Have you felt forced to choose between Google and Facebook ads? False – you can do both and more without breaking the bank; just keep reading here!

Web and mobile ads can help Shopify store owners stand out. You don’t have to only promote on global tech behemoths like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other major social media platforms. Most business-minded individuals agree that the sheer scale and online reach made possible by “big tech” is terrific. But it feels easy to get lost in the shuffle within the millions of companies they serve. 

You have to remember that tech giants like those listed above provide ad services for millions of businesses. Google serves over 4 million active advertisers, for goodness’ sake! Within that frame of reference, it makes sense for small store owners to take it into their own hands and use different online advertising formats. Otherwise, the sheer number of other local businesses competing for online sales could push you out.

For example, let’s say your Shopify store sells clothing and denim. Think of how many different options your potential customers have to get a pair of jeans: gazillions! At that point, visibility beyond just Facebook and Google could seriously be the difference maker between the customer going: “Oh yeah, that place, I guess I’ll check it out now,” and them not even remembering your store!

Stay Local, Advertise Internationally

Ad360 gives Shopify store owners the advantage of advertising beyond social media platforms. Thanks to our integration of Menadex Media, you can run ads through programmatic advertising onto most websites and mobile apps. Virtually any page your store visitors go on could have your Shopify store ads now! Imagine your denim jeans Shopify store now displays not only on social media sites but can follow potential customers across the web – they’ll see your Shopify store products even when browsing CNN international! Or MSNBC! Or whatever news site they’re on!

The expansion beyond traditional social media sites is one of the most potent developments now available for online small businesses. The technology, which used to be only available for the most prominent brands, is now available for everybody, thanks to Ad360. You can now advertise on many more sites and media than before while at the same time focusing on the specific geographic area that matters the most to you. The amount of web visibility you get when considering the locality of your store is brilliant.

If you’re interested to see the kind of impact ads beyond social media can have, try a free trial at Ad360 today!

After all the quiet hard work to set his Shopify store up during the pandemic, Frank sat back and took in a moment of true satisfaction. 

All the goods were beautifully posted with pictures. The account details looked correct, and Frank’s enterprise was officially off the ground! He took a victory lap for figuring all this crap out, feeling pretty good about it all!

…. No Traffic

A week went by. And Frank’s Shopify store got lost in the millions of other e-commerce sites – no one clicked on it. This is the number 1 reason new stores fail. Business owners get confused and lose steam when trying to drive consistent, substantial traffic to their Shopify store and end up with barely any clicks. With no assistance or someone to bounce ideas off, such an event can be really discouraging. Frank knows his product is the best, but it’s virtually invisible.  

The new challenge? How the hell does Frank get more clicks? He didn’t major in online marketing… where do you even start? He tried his hand at Facebook and Google ads, but a few challenges immediately popped up after sitting down to make the ads:

1. How should I make the ad, and what should it look like?  
2. Where the hell do I put it, so potential customers actually see it?
3. Is there a way to make it stand out?
4. Can I follow up with people somehow after I click my ad, or am I stranded with visitors leaving the site without purchasing anything?

We’re pleased to let Frank know he can focus on the gazillion other things related to his business. Ad360 does the heavy lifting and answers all these questions for you! After starting with Ad360 App for Shopify, Frank felt like he had found his “needle in a haystack” – his ideal customers! Ads began popping up more often on the right websites. With Ad360 ad retargeting, Frank could engage further and further with customers genuinely interested in his Shopify store, while not wasting time on the ones who wouldn’t bat an eye.

If you want to see how your business grows with cutting-edge ad retargeting, contact Ad360 for a demo and free trial today!

Here is a painful truth: According to LinkedIn, more than 90% of first-time website visitors are not ready to make a purchase. They are interested. They just are not ready yet.

Second-time visitors know about your offers. You know that they are interested because they have clicked on your link or visited your website. 

Retargeting works so well because you are not wasting money reaching people who are not interested. You focus your advertising on people who have already engaged with your store. You do not have to start afresh every time a visitor comes to your website. 

The truth is: if you are not retargeting, you are leaving money on the table.

Retargeting Achieves Higher Conversion Rates

Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns have a lower conversion rate. They bring in first-time visitors who convert at the lowest rate. Retargeting generates warmer leads.

