Y’all it’s here - pumpkin spice is everywhere which means that this year’s holiday season is fast approaching, and with it comes the masses of shopping activity.
This year, overall retail spending is expected to increase by 4.5% to a staggering $1.3 trillion for the 2023 holiday season. As consumers gear up to purchase gifts for their loved ones or themselves), it’s essential for businesses to have a robust digital advertising strategy in place. One indispensable component of this strategy is remarketing.
As we begin prepping and finalizing our promos for the busiest time of year, we should have our remarketing audiences building in the background until we’re ready to use them. In this blog post, we will explore the concept of remarketing in digital advertising, why it’s crucial for holiday sales success, and how you can get started today to better prep you for the winter holidays.
What is Remarketing?
Before diving into the holiday-specific applications of remarketing, let’s first understand what remarketing is and how it works. At its core, remarketing is a technique that targets users who have previously interacted with your website or app but did not make a purchase.
For example, have you ever clicked on an ad and had it follow you around for the next 7 years? Yep, that’s what we’re talking about. This is accomplished through the placement of targeted ads in front of users as they browse other websites or social media platforms.
There are two main types of remarketing: standard remarketing and dynamic remarketing.
Standard remarketing involves showing the same ad to all users who visit a specific page on your website. In contrast, dynamic remarketing is much more personalized and customizes the ads shown to each user based on their previous interactions with the exact item they were looking at on your website.
Pairing Remarketing With Your Holidays
For your holiday strategy, remarketing isn’t an option; it’s a holiday sales ally that should be required. However, we’re not just talking about your standard website visitors and Lookalikes. Instead, we are going one step further and silo’ing out holiday shoppers of your brand specifically. Let’s take a look at all the different routes you can take for remarketing this holiday season.
Remarketing to Loyal Shoppers
The most obvious, but important, audience is your current customers. These users are already loyal to your brand and are likely going to be shopping with you during the holidays. Whether for themselves or for their gifting, it’s important to begin outlining your audiences and understanding how you are going to seal the deal with them (perhaps more than once) this holiday season.
Audience segments to consider:
Previous purchases from the last 30,60, 90 days
Website visitors from the last 30,60, 90 days
Social Media & YouTube engagers
Trade shows / email lists / subscribers
*Note that these audiences have very different intent levels and the offers should vary in temperature to match their mindset
Closing the Deal with Cart Abandoners
During the hectic holiday shopping rush, many potential customers may add items to their carts but leave without completing the purchase. Cart abandonment is the new window shopping with 69.82% of customers abandoning their carts. Remarketing allows you to gently remind these users of their abandoned items and entice them back to complete the transaction with an exclusive offer. The holiday season is a competitive time, and remarketing helps you stay top-of-mind with potential customers, increasing the likelihood of conversions.
Moreover, as consumers are bombarded with advertising, it’s noteworthy that 3 out of 4 viewers notice and consider retargeted ads, making them a preferred choice for businesses seeking to stand out. To top it off, remarketed users are 70% more likely to convert - do you need more links & stats to convince you? We hope not.
Your cart abandonment sequence with new copy and/or offers:
Same day abandonment
Days 2-3 abandonment
Days 4-7 abandonment
Days 7-14 abandonment
Days 15 - 20 abandonment
Day 20+ add to traditional remarketing campaigns
*Note that you will want to adjust your frequency within these segments to ensure you provide an enjoyable user experience and don’t annoy the living &%$# out of your audience
Your Brand’s Holiday Shoppers
That’s right - best for last. After you hit the basics with your loyal base and abandoners, it’s time to look at people who buy from your brand exclusively during the holidays.
These shoppers may be family members or friends of your customer base, or perhaps they are customers who buy bigger orders for their own family and friends during the holidays. Whoever they are, they are unique to Q4 and should not be blended into your typical audience offers or worse, forgotten.
