How to Set Up Ad Retargeting on Facebook

 

If you've never used retargeting before, don't worry — in the following post, we'll go through the basics of how retargeting works, explain how you can use it to support your larger marketing goals, and even outline an example of a Facebook Ad retargeting campaign.

How Retargeting Campaigns Work

There are two main types of retargeting: pixel-based and list-based. The way each works is slightly different, and each has different advantages based on your campaign goals.

Pixel-Based Retargeting

Pixel-based retargeting is a way to re-display your material to any anonymous site visitor.

This is probably the most common type of retargeting. When someone comes to your website, an unobtrusive piece of JavaScript (often referred to as a pixel) is placed on their browser — making their browser "cookie-d." When they leave your site to surf the web, that cookie notifies retargeting platforms to serve specific ads based on the specific pages they visited on your website.

The advantage of pixel-based retargeting is that it is timely (they can be retargeted pretty immediately after leaving your site), specific to a particular page on your site, and behavior-based. Downsides to this method are that there is a lower volume of people in the campaign at any given moment in time since it's all based on how often people are coming to your website, viewing certain pages, and leaving. It also can be complicated or time-intensive to implement the JavaScript on many website pages.

List-Based Retargeting

List-based retargeting works after you already have someone's contact information in your database.

You can also use lists of your existing contacts for certain types of retargeting ads. To do this, upload a list of the email addresses to a retargeting campaign (usually on a social network like Facebook or Twitter), and the platform will identify users on that network who have those addresses and serve retargeting ads just to them.

Though it's a little less common than pixel-based retargeting, list-based retargeting allows you to have highly customizable criteria for your ads because it's based on more than behavior — you're choosing who goes in which list.

On the flip side, it's possible that a person in your list gave you one email address and the social network another — and in that case, they won't see your ads. Also keep in mind that because you are in charge of uploading and maintaining the list, list-based retargeting also is less automatic and timely than pixel-based retargeting.

If you've ever heard of the term "retargeting," it's likely it was in comparison to remarketing. And while the two are often mistaken for each other, they do have differences. Let's talk about when you would use either.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Emotional Advertising: How Brands Use Feelings to Get People to Buy

8 Inclusive Advertising Tips for 2021, According to Microsoft's Head of Inclusive Marketing

The Definition of Advertising in Less Than 50 Words