{"id":171755,"date":"2018-05-09T13:00:02","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/premium.wpmudev.org\/blog\/?p=171755"},"modified":"2018-05-07T23:57:37","modified_gmt":"2018-05-07T23:57:37","slug":"how-to-successfully-launch-a-retargeting-campaign-using-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/how-to-successfully-launch-a-retargeting-campaign-using-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Successfully Launch a Retargeting Campaign Using WordPress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retargeting (or remarketing) is something we\u2019re all familiar with as consumers. You visit a website and browse the various products, services, or content published within it. You think, \u201cOh, that looks interesting. I may need to do something with this.\u201d But then you leave. Maybe you didn\u2019t like the price or you got distracted by something at work or you simply wanted to take time to marinate on the purchase before doing anything about it.<\/p>\n

A day later, you\u2019re poking around on Facebook or reading an article somewhere else online and an ad catches your eye. You hesitate and think, \u201cIsn\u2019t that\u2026? No\u2026 Is that the same product I was just looking at the other day?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yep, it surely is. That\u2019s what retargeting does. It\u2019s a (mostly) acceptable form of digital stalking you can use to stay connected to your WordPress site\u2019s visitors long after they\u2019re gone. Want to learn more about how this works and how you can launch your first retargeting campaign with WordPress? Keep reading.<\/p>\n

Retargeting: What You Need to Know<\/h2>\n

Retargeting is a simple enough concept.<\/p>\n

What you do is target<\/em> a visitor from your WordPress site based on certain parameters you\u2019ve created. In other words, you determine which ones are worth following up with. Then, you present them with an ad that reminds them of the original connection they made with the website. Maybe it\u2019s a special offer on a product they spent five minutes looking at or it\u2019s a reminder about a free report<\/a> available for download and related to a blog post they read .<\/p>\n

Retargeting is pretty similar to pop-ups in that respect. You suspect that a visitor has an interest in the site, but you don\u2019t want to lose them to distractions or fears or anything else that motivates them to abandon the experience. The main difference is that a pop-up will target the visitor while they\u2019re still on<\/em> the site whereas retargeting gets to them at a later point in time as they peruse the rest of the web.<\/p>\n

One of the interesting things here is that retargeting ads are just ads, after all. However, you don\u2019t have to actively go around paying different websites to place your ads on their websites. Nor do you need to spend time placing ads on your WordPress site<\/a>. Instead, your retargeting pixel allows you to fill in ad spaces across the web when it\u2019s most relevant for your visitors to see them.<\/p>\n

For example, this is an actual ad on The Stranger website:<\/p>\n

\"The <\/div>\n

I know this is a traditional ad and not a retargeting one for a few reasons. For starters, I\u2019ve never been to Voff Bark & Brew. Secondly, the ad is totally irrelevant to me as I do not live in Seattle. And, finally, it\u2019s way too compatible with the content on the page. This was a strategically planned ad placement.<\/p>\n

Retargeting ads, on the other hand, have one specific trait that give them away: they\u2019re from a website you recently visited and<\/em> usually focus on a specific page or product you viewed while there.<\/p>\n

Here are some examples:<\/p>\n

While looking around for new recipes on the Cooking Light website, I encountered this tempting offer to return to Shutterfly and get 40% off:<\/p>\n

\"Shutterfly <\/div>\n

I spend a lot of time on the WPEngine website in general since it\u2019s just a great resource for WordPress information. That said, the last thing I expected was to see an ad for it while scouring Buzzfeed for silly news and quizzes:<\/p>\n

\"Post <\/div>\n

Facebook is probably the most common place I encounter sponsored posts–on both the desktop and mobile versions of the site. I was recently on Travelzoo researching airfare discounts, so this ad was the kind of distraction I didn\u2019t need to see while trying to work this morning:<\/p>\n

\"Travelzoo <\/div>\n

Even The Weather Channel isn\u2019t safe from retargeting. All I wanted to know was what the ten-day forecast was going to look like. However, because I\u2019ve spent a lot of time on the AdRoll site preparing for this article, I was hit with these reminders to download the free guide teaching me how to maximize my retargeting campaigns.<\/p>\n

\"AdRoll\" <\/div>\n

And this is perhaps the creepiest of the retargeting ads I encountered today. After I\u2019d had my fill of scouring Cooking Light for recipes, I opened my Cozi app (which conveniently stores all of them for me) to figure out what to cook later. And, there, at the bottom of the app, is a retargeting ad for the exact pack of AAA batteries I just bought off of Amazon, with an offer to save 5% if I subscribe with my next purchase.<\/p>\n

\"Amazon <\/div>\n

As you can see, there aren\u2019t that many common areas on the web that are safe from retargeting. But is that a bad thing?<\/p>\n

Retargeting isn\u2019t a shallow or irrelevant attempt to connect with visitors. It\u2019s actually the opposite: by using a smart pixel to monitor their moves on your site and then deliver ads targeted to their interests, a retargeted ad could really work in your favor for recovering potentially lost sales or leads.<\/p>\n

How Does Retargeting Work?<\/h2>\n

In terms of how retargeting actually works behind the scenes, it boils down to this:<\/p>\n