As a small business owner, you understand the value of gaining a new customer. You probably also understand how it can be challenging to obtain those new customers, especially when facing off against larger businesses and companies that have bigger marketing budgets.

When facing such stiff competition, it's important to take advantage of every relevant marketing channel available to make sure you are reaching your customers at as many touchpoints as possible.

This is where the power of retargeting campaigns come into play.

Though retargeting campaigns have many variables that go into making it an effective element of your marketing strategy, we will go over the following topics:

• What is a Retargeting Campaign?
• How Do Facebook Retargeting Campaigns Work?
• Why Does My Business Need a Retargeting Campaign?
• Best Practices and Client Results

A retargeting campaign has the goal of reaching customers who have previously interacted with your business, but at that moment, did not choose to become a customer.

Retargeting campaigns can be very powerful because of how granular the targeting can be. Depending on the platform you use to retarget your customers, you can choose to target people based on precise actions they did or did not take on your website. Consider the example below.

Jane visited your website that sells women's apparel. She clicks through a few cardigans that she likes, but ultimately chooses not to buy anything yet.

Since you have a Facebook retargeting campaign that automatically adds customers who did not make a purchase to a list, Jane is added to that customer list and is then served an ad on Instagram offering her 30% off her next purchase.

Since she was recently on the fence about buying that cardigan she liked, the 30% off coupon incentivized her to click the ad and make a purchase.

Though the above example may appear only to be possible with the power of magic, it's actually through the power of a Facebook Pixel.

What is a Facebook Pixel?

A Facebook Pixel is a simple, yet powerful piece of code that is added to every page of your website that allows Meta to identify users who come to your website. Think of it almost like another type of cookie used to track users across your site.

This piece of code allows Facebook to identify who that user is, what actions they did or did not take, and then add them to the appropriate audiences you have created.

Now, let's talk about what it can do.

Create Custom Events

Now that you have a Facebook Pixel in place, you can create custom events that Meta can track. This feature allows you to tell Meta what specific actions they should be tracking.

By default, Meta will track all page views, but sometimes that is too broad. With the assistance of the Event Setup Tool provided by Meta, you can go on your website and directly tell Facebook what it should track.

For example, if you want to track a button click to download an eBook as a lead event, you can click on that button using the Event Setup Tool, assign it to an event type, and then Meta will automatically start tracking those button clicks in the events manager!

The same steps can also be done to track specific links on your website. For example, if you want to track the "thank you" page on your website after someone fills out a contact form, you can follow the same steps as shown above to mark it as an event.

Create Custom Audiences

Now that we have those custom events set up, now's the time to put them to work! By the virtue of its name, custom audiences allow you to create a list of customers who you specifically want to target. You can create these audiences from many different sources, but we will be focusing on web traffic as our source of choice.

Including & Excluding Customers

When making an audience, you will can include and exclude customers based on certain actions they took on your website.

For example, if you want to target customers who looked at your products but did not make a purchase, you can include customers who visited any pages containing the URL "/products/", but exclude customers who visited the URL "/thank-you".

Using Custom Events

Going back to the custom events made earlier, you can select any of the events you created to tell Meta that you want to serve ads to those specific people. So, if you created an event tracking those who downloaded your eBook, you can create a custom audience of those people and target an ad to them offering a free consultation.

Retention Window

Lastly, you can select an audience retention window. This setting allows you to determine how long an individual can stay in this custom audience. So, if you have the retention window set to 60 days, people who are still in the audience and pass that window will be removed.

Note that this is not necessarily a permanent removal as someone can fit into that criteria later.

As a small business owner, the best way to view a retargeting campaign within your current marketing mix is as a customer acquisition insurance policy. Retargeting campaigns are designed to ensure you are keeping in touch with the people who have already shown interest in your business, but were not ready to make a purchase or fill out a form fill at that moment.

Target Your Warmest Leads

One of the most prominent benefits of a Facebook retargeting campaign is that customer lists are updated automatically and almost instantaneously. This means that as soon as a customer meets the criteria (e.g., views a product but does not purchase), they will almost immediately become eligible to see your retargeting ads.

The good timing in tandem with effective messaging can tip the scales in your favor and push a customer to make a purchase after seeing your retargeting ad.

Remain Top Of Mind

Let's use the same example above where the customer views a product and does not make a purchase. Even if they do not make a purchase after seeing your retargeting ad for the first time, Meta can show that ad to them more than once. This metric is shown in your Meta Ads Manager report under the Frequency column.

Depending on your campaign goal (e.g., maximized reach) your ad can be shown to customers on a daily basis. So even if they didn't want to immediately make a purchase after seeing your retargeting ad, they will be consistently reminded of your brand and may choose to make a purchase later.

Best Practice 1: Include An Offer

If you run an eCommerce business and you want to capture as many potential sales as possible, a great way to capture those customers is to provide a discount, such as "10% off your next order" or "Get free shipping using code FREESHIP".

Best Practice 2: Inform Customers On Your Benefits

If a customer has expressed interest in a product or service that you offer, it may be a good idea to give that customer as much information to that customer so they can make an informed purchase.

Using a carousel post in your retargeting campaign can allow you to easily showcase all the benefits of your products or services in a top-10 styled post. After learning more about the benefits of your product or service, they'll be more inclined to go back to your website and make a purchase.

Best Practice 3: Make Sure You Have Enough Traffic Coming To Your Website

A retargeting campaign runs if you already have users coming to your website and spending a considerable amount of time there. Without a consistent flow of new traffic, Meta will have less data to track meaning there will be fewer people in your retargeting audience and the price per customer acquisition might be higher than anticipated.

So, if you plan to run retargeting campaigns, make sure that you are already getting traffic to your website and that the Pixel is picking up new traffic as well. If you are looking to get more traffic to your website, we recommend both posting consistently on social media to increase brand awareness supplemented by other paid marketing channels such as standard Meta ads and Google Ads.

Some Client Results Who Ran A Retargeting Campaign*

• A party supply rental business saw a 30% increase in sales from returning visitors.
• A dog care service retargeted over 1,000 customers from Q2 to Q3 of 2022
• A local restaurant saw a 45% increase in returning website visitors in under a month.

*Disclaimer: Same or similar results are NOT guaranteed.

Facebook retargeting campaigns can be a powerful tool when employed properly. It allows you to remain top of mind with customers who have interacted with your business before, and it can capture potential lost sales.

Now's the time for you to start a Facebook retargeting campaign.

If you still need more guidance on how to properly set up a retargeting campaign, our team of expert digital marketers can help you install your Facebook Pixel, identify the best customers to retarget, and employ the right retargeting creatives and messaging to convert more users into customers for your business.