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Retargeting

Definition, Benefits & Tips for Launching a Successful Campaign

Where many online advertising methods are designed to attract new visitors, ad retargeting is a versatile method of advertising to previous visitors to prompt them to return to a website to complete a desired action, such as becoming a lead or buying a product.

Learn more about retargeting:

What Is Retargeting?

Retargeting is an advertising method which targets people who have previously visited a website.


It does this by showing creative to previous visitors wherever they go online, such as blogs, social media platforms, or search engines.

Retargeting campaigns are executed through advertising platforms, such as LinkedIn Marketing Solutions which uses a robust set of marketing tools to target audiences with personalized content to keep them engaged throughout the buyer’s journey.

Let’s take a look at how retargeting works, different methods of retargeting, what benefits each offer, and how it can play a role in your larger customer acquisition plans.

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How Does Retargeting Work?

When a person visits a website with retargeting enabled, the website will load an HTML tracking pixel and specialized Javascript into the visitor’s browser, which then sends anonymized data about the visitor back to the website’s server log files.

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Anonymous information that is commonly collected includes:

  • IP address

 

  • Operating system

 

  • Browser type

 

  • Screen resolution

 

  • Time the website was visited

 

  • Activities on the website during a session

 

The log file then sends these anonymous signals to an ad exchange that identifies that visitor’s location on the internet, and instantly shows the visitor tailored advertising to encourage that person to return and become a lead or make a purchase. This level of insight helps brands build familiarity with prospects across multiple channels, and remain top-of-mind until the purchasing decision is made.

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Retargeting

Segment your audience and deliver unique content based on actions they've taken with your brand

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Where does retargeting fit into a broader customer acquisition strategy?

Where traditional paid ads drive new traffic, retargeting ads drive engagement. Visitors who return through retargeting typically view more pages, spend more time on site, churn at lower rates, and have a higher customer lifetime value.


This is because of the existing level of familiarity. Where the first visit drives awareness, the second visit and beyond is driven by curiosity, personalization, and a genuine interest in the offerings. When combined with paid traffic acquisition, businesses can broadly target pages on a website, then retarget visitors who landed on those pages and did not convert on the first visit, keeping the brand top of mind as they browse the internet. Retargeting ads can also work independently of paid acquisition, instead augmenting organic traffic strategies to reintroduce the brand to visitors who came through search, social, or referral.

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How is retargeting commonly used?

Because of the wide variety of data retargeting pixels can collect, retargeting advertising can be extremely versatile.


For example, advertisers might:

 

 

  • Encourage return visits to people who did not finish filling out a form

 

  • Show relevant products to people who have visited specific ecommerce pages

 

  • Share the site visitors company information with sales teams for targeted followups

 

  • Display “middle of funnel” ads such as pricing or comparison pages to frequent visitors

 

Pixel based retargeting is the foundation of all retargeting ads. When used with specialized JavaScript, they can also track demographics of visitors, frequency of visits, and user journeys across a website.

Because LinkedIn has a wealth of information associated with visitors, with the LinkedIn retargeting pixel, also known as the LinkedIn Insight Tag, businesses can use the following data to enhance their paid ad campaigns:

 

 

  • The company names of their most frequent visitors.

 

  • Visitors who have yet to fill out a form.

 

  • Size of the visitor’s company.

 

  • The follower’s job seniority.

 

  • The visitor’s geography.

 

  • The visitor’s industry.

 

The LinkedIn insight tag is often used by website owners to further target creative in retargeting campaigns.

When to launch a retargeting campaign

It is commonly stated that businesses should start retargeting once they’ve reached between 500-1,000 monthly visitors, however this is completely subjective.


Consider: Retargeting 1,000 visitors on a one page website will yield stronger results than retargeting those same 1,000 visitors on a 1,000 page website. For this reason, the LinkedIn Insight tag requires segments to include a minimum of 300 visitors.

While launching retargeting early in the traffic acquisition lifecycle has advantages, retargeting campaigns have higher returns when reserved for when traffic acquisition efforts scaled and are targeting pages consistently convert to paid customers.

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Retargeting vs. Remarketing: What is the difference?

Often confused with retargeting, remarketing is another method of marketing to existing leads.


The difference between retargeting and remarketing is that retargeting serves paid ads to previous visitors in a variety of ways and remarketing uses the retargeting pixel to to serve ads to existing customers and leads who have given their email address.

With the visitor’s email address, businesses can get even more personalized by automatically emailing relevant offers to predetermined pages on their site.

 

Some common examples of email based remarketing include:

 

  • Subscription renewal reminders.
  • Reengaging cold subscribers with relevant offers.
  • Targeted up-sells and cross sells based on purchasing behavior.

 

Email remarketing affords brands powerful ways to tie behavioral data to action, and deliver offers in a more personal environment than social media, search, or other websites.

Even though the two phrases are often used interchangeably, it’s important for brands to remember how they compliment each other, so they can stay relevant and create familiarity across all available channels.

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Ways to use the LinkedIn retargeting pixel

Because the LinkedIn Insight Tag offers a wealth of visitor data such as, company size, industry, seniority, company name, and advertisers can understand who is visiting their site and retarget visitors with tailored ad content on LinkedIn.


By adding the LinkedIn Insight Tag to their website, advertisers can match their website visitors to members on LinkedIn for further engagement. Advertisers can also use website retargeting with LinkedIn demographic segments for more refined targeting.

Data like this can be used to generate leads, build brand awareness, reach customers and drive repeat purchases.

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Here are just a few examples of how data from the LinkedIn Insight tag can be used:

  1. Tailor landing pages based on visitor data
    Using LinkedIn Insights, businesses can create landing pages and custom tailor their messaging to different segments of their audience.

  2. Build customer journeys and target mid-funnel pages
    In combination with targeting specific segments with LinkedIn ads, retargeting those same segments can move visitors through the buying journey to surface high-intent blog posts, ebooks, pricing pages, webinars.

  3. Retarget visitors who have filled out lead generation forms
    Using retargeting to show videos, comparison sheets, demos or other assets can play a valuable role in educating the prospect and shortening the sales cycle.

  4. Encourage up-sells, down-sells, cross-sales, and promotions
    Visitors may not find the right offer for their circumstance on the first visit. In which case, retargeting may be used to promote offers that better suit their situation.

    For example: If a visitor with a company of over 10,000 employees lands on a pricing page that only offers starter, basic, or advanced packages, a more relevant offer may be an enterprise solution which can be surfaced through retargeting.

    Likewise the opposite might be true for a visitor with fewer employees.

    Existing customers may be retargeted with cross-sales for add-on services, or frequent visitors who have not purchased may be shown special promotional offers to nudge them toward buying.

  5. Refine your target audiences
    For businesses who have started with broad targeting traffic acquisition campaigns, retargeting allows them to use what they’ve learned about their visitor’s industry, company size, job role, and seniority to see which audiences the broad campaigns are resonating with, then use the data to retarget visitors with their ideal customer profile, and improve all of their paid advertising efforts.
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Grow your business with LinkedIn retargeting
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