Audience segments to consider:
Previous purchasers from Q4 last year
Previous cart abandoners from Q4 last year
Lookalikes or purchasers from Q4 last year (not remarketing, but still 🤫)
Personalization & Compelling Ad Creatives
Two key elements that can significantly boost the effectiveness of your holiday strategies are personalization and creative ad campaigns. Personalization is not just a buzzword in digital marketing; it's a game-changer. Consumers are bombarded with countless ads every day, and generic messages typically get lost in the noise. Personalization involves tailoring your efforts and creatives to individual customer preferences, behavior, and history.
Personalized ads are more relevant to the recipient, making them more likely to engage with the content. When a potential customer sees an ad that aligns with their past interactions or interests, they're more likely to click through and make a purchase.It also creates a sense of familiarity and trust.
Personalized remarketing ads can have a significant impact on conversion rates. IBM found that 66% of customers actually expect companies to understand their unique needs, however, only 34% of companies are delivering on this expectation. Be that 34%.
So, how can you tailor your strategy for your audience? Here’s some quick, layman’s terms, ways of incorporating personalization into your campaigns:
Product Recommendations: eCommerce brands often use personalized product recommendations based on a user's browsing history and previous purchases. For instance, "Customers who bought X also bought Y" or "Recommended for you."
Email Marketing: Email campaigns can be highly personalized. This includes using the recipient's first name in the subject line or body of the email, sending personalized product recommendations, or crafting content based on the user's behavior, such as abandoned cart reminders.
Dynamic Content: Websites and landing pages can display dynamic content based on user behavior or preferences. For example, a travel website might display destination recommendations based on the user's past searches or location.
Personalized Offers: Tailoring special offers or discounts to specific customer segments. For instance, a loyalty program might offer higher discounts to long-term customers or VIP members.
Location-Based Personalization: Ads can be customized based on a user's location. Retailers can show users the nearest physical store or offer location-specific promotions.
Personalized Video Ads: Video ads can be personalized by incorporating products they've previously shown interest in.
Social Media Advertising: Platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow advertisers to target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors, ensuring ads are shown to the most relevant audience.
Personalized Landing Pages: After clicking on an ad, users can be directed to a landing page tailored to their interests or demographics, creating a more seamless and engaging experience.
Strategies for Remarketing This Season
When it comes to devising successful holiday advertising strategies, it's essential to embrace a comprehensive approach that incorporates key elements like frequency capping, cross-channel and device targeting, and personalization. These strategies not only ensure your message reaches the right audience but also enhance the overall effectiveness and impact of your holiday campaigns.
Frequency Capping
Remarketing involves more than just showing ads repeatedly to the same users. Effective strategies, such as sequential remarketing, can be used to guide users through the sales funnel. Frequency caps are a crucial part of managing digital advertising campaigns. They help control the number of times a specific ad is shown to the same user within a set time period. This prevents ad fatigue and annoyance, ensuring that your ads remain effective without overwhelming your audience.
Quick step-by-step to help with frequency capping:
Choose Your Advertising Platform: Frequency cap settings are specific to the advertising platform you're using, such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or a programmatic advertising platform. Access the platform's dashboard or interface.
Select the Campaign: Within your advertising platform, select the campaign to which you want to apply frequency caps. Keep in mind that not all platforms offer frequency cap options for all types of campaigns.
Access Ad Settings: Navigate to the settings or options related to your ads. In most platforms, you'll find this under the "Ad Set" or "Ad Group" settings within the campaign.
Set Frequency Caps:
Impressions per User: Determine the maximum number of times you want your ad to be shown to the same user within a specified time frame, usually per day, week, or month.
Time Frame: Define the time period for which you want the frequency cap to apply. This could be daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on your campaign goals.
Ad Level or Ad Group Level: Some platforms allow you to set frequency caps at the ad level or the ad group level. Ad level caps apply to individual ads, while ad group level caps apply to all ads within a specific group.
Save Your Settings: After configuring the frequency cap settings, save your changes to apply the caps to your campaign.