Because retargeting ads bring in more value for money, investing in retargeting bumps up conversions and gives you a better Return on Investment (ROI). If you are advertising and not retargeting, you are wasting money. 

Retargeting will get you more sales and revenue. 

Consumers often purchase after several encounters with a brand. When you retarget, you are nudging along prospects who have already had at least one encounter with you. They are closer to committing themselves. By using retargeting, you nurture the relationship with them, and they get more and more familiar with your brand.

Reinforce Brand Awareness

When you appear in front of your prospects more often, you remain in their short-term memory. They will be back when they are ready to buy. 

Brand awareness drives business growth. Retargeting is one of the best tools to strengthen awareness among your warmest prospects. 

Conclusion

Retargeting is not going anywhere. Advertisers witness better click-through rates, higher conversion rates, and better returns on investment. 

Want to know more about retargeting and how it can help your business? Book a demo with Ad360 and get a free consultation.

Here is a story that is all too frequent for shop owners:

Christine visited a section of your website two days ago to purchase a dress from your online store. She likes the dress very much, and she already imagines herself smiling when she unpacks the dress and wears it for the first time.

But while she was about to hit the “order” button, a notification from work came into her phone.

Christine leaves your website and takes the call, which requires her to open a new tab on her phone for quick work research. The rest of the day gets busy for Christine, and she forgets to complete her transaction on your online store.

Has this ever happened to you? That wouldn’t be surprising since about 96% of people leave a website without purchasing for different reasons.

What if you could remind Christine about the dress so that she comes back to the website and completes the transaction?

This is precisely what retargeting allows you to do!

Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a form of high-performance marketing that drives sales in a unique and specific method. It allows you to show personalized ads to people who have visited a particular page or section on your website. While they go through other websites online, they see ads from your site to remind them of their unfinished transaction. Retargeting efficiently converts abandoned carts into sales because the ad goes directly to the persons who have already demonstrated an interest in your store and products.

Are you interested in learning more? This article explains everything you need to know about retargeting and why it’s indispensable for a successful e-commerce business.

At Ad360, our mission is to help business owners of all sizes grow and be happier. You can quickly get started with retargeting, thanks to Ad360 App for Shopify.

Book a Demo to see by yourself how we could help convert abandoned carts into sales and provide more sales for your e-commerce business!

What Is Retargeting, and Why It’s Indispensable When Running a Successful eCommerce Business?

Retargeting is a type of online advertising that uses website cookies to track your website users. Even after prospective customers leave their site, you can target them with ads for your brand or product. 

This process is the best-performing and most efficient type of advertising because it only shows ads to consumers who have expressed their interest in your product or service. By targeting warm leads, conversion rates go up, meaning ad spend is justified.

The Problem

Less than 2% of consumers purchase something on their first visit to an eCommerce website. On top of that, some reports suggest that more than 90% of consumers who first visit a website have no intention of making a purchase.The majority of web traffic is there to compare prices or review your items. 

In fact, it takes several interactions with a brand before a consumer makes a purchase. Salesforce suggests the number is between six and eight. Other estimates say it takes as much as ten.

Whichever way you look at it, getting visitors to your eCommerce website is just part of the battle. Making further impressions via marketing, advertising, reviews, word of mouth, etc., is what is needed to ensure sales.

These numbers demonstrate just how difficult it is for eCommerce brands today. Additionally, they highlight how difficult it is for merchants to compete in a crowded marketplace.

The Solution

Retargeting offers eCommerce websites an excellent solution to these issues. By targeting consumers who have expressed an interest in your products or services (by visiting your site) and targeting them with ads, you can increase the interactions that lead to sales.

Retargeting — also known as remarketing — has been used by digital marketing specialists and big brands for a long time. It’s a popular form of advertising because it gets excellent results. 

As we mentioned earlier, it’s the most effective type of marketing you can do because it deliberately targets warm leads. Instead of paying for advertisements that hopefully target a demographic, retargeting serves ads to people who are already interested in your products.

However, despite retargeting’s proven track record, many small eCommerce businesses don’t implement this form of advertising. There are a couple of reasons for this:

A) They don’t know about retargeting

B) They believe that retargeting is too challenging to do.

