media platforms. The same ad is shown on other web pages as well. This is an example of retargeting ads.

Retargeting campaigns work by reminding the old visitors of the previously visited browsing sites. It displays ads on other sites to users who once called the website but did not buy to re-engage customers.

This constant hammering leads to the recall of the product, so consumers are persuaded to buy.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Copyright 2016

When a visitor browses a website, an anonymous browser cookie is generated. These cookies help the marketers to retarget the visitors via different websites.

These cookies are created whenever a user visits a new website. Based on which marketers use it to recall the data you explored in the new website.

Based on the data collected via cookies, the user is retargeted and shows products or services visited on the website. It is a vital tool used by severe marketers to increase sales and reach out more profoundly.

5. Types of Retargeting

With their respective advantages, the two types of retargeting serve different advertising purposes. The two types are: –

  1. Pixel-based
  2. List-based

5.1. Pixel-Based Retargeting

It is the most common type of retargeting campaign experienced by website visitors. It is when the sites display specific ads based on your browsing history.

Our visits to different websites create retargeting ads, which are then used for generating relevant ads based on our preferences. These retargeting campaigns display ads on various retargeting platforms discussed ahead.

This produces dynamic retargeting ads and works almost immediately after one has left the site without purchasing.

5.2. List-Based Retargeting

List-based retargeting works by getting customer information by various means. It collects the user information to retarget them later.

It is not a dynamic process, unlike pixel-based retargeting. The contact information of the

This method works only after you have all the necessary information of someone/customer in your database. The merchant company then uses these details to search the details online and reach out to their prospect. This helps them redirect ads for which the consumer has voluntarily given details.

This retargeting campaign gives more profound results as the details can be further customized based on the user preferences to get more optimized results.

6. Is Retargeting Important?

It is estimated that retargeting can drive traffic to a website and boost sales up to 50%. Isn’t it a significant percentage of 97% of people who leave your website without purchasing and hold immense potential for your business?

In simple words, Retargeting can be explained in the following steps: –

  1. A visitor browses through your website for the first time. They explore various products (making a voluntary choice to check the products).
  2. They leave the website without making a purchase, but they are interested in the products.
  3. The cookies are generated, and either by tracking pixels or retargeting lists, the visitor is shown the same products as retargeting ads on other websites and social media.
  4. When the same product is shown numerous times, the customer recalls it several times and is tempted to revisit your site.
  5. This re-direction to revisit your site increases the chances of them buying the product they left earlier due to lack of motivation and persuasion.

This is the basic process behind retargeting campaigns and retargeting ads, which aims to bring the visitor back to the website by hammering the product on other sites. This is how retargeting works.

7. Advantages of Retargeting Ads

Retargeting campaigns have several advantages over traditional media and traditional ways of advertisements.

7.1. Cost-effective

It is highly cost-effective than any other traditional way of advertising.

7.2. Direct accessibility

The interested consumers can be directly accessed to persuade. Since this is achieved online, the labor to get consumer interests details becomes more accessible than a manual method and gives direct access to the user’s preferences, with or without them knowing about it.

7.3. Quick Reach

The retargeting ad works immediately after a person leaves the website without purchasing. The pixel-based retargeting makes it possible to instantly reach the prospect right after leaving the website without buying.

7.4. Call to action

It incites users to take action, popularly known as “call to action” in the language of marketing. This compels the prospect to complete their visit by purchasing.

7.5. Brand recall

The retargeting ad reminds people of the product and company and drives them to purchase more. It makes the brand recall so obvious that people start making buying choices merely by looking at the brand name or the logo after a point in time.

Retargeting campaigns can bring wonders to one business if used proficiently.

8. Why is Retargeting Effective?

Retargeting campaigns are more effective than other ads because of a prior interest in this targeting method. This assurance of consumer’s interest is lacking in other forms of advertisements.

The constant presence and repeated exposure of the brand and product around the consumer:-

  1. Converts the window shoppers into clients/purchasers.
  2. Bring more traction to the website
  3. Increases brand recognition
  4. Increases click-through rate, which in turn increases conversions
  5. Add value to the other ad campaigns

9. Uses

Facebook retargeting campaigns are a great example of the use of retargeting. Facebooks provide a massive base of audience to project and persuade the audience with a vast amount of collected data of their preferences and choices.

The Facebook retargeting campaign place and projects ads based on the user’s search history. This helps them understand what the consumer is looking for and shows them the same.

Image by Kevin King(Chandana Perera) from Pixabay. Copyright 2014

It even serves as a pool for the lost contacts during list-based retargeting. This helps put forth ads relevant to the user, increasing the conversion rate.

For example, if I visited “ABC Store” to look for clothes while browsing, I clicked on a few products but did not purchase. The same products I visited while browsing is shown on other sites as advertisements to persuade me to visit again and buy the product.

In this case, constant product projection might tempt me to buy it or make me recall the purchase. This subconsciously convinces the consumer of the need to buy the product.

10. Difference between Remarketing and Retargeting Campaigns

Although the term “retargeting” and “remarketing” sounds similar, they still have some difference. Both retargeting and remarketing help in achieving the same goal of: –

  • Target the audiences who have already shown some interest in the brand and are aware of it.
  • Engage with people to increase conversion for purchase.
  • Build a strong brand presence and develop a lasting connection with the prospect.

Then, what is the difference between retargeting and remarketing?

The difference lies in the execution of the strategies.

Retargeting is used to show one company’s ads on other sites to convert a prospect who visited your website into a buyer. It is achieved with the help of cookies used while visiting a site.

Whereas remarketing targets people who have already purchased in the past. Remarketing campaigns include emails to get in touch with the clients again.

Often, personalized emails are sent to launch products, share offers, proceed with awareness campaigns and other announcements to make a closer connection with the client.

11. What Tools Can Help in Retargeting?

There are several tools available in the market that can help one to hold a retargeting campaign. On a basic level, Google AdWords, Facebook retargeting, and LinkedIn Ads can target a young user base.

Image by Buffik from Pixabay. Copyright 2020

But to diversify your targets, other tools can be used for amplified results. A few of the renowned tools are mentioned as follows:-

  1. ReTargeter
  2. SharpSpring Ads
  3. Criterio
  4. AdRoll

12. Retargeting

Retargeting exposes us with immense opportunities to gain precisely what we expect from the users. It helps achieve the aim for increased sales in a more directed and channelized way.

It is one of the most powerful tools for marketers these days. With the expanding scope and growing dependence on social media retargeting, the spectrum of marketing, retargeting campaigns, and retargeting ads is increasing daily.

When advertisements and marketing make it possible to divert the users with no intent to buy from websites, then retargeting can have a tremendous impact in increasing the brand awareness, sales, and businesses of the companies.

The online market is a new market with a sky full of possibilities and opportunities waiting to be harvested.

I hope with all this information on retargeting, you successfully set your business goals.

-edited by Steffy Michael|6/7/22

Published by
Shivani Pachori