There is no doubt that retargeting is a powerful marketing tactic for lead generation. Done right, retargeting can be very effective for both customer acquisition and customer retention. With that said, when retargeting is not done with a clear strategy in mind, it becomes far harder to reap any of the benefits that this tool provides to your lead generation campaigns. In this guide, we take a look at some of the biggest retargeting mistakes and show you how to get more from your retargeting efforts.
Avoid These Lead Generation Retargeting Mistakes
From failing to segment your audience to failing to cross-sell or upsell, retargeting can all too easily go wrong. Many businesses jump at the chance to use retargeting ads on social media and search engines without stopping to ensure that there is a clear plan in place. Without a clear plan, it becomes all too easy for retargeting campaigns to go very wrong, costing you leads in the process. To help you get your retargeting strategy on track for better lead generation success, here are some of the top mistakes to avoid.
Not segmenting your audience
Retargeting campaigns are designed to reach potential leads who have either visited your website or interacted with your company in some way. That does not mean that you should treat your audience as one homogenous group, however. Segmenting your audience is essential to deliver the right message to the right leads at the right time. Failing to segment can result in lost leads and, often, lost ad spend.
The best way to segment your audience is to use criteria that closely resonate with your brand. This could be something simple as leads who have made a purchase and those who have not purchased or leads who shop online and leads who don’t or it could be more complex, such as leads in a specific area or leads within a certain demographic or stage of the buying cycle.
Not considering the sales cycle
While we’re on the topic of the sales cycle, it is never a good idea to ignore this, either. The typical lead funnel starts at the top with awareness, moving down the funnel to sales. Each stage of the cycle dictates how best to market to your audience. When you try to move leads who are in the awareness stage to the sales stage, you will very likely end up losing the lead altogether.
To get the most from retargeting, you will need to think very carefully about which stage of the cycle you are targeting. Are you trying to increase awareness or are you focusing on the consideration stage? Are you aiming to convert already aware leads to complete the sale? The messaging you use, the offer itself, the images, the calls to action and the entire campaign will all be affected by the stage of the cycle. This means that you cannot afford to put out an awareness retargeting campaign if you are trying to target customers who are long past this stage. Likewise, you cannot risk trying to rush customers into making a purchase when they have not yet reached the consideration stage.
Not targeting your campaigns properly
On a similar note, even targeting can go wrong. Simply delivering your campaigns to the right audience at the right time is not enough. You also need to make sure that the campaign itself is compelling enough to attract leads and get them to click through to your lead pages. Targeting website visitors with ads that promote products that have never been viewed is a wasted opportunity.
Automating your campaigns and relying on data rather than guesstimates is the first step in preventing this type of mistake. Another good idea is to consider how you can ensure that retargeting campaigns are highly relevant and focused. Identifying products that have been viewed often and products left in an abandoned cart is one way that you could make sure that ads hit their mark.
Not cross-selling or upselling
If you are incorporating retargeting into your lead nurturing strategy, you should also be including cross-selling and upselling. If you are not, you are missing out on a chance to bring in more sales and add more value to your customers. Many businesses assume that leads that have not converted need added incentive through repetitive or changed messaging. In many cases, leads have done a lot of research and have chosen to purchase elsewhere or even purchase a different product that better suits their needs.
Cross-selling and upselling allow you to target leads who may not have completed a sale for a specific product or service but may instead benefit from a related product or service. This approach is especially useful for leads in the research phase of the lead funnel. Your cross-sell campaigns can promote similar and related items and your up-sell campaigns can look at upgrades that add more value.
Not considering user fatigue
Another common mistake made by many businesses is failing to take user fatigue into account. This is true for many digital marketing campaigns. In lead generation, user fatigue is something that is all too common – especially when it comes to retargeting. Showing the same ad over and over again will very quickly lead to leads feeling annoyed. Many will either turn on an ad-blocking app or find another way to opt-out.
To avoid user fatigue, you could change up your campaigns regularly to keep ads fresh. You could also look at creating multiple ads within a campaign, with each ad progressing potential leads through your message. Whatever you do, don’t ever risk using the same ad across more than one campaign. This will very quickly bore your audience. It will also mess up your data, which, in turn, will end up ruining any ROI that you may get.
Not removing converted audiences
This is more common than you may think. When retargeting lists are created manually, there is a big risk of preaching to the proverbial choir. In lead generation, targeting already converted audiences can end up doing a fair bit of damage. Aside from annoying converted leads, it can also put them off returning to your business if they are bombarded with ads after making a purchase.
Make sure that you update your lists often and consider investing in an automated solution that allows you to manage your lists easily without having to manually add, update or remove lead information. It is also useful to consider the timing of the average sale for your specific industry. That means factoring in season, location and even your target ROI to determine the best frequency for targeting returning customers.
Not optimising your landing pages
Creating a website and landing pages is easy. Optimising your landing pages for lead generation is not as simple. Even the most carefully planned and well-designed lead page can easily hit the mark if it is not designed specifically for retargeting. To capture and convert leads, your landing pages need to be optimised. Essential criteria for optimised landing pages include the following:
- Tracking code that takes leads from your retargeting campaigns to your landing page, allowing you to easily track and identify leads and track your performance.
- Content, layout and design that closely targets your key campaign message, without the risk of off-putting or out of synch messaging that can confuse visitors and put off leads.
- Short and simple lead forms that stick to the most important details without putting off leads with complicated questions and requests for too much information.
Retargeting for Lead Generation
We hope that these retargeting mistakes help you fine-tune your lead generation strategies more easily. When it is done properly, with plenty of thought and planning, retargeting can help you get far more return on your lead generation investment, allowing you to target leads on a deeper level.