It's important to strike a balance when setting frequency caps. Too low a cap may limit your reach and conversions, while too high a cap may irritate users. Testing and refining your frequency cap settings based on campaign performance and user feedback will help you find the optimal balance for your specific goals.
Cross-Device Remarketing
Cross-device remarketing is another strategy to consider, as users will most likely be switching between smartphones, tablets, and desktops while shopping during the holidays. Make sure your remarketing efforts are seamless across all devices to provide a consistent and convenient experience.
Setting up cross-device remarketing typically involves these steps:
Create a Remarketing List:
Sign in to your advertising platform (e.g., Google Ads, Facebook Ads).
Navigate to the "Audiences" or "Audience Manager" section.
Create a new remarketing list. This list will collect users who have interacted with your website or app across multiple devices.
Set Up Remarketing Tags:
Install the appropriate remarketing tags or tracking pixels on your website and within your mobile app. These tags will help track user interactions and collect data for your cross-device remarketing list.
Make sure the tags are correctly implemented to capture user data seamlessly.
Configure Cross-Device Tracking:
Some advertising platforms offer cross-device tracking features, which help match user data across different devices and platforms. Enable this feature in your platform settings.
For example, in Google Ads, you can enable "Google signals" to enable cross-device tracking.
Set Membership Duration:
Decide how long users should stay on your cross-device remarketing list. Membership duration determines how long you'll continue to target users with your remarketing ads.
Customize this duration based on your advertising goals and the typical customer journey in your industry.
Create Cross-Device Remarketing Campaigns:
Develop ad campaigns specifically targeting users on your cross-device remarketing list.
Craft personalized ad content that speaks to users based on their previous interactions with your brand.
Choose the ad platforms and devices you want your ads to appear on (e.g., desktop, mobile, tablet).
Set Bids and Budgets:
Allocate your advertising budget to your cross-device remarketing campaigns. You can set specific bids for different devices or platforms to optimize your ad delivery.
Experiment with bid adjustments based on device performance.
Create Customized Ad Creative:
Design ad creatives that are responsive and look appealing on various devices and screen sizes.
Consider creating mobile-friendly and desktop-friendly versions of your ads to ensure a consistent user experience.
Launch and Monitor Campaigns
Dynamic Remarketing for eCommerce
For eCommerce, the holiday season is a whirlwind of opportunities and competition. To stand out and make the most of the festive frenzy, eCommerce businesses turn to a powerful tool known as Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs).
DPA? No, not to be confused with your favorite craft beer 🍻 but it does have something to do with preferences and taste. DPAs automatically generate personalized ads for each user based on their past interactions and interests.
Now, here’s why DPAs are a game changer during the holidays. Imagine a potential customer who’s been browsing for holiday gifts on your website but leaves without making a purchase. With DPAs, you can re-engage them with tailored ads showcasing popular holiday gifts, limited-time offers, or even products they’ve shown interest in by adding them to their cart.
The key here is relevance.
DPAs ensure that the right products are present to the right users at the right time, significantly boosting the effectiveness of your remarketing efforts during the holiday rush.
Cross-Channel Remarketing
Remarketing can be implemented across various advertising platforms, including Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, and more. Understanding how to retarget on these diverse platforms is key to a successful holiday season.
Setting up remarketing campaigns involves tailoring your approach to match the unique features and capabilities of each platform. Whether it’s utilizing Facebook’s dynamic remarketing or Google Ads’ powerful display network, the strategy must align with each platform’s strengths.
Moreover, platform-specific best practices are your guiding star. For example, on Facebook, you might leverage its rich audience targeting options, while Google Ads offers the advantage of remarketing users based on what they are actively searching for.
In the holiday advertising haze, knowing where and how to deploy your remarketing campaigns can make all the difference. It’s not just about spreading your message; it’s about using each platform’s unique capabilities to amplify your holiday success.
