By Kayla Carmicheal

In college, I took an advertising class. It taught me what I needed to know about traditional advertising, but the social media portion wasn’t as expansive.

When we covered Facebook Advertising, for example, I found it difficult to follow along with a lack of examples and the lofty overview of content. Because of that, I decided to look online for a deeper take on the subject.

I ended up watching a video that covered a subject I’d struggled with in class — retargeting. The video gave an overview of the concept, then went in-depth about how that looks on Facebook with vibrant examples, really helping a visual learner like me.

If you‘ve never used retargeting before, don’t worry.

I’ll go through the basics of how retargeting works, explain how you can use it to support your larger marketing goals, and outline an example of a Facebook Ad retargeting campaign.

How Retargeting Campaigns Work

Retargeting is a dynamic digital marketing strategy designed to engage potential customers who‘ve shown interest in your brand but haven’t converted.

And they work, with brands seeing an increase in search of 1046% with retargeting ads. Primarily, there are two methodologies behind it: pixel-based and list-based. Each has its unique advantages based on your campaign goals.

Pixel-Based Retargeting

Pixel-based retargeting reconnects you with anonymous website visitors, offering a seamless and instantaneous means of re-engaging potential customers post-visit.

Here’s how it unfolds:

• A visitor browses your site
• A small JavaScript, commonly called a pixel, is embedded in their browser—essentially “cookie-ing” the visitor
• As the visitor continues their online journey, the pixel signals retargeting platforms, like Google Ads or Facebook Ads, to serve tailored ads based on their site activity

The key advantages of pixel-based retargeting include:

• Immediacy: Reconnects with visitors almost instantly after they leave your website
• Relevance: Delivers ads that reflect specific pages or products they browsed
• Behavioral Insights: Employs user behavior to make ads more targeted

Downsides to this method are that there is a lower volume of people in the campaign at any given moment in time since it’s all based on how often people are coming to your website, viewing certain pages, and leaving.

It also can be complicated or time-intensive to implement JavaScript on many website pages.

List-Based Retargeting

List-based retargeting activates once you‘ve gathered users’ contact details, presenting an opportunity for ultra-personalized advertising.

The workflow is straightforward:

• You upload a list of email addresses to a platform, like Facebook or Twitter.
• The platform identifies users with matching emails and serves them specific ads.

Though it‘s a little less common than pixel-based retargeting, list-based retargeting allows you to have highly customizable criteria for your ads because it’s based on more than behavior — you’re choosing who goes in …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

Author: Aaron