Retargeting and remarketing are both effective methods of marketing in their own right. They often get confused with each other in theory due to the similarities in application on various platforms. Loads of PPC specialists even use the terms interchangeably.
However, these two types of ads are distinctly different, and understanding the difference between the two is essential in using them effectively.
What’s the Difference Between Remarketing and Retargeting?
Even though they have similarities, they have different goals and typically use different channels.
To simplify things, differentiating the two boils down to applying a good retention strategy for each.
Retargeting makes use of paid ads to re-engage audiences who have already had contact with your business. This could be a visit to your website or your social profiles. The goal is to bring users back to your site or page so that they convert.
Remarketing makes use of email to re-engage customers who have already done business with your brand. In short, it keeps your past customers coming back and involved in your brand. This encourages them to buy more, maximising their lifetime value.
Benefits of Retargeting:
Retargeting is a cost-efficient way to attract customers, and if done well, can be an overall effective way to attract customers.
Retargeting helps you:
- Target people who have already shown interest in what you have to offer, therefore capitalising on lost website traffic.
- Target people who have already visited your website and have shown interest in your offering
- Target people who are more likely to convert
- Strategically show ads to an interested audience, therefore keeping your brand at top of mind
- Market your brand in a tactical and affordable way on a range of platforms
- Market across different industries
Benefits of Remarketing
Remarketing is designed to keep your customers coming back.
Remarketing helps you:
- Highlight sales or deals on products related to the customer’s past purchases
- Markets to people who have already consented to get contacted by your brand, therefore not in violation of the POPI act
- Promote products and services that are complementary to the customer’s past purchases
- Introduce new offers and deals relating to the customer’s past purchases
- Remind a customer that they have something in their cart
- Include a coupon when a customer hasn’t made a purchase in a specific timeframe
How to set up Remarketing and Retargeting ads on LinkedIn & Facebook
Setting up Remarketing and Retargeting ads isn’t complicated. Here is a guide to get you started.
Remarketing on Facebook
Facebook remarketing works similarly to Google Ads remarketing. Rather than showing your ads across websites within the Display Network, your ads are shown on Facebook.
Retargeting on Facebook
Facebook retargeting ads allow you to reconnect with users who have already interacted with your brand (on or off Facebook).
This includes users who have:
- Shared their email with you
- Followed your Facebook page or interacted with it in some way
- Interacted with a Facebook event
- Watched a certain amount of your on-platform videos (ad videos included)
- Interacted with your App
- Viewed certain pages of your site or taken certain actions
- Interacted with your Instagram page
Remarketing on LinkedIn
You’ll need to have the Insight Tag installed on your website for your website audiences to build.
Remarketing LinkedIn
LinkedIn remarketing is an effort to reach people that have visited your website. It uses web technology to track people who’ve visited your site, so you can serve them with ads.
The first thing you need to do is add the LinkedIn Insight Tag to your website, which is essentially a LinkedIn pixel that functions very similarly to the Facebook pixel.
Remarketing and Retargeting
As mentioned above, there seems to be a lot of confusion between remarketing and retargeting. Both the techniques seem to differ in strategy but the execution steps tend to be similar on platforms such as LinkedIn.
To find other useful Social Media articles like this one, visit our blog page.