In its simplest form retargeting ads are Facebook ads that are run to “warm” audiences reminding them of your business, products or services.

• Have you ever done online shopping?
• Clicked on an ad in your newsfeed of a product or service?
• Left items in your shopping cart online?
• Viewed a video from a business?
• Registered for a free training?
• Took someone’s Freebie opt-in?

These are some of the actions that retargeting ads can be set up for.

It can feel a little like Big Brother is watching you. And in part, they kinda are. This information is given to the business by means of the Facebook pixel, a little line of code they’ve placed on their website that allows them to track the actions of any website visitors.

This code can tell businesses what items you’ve looked at on their website, whether you’ve had items in your cart and abandoned them, or if you gave your email address to sign up for something. For business owners, this is very powerful for being able to stay in front of people who have already visited their website. 

Think of it this way.

How many times have you shopped online and had to walk away before you finished your purchase, only to get hit with ads about the item you left in your shopping cart?

Or how many times did you sign up for someone’s freebie opt in, then see ads for their products and services?

Ads have essentially two jobs. 

They either prospect new people into a business ecosystem, or they retarget people who have already come in contact with the business.

It can take more than 8 touch points for someone to make a purchase from a company. So if all you’re doing is running ads to a cold audience, you deny yourself the opportunity to increase revenue by not running retargeting ads to your warm audience

We don’t tend to get married after going on one date with a person. There usually needs to be a lot more dates and months together before coming to that decision. Your ads really need to be thought of in the same way as dating. 

Your first ads should be considered your first date with your cold audience. If you play your cards right, (have a good ad) they might take you up on this first interaction.

But if you don’t call them for a second date, how are they going to know you’re still interested in wooing them? 

People need nurturing. They need reminding of who you are, what you offer, why they need what you’re selling and how they can get it. Ads can be that gentle reminder that they viewed your products already, or that you have a new program they might be interested in. We all know the likelihood of selling high ticket, high priced products and services to cold audiences is extremely difficult. So why let an opportunity to increase profits slip past you by not retargeting your audiences?

So What Makes for Good Retargeting Ads?

A lot depends on your value ladder and what is the next logical step for your audience to take. 

One of my favorite strategies for clients is building out an ad funnel. The idea is to take them from cold to hot through each level of ads they’d see.

When prospecting, I find video view ads, email opt in ads, or even blog posts/engagement ads do very well to get someone to stop and look at what you’re all about. Depending on the actions they take on these, you’d have the ability to retarget them with a second offer. 

Let’s say you had an ad running to a blog post on your website that spoke about their pain points. You could then run an ad to your offer that solves these pain points by targeting those who clicked on the blog post. 

Or let’s say you had a video that gave a ton of value to them. Your retargeting ads could then be a sales pitch given to those who watched a portion of that video. 

As your cold audience turns warm, they are more likely to purchase from you, even with a low ticket offer. And once you make that sale, they are even more likely to be a repeat customer.

So your next logical step is to run retargeting ads to all of those people who purchased already from you, and show them your next level in your value ladder. And the cycle of bringing new people into your ecosystem could continue on autopilot. Once you understand that Facebook ads aren’t just a “one and done” strategy for business, you will have no limits to what you could offer to them on an ongoing basis and continuously increase revenue

So get out there, and build some retargeting ads to your audience and keep them coming back for more.

P.S
32 Digital Marketers have come together for the Thriving Business Owners Bundle packed full of amazing trainings. https://bit.ly/businessownersbundle (This is an affiliate link and I do receive a commission for any sales made through my link)
P.P.S
My Facebook Ads Kickstart course is an amazing beginners resource for any business owner getting ready to run Ads. To learn more: https://www.bluepagesocial.com/kickstart/

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