Retargeting campaigns are an essential component of any ecommerce marketing strategy. These campaigns use previous customer behavior to show relevant ads to shoppers who have already interacted with your website.

Let’s go over the importance of retargeting campaigns for ecommerce businesses, the benefits of implementing them, and the different types of campaigns available.

Importance of retargeting campaigns for ecommerce businesses

Retargeting campaigns are crucial for ecommerce businesses because they help to increase brand awareness, engagement, and conversion rates. When potential customers visit your website but do not make a purchase, retargeting campaigns can help remind them of your products or services and encourage them to return to your site to make a purchase.

Retargeting campaigns are typically cost-effective because it’s only focused on those who have already shown purchase intent (they’ve already visited your online store). Because it’s based on shopper actions, the pool of people you can target with retargeting campaigns is going to be smaller than a typical, top-of-the-funnel campaign going after anybody who could conceivably be a shopper.

Benefits of retargeting campaigns for ecommerce

There are three main benefits of using retargeting campaigns for your ecommerce business:

• Increased conversion rates: Retargeting campaigns target users who have already shown interest in your products or services, which increases the likelihood of converting them into paying customers.
  
• Improved customer retention: Retargeting campaigns help keep your brand top-of-mind for users who have already engaged with your website or social media pages. This should lead to repeat purchases because these shoppers already have used your products and receive periodic reminders about your brand with the retargeting ads.
  
• Cost-effective advertising: Compared to other advertising methods, retargeting campaigns are a cost-effective way to target users who are more likely to make a purchase.

Types of retargeting campaigns

Here are some of the retargeting options for ecommerce brands:

• Site retargeting: This type of retargeting targets users who have previously visited your website and shows them relevant ads when they browse other websites. You can typically show retargeting ads to shoppers who have visited your site via ads on social media, digital banner ads and more.
  
• Search retargeting: Search retargeting targets users who have previously searched for keywords related to your business and shows them relevant ads. These ads show up on the major search engines like Google and Bing.
  
• Email retargeting: Email retargeting targets users who have interacted with your email campaigns but have not made a purchase. Thanks to innovative solutions like SafeOpt, you can also use email campaigns to retarget site visitors even if you don’t have their emails in your database — this is done in a fully compliant way with privacy and email regulations.

• Social media retargeting: Social media retargeting targets users who have previously engaged with your social media pages and shows them relevant ads. You can use this on most major social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok and more.

Examples of Successful Retargeting Campaigns

The home-sharing platform Airbnb uses retargeting campaigns to target users who have previously searched for accommodation on their site but havn’t yet booked a stay. They show ads to these users that feature the properties they viewed or related properties. I can say that this is pretty effective, as I’ve personally booked from Airbnb after seeing houses I was previously browsing in retargeting ads.

Many types of ecommerce businesses have found success using SafeOpt for email retargeting. This makes sense because shoppers sign up directly with SafeOpt to receive verified offers from brands — they’re primed to purchase. Additionally, merchants only pay for SafeOpt if it generates sales, so it’s win-win for merchants and shoppers.

One leading luxury retailer used SafeOpt to expand its retargeting reach and it was a massive success: the luxury brand saw a 13% conversion rate that generated an additional $1.4 million in revenue. That brand had an average order value of $4,403, so every abandoned cart it could recover really made an impact on revenue.

But SafeOpt isn’t just for luxury retailers. One online pet store used SafeOpt to generate about an additional $1 million in revenue from lost shoppers in just over seven months. Another online health brand partnered with SafeOpt and has used the platform to generate an additional $2.7 million in revenue.

The online pet store and health brand had lower AOVs than the luxury brand but were still able to use SafeOpt to drive fantastic results. See how SafeOpt can help your brand recover more shoppers who abandon your website.  

Use retargeting to grow your business

Retargeting campaigns are an effective way to increase brand awareness, engagement, and conversion rates for ecommerce businesses. By using the different types of retargeting campaigns available, businesses can create personalized ads that target users who have already interacted with their website or social media pages.