Not knowing about something is understandable. Running an eCommerce store has a big learning curve. It’s a lot of work, with many things to set up and suppliers and customers to deal with.

As for believing it’s too challenging, that can be true too. Sometimes it is hard for people to implement retargeting, especially for eCommerce store owners who aren’t digital natives.

However, eCommerce merchants need to overcome these challenges. The world of digital retail has shifted over the last few years. Failure to keep up with the times and use every tool at your disposal could lead to a closing business.

How eCommerce Has Changed in Recent Years

eCommerce has been a significant growth sector over the last decade or so. In 2014, the industry was worth around $1.3bn. That number will be about $5.4bn in 2022.

The pandemic exacerbated the existing trend toward an online economy. During the lockdown, many brick-and-mortar businesses went digital. Additionally, a glut of new merchants moved into the space, hoping to be part of this thriving sector.

eCommerce sales account for almost 1 in 5 of all retail sales worldwide. However, despite these positive numbers, 90% of eCommerce businesses fail in the first three months.

There are several reasons why eCommerce businesses don’t work. The top three are:

a) Poor online marketing

b) A lack of search engine visibility

c) A lack of demand for their products or services

This scenario is heartbreaking. Starting a business is such an exciting time for many entrepreneurs. It’s a significant investment of time and money, not to mention hopes and dreams. 

However, many eCommerce business owners quickly realize that getting a slice of the online retail pie is difficult. While the market is growing, so too is the competition.

One solution for eCommerce business owners is to run ads on social media (like Facebook or Instagram) or search engines like Google. But the increase in competition means that these marketing avenues have become more expensive and less effective. 

In short, it’s hard for businesses to stand out and run ads that result in a return on investment. Most companies don’t have a bottomless pit to pay for advertising while their store takes off. 

Retargeting is the solution to this issue because it helps businesses increase sales while keeping costs in check.

How Retargeting Works

While it may seem daunting to set up, retargeting is a simple process. 

When a visitor comes to your website, it drops a cookie (sometimes called a pixel) on their web browser. These cookies can identify each user as they navigate the web. 

For example:

Martha needs a good winter coat. She visits an eCommerce store and sees a brand that she likes. The website records Martha’s visit and attaches a cookie to her browser that indicates her interest in the product or the website.

Later, Martha browses her favorite websites: Facebook and the New York Times. She is greeted with some ads that are based on the cookies the eCommerce store saved. Martha is reminded of the brand and the winter coat she was interested in. 

This process serves as one of the “touchpoints” or interactions required for a sale. Martha decides that it’s time to buy the coat and clicks through on the ad or goes directly to the merchant’s website.

This story is a simple illustration of the power of retargeting. It helps serve personalized ads to people who have already expressed an interest in a product. This process can help remind them or convince them to make a purchase.

Benefits of Retargeting

Almost 70% of consumers say they are happy with personalization on one condition; that the information used to target them comes from first-party data.

Put plainly, consumers are OK with an eCommerce store collecting their information and using that to send them personalized ads. However, they are less keen about an eCommerce store buying data from a third party, like Facebook, and using that information to target them with ads.

Retargeting satisfies these criteria because it uses a customer’s visit to the site as the prompt to send them a personalized ad.

For eCommerce businesses, retargeting has many benefits.

Retargeting:

1) Increases brand awareness by keeping a business fresh in the user’s mind

2) Makes advertising more efficient by targeting interested consumers

3) Reduces the cost of marketing and advertising campaigns

Another great benefit of retargeting is how it combats what is known as “ad blindness.” Ad blindness is the term for a phenomenon that we are all familiar with.

When we browse the web, we are met with many advertisements. After a while, we tend to tune them out, whether consciously or subconsciously. According to some studies, ad blindness affects around 86% of consumers.

When you think about it, that is an incredible number. Almost 9 in 10 people don’t see or notice ads. You’re paying good money for ad space, but for many of your potential audience, your ads might as well not be there. 

The good news is that retargeting doesn’t suffer from this problem. In fact, statistics suggest that 75% of consumers notice retargeting ads. The likely reason for this is because they already have an interest and awareness of your brand.

That is the power of personalization.