Similar to cross-device remarketing, here’s how you’d set up a cross-channel remarketing strategy:
Choose Your Advertising Platforms:
Identify the advertising platforms and channels where you want to implement your remarketing efforts. Common choices include Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and email marketing platforms.
Implement Universal Tracking:
To track user interactions across platforms, you'll need a universal tracking mechanism. The most common method is the use of UTM parameters for tracking links. These parameters can be added to URLs in your ads or email campaigns.
For website tracking, consider using Google Analytics or other analytics tools that allow cross-platform tracking.
Create a Centralized Remarketing List:
In your chosen advertising platform(s), set up a centralized remarketing list. This list will collect user data and interactions from multiple channels.
Connect this list to your tracking mechanism (e.g., Google Analytics) to ensure data consistency.
Set Membership Duration:
Determine how long users should remain on your remarketing list. This duration should align with your campaign goals and customer behavior.
Set Up Remarketing Campaigns on Each Platform:
Create separate remarketing campaigns on each advertising platform you've chosen. Follow the platform-specific steps to set up these campaigns.
In Google Ads, you can use Google Analytics to create audiences that combine data from your website, app, and other sources.
Use Consistent Ad Creative and Messaging:
Ensure that your ad creative, messaging, and branding remain consistent across all platforms. This consistency helps reinforce your brand identity and message.
Customize ads for each platform to match the audience's behavior and preferences on that specific channel.
Allocate Budgets and Bids:
Determine how you'll allocate your advertising budget across platforms. Consider factors like the size of the audience, conversion rates, and platform performance.
Adjust bids and budgets based on the ROI and performance of each platform.
Schedule and Launch Campaigns
Measuring Remarketing Success
To truly gauge the effectiveness of your remarketing campaigns, you’ll want to keep a close eye on your most important metrics. Note that during the holidays, clicks and impressions can get expensive - we know this. Don’t be distracted by these metrics and focus on your ROAS/CPA targets.
But don’t stop there, A/B testing is another tool for optimizing those remarketing ads. Allowing you multiple options to craft different versions of your holiday message. Test out various ad creatives, tweak your messaging, and experiment with different audience segments. You’ll quickly discover what truly resonates with your target audience and be able to refine your strategy accordingly.
Budget Allocation and Optimization
When it comes to allocating your budget for remarketing during the holiday season, finding the sweet spot between expanding your reach and ensuring efficiency is vital. It’s not just about how much you spend; it’s about where you spend it.
One effective strategy is to allocate your budget based on the potential ROI for each audience segment and campaign. Consider the value of each segment in terms of their likelihood to convert and their historical spending patterns. Focus more of your budget on segments with higher conversion rates and larger potential gains, especially during the peak holiday shopping periods.
However, budget allocation is not a set-it-and-forget-it task. Continuous monitoring and real-time adjustments are essential during the holiday season. The landscape can change rapidly, and consumer behavior can shift unexpectedly. To ensure you’re getting the most out of your ad spend, keep a vigilant eye on your campaigns. Use analytics tools to track performance, and be prepared to make necessary adjustments swiftly. Whether it’s tweaking ad creatives, adjusting bidding strategies, or reallocating budget based on real-time data, staying agile is key to achieving the best results from your remarketing efforts making the holiday season a truly prosperous time for your business.
TLDR;
In conclusion, remarketing is a powerful tool that should be at the forefront of your digital advertising strategy for holiday sales success in 2023 and beyond. By understanding the basics of remarketing, building custom audiences, creating compelling ad creatives, and implementing effective strategies, you can significantly enhance your chances of increased conversions and customer engagement during the shopping season. Whether you're an eCommerce business or a service provider, remarketing can be the difference between standing out in the crowd or getting lost in the holiday frenzy.
As you gear up for the holiday rush, we understand the challenges it can bring. Consider reaching out to our team here at Bluum, where we specialize in handling the intricacies of digital advertising, allowing you to concentrate on making this holiday season the biggest one yet. 🥂
-Bluum
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