The Remarketing Sales Funnel

If you are running an eCommerce business, you’ve probably heard terms like sales or marketing funnel being tossed around. Typically, these funnels are used to describe the various stages of a customer journey, from first finding out about a brand all the way to making a purchase.

It’s helpful to break this process up into stages. It makes it easier to identify where you are going wrong and what areas you can improve, for starters.

Remarketing also has a sales funnel; however, it’s a bit different from the traditional models that you’ve probably encountered.

The remarketing funnel can be broken down into four simple stages:

• Cold Leads
• Warm Leads
• Hot Leads
• Resale and Upsale Leads

Each of these stages describes where your prospective customers are in relation to your products or services. 

Let’s explore each stage and see how retargeting can help.

#1. Cold Leads

OK, so you are probably a bit confused. Isn’t the whole point of retargeting to focus on people who have already expressed an interest in your product? Shouldn’t we just be starting with warm leads?

Well, not exactly.

You see, cold leads can be part of a solid remarketing strategy because you can install a cookie or tracking pixel on the browser of someone who has visited any part of your site, including a blog.

You can combine retargeting with a content marketing campaign to drive more customers into your funnel. For example, if your eCommerce store sells golf equipment, you can write articles about golf. These could be product reviews, interviews, or tips and tricks on improving your game. Likewise, you can produce YouTube videos and retarget viewers.

Essentially, this stage is about increasing brand awareness. You are casting a wide net and getting attention from interested parties in the hope of turning them from cold leads who don’t know anything about your brand into warm leads that could become customers in the future.

#2. Warm Leads

Warm leads are customers actively looking for a solution to their problems. They are researching and evaluating different products and finding the right one.

eCommerce stores have a few different options here:

A) They can retarget based on a particular product they’ve expressed interest in

B) They can retarget based on all the products they are interested in.

If you have an eCommerce store focused on one particular item, then promoting that is sensible. However, if your store sells shoes, it might be worth paying for a carousel ad that shows several products.

#3. Hot Leads

Hot leads describe the prospects who are ready to buy. They’ve done their research and price comparisons, and all that’s left is to make a decision.

This stage is where remarketing excels at keeping your product fresh in the mind of potential customers. They’ve weighed up various solutions, and they’re thinking about which one is best. As they browse social media or news websites, your ads will serve as a gentle reminder.

Again, there are a few options that eCommerce stores can explore here.

A) Use ads to remind the consumer about your product

B) Anticipate the final objections that consumers might have about your product. It could be about price, quality, your returns policy, shipping costs, payment methods, and so on. 

Retargeting offers a few different ways that you can alleviate these concerns. You could write an ad copy that addresses issues and promotes your product. 

C) One time-honored sales tactic to employ is creating a sense of urgency. For example, you could offer a discount for a limited time or some other perk like free shipping. 

#4. Re-sale and Upsale Leads

Many eCommerce business owners don’t realize that one of their most significant potential sources of revenue is their existing customers. 

Upselling to customers is 68% cheaper than acquiring new customers. On average, it increases revenue by around 10-30%.

Of course, there is a delicate balance to be struck. We’ve all had the experience of buying a gift for someone online and then being bombarded with emails and ads by that same retailer for months afterward. It’s not a nice feeling, and it can actually lower our company’s opinion.

That said, retargeting your existing customers with relevant products they are likely to need is a powerful tactic.

Summary

Retargeting is the process of using web cookies to serve ads to people who have visited your website or product pages. It’s the most effective way to advertise because you target warm leads who have already expressed an interest in your product.

Competition in the eCommerce sector has increased considerably over the last few years. The cost of acquiring customers via ads is also on the rise. 

For an eCommerce business to survive, they need to get smart and find a way to stand without running ads that bankrupt their company. Retargeting offers the best solution to this problem by effectively and efficiently serving ads to warm users.

If you’re interested in exploring how Retargeting can help your business thrive, let’s have a chat. The Ad360 team is here to help businesses of all sizes succeed and be happy! We’d be delighted to have a conversation with you and show you a demo of how Ad360 App for Shopify makes Retargeting easy to get started with for any business, even if you have no technical skills whatsoever. 

Click here to Book a Demo with Ad360 App for Shopify