3 Tips for Dominating Retargeting Advertising

When done correctly, retargeting, also known as remarketing, can help franchisors digitally reach ideal audiences with targeted and specific ads based on their behavior online.

By Luca Piacentini1851 Franchise Managing Editor

Updated 7:07AM • 12/09/21

As franchise brands across industries look forward to a post-COVID world — one that promises to have even more entrepreneurs — it is more important than ever to have an impactful franchise development marketing strategy in place. And today, a big part of that strategy should be focused on retargeting advertising. Retargeting campaigns turn “window shoppers'' into real paying customers or, in the franchising world, into quality leads.

Lets face it: The franchise-buying process is extremely complicated and often takes much longer than franchisors would hope. When a franchisee prospect visits a development website, there are a million reasons why they may not purchase right away. Maybe they weren’t interested in the offer, or maybe they just got interrupted or distracted somewhere along the way.

Retargeting helps brands win back these visitors — turning them into leads by marketing directly to them and their needs. Without retargeting campaigns, only a small percent of callers and website visitors actually convert into qualified leads or tangible business. While overall conversion rates can vary based on the niche or industry, a study by Spiralytics from seven industries concluded that retargeting ad placements beat all other ad placements, with a whopping 1,046% efficiency rate. Users that visit a website after clicking on a retargeting campaign ad are 70% more likely to convert compared to those that aren't retargeted, according to Kenshoo.

Here are three tips for dominating retargeting advertising.

Segment the Audience

It is important for brands to segment their audiences so they can successfully target each group of website visitors with creative content that’s most relevant to them.

For one, franchisors can set up basic URL segments with audiences defined by specific pages they visited while on their website. Those who have only visited the brand’s consumer homepage are in the upper-funnel, while those who specifically looked at the franchise development page would be considered mid-funnel. For those mid-funnel prospects, users can be retargeted with a general ad for that opportunity. For very high-intent users, or “ghost leads” who may have requested more information and then fallen off, retargeting ads can re-engage them through enticing offers.

Optimize Your CRM

Once brands create segments from existing prospects and customers and define where they are in the funnel, they can then use retargeting software to reach those segments with web ads. With CRM retargeting, brands can market to customers from their CRM database using display ads on social media websites, blogs and other anywhere else prospects may be browsing. Web retargeting uses a combination of tailored messaging and targeted ad placement that leverages intent signals found on the website. The average click-through rate (CTR) for display ads is 0.07%, while the average CTR for retargeted ads is about 0.7%, according to Wishpond.

CRM retargeting also helps a brand stay top-of-mind as customers browse the internet, and franchisors can even upload a lead list of prospects and target ads directly at a specific segment that’s not in their CRM.

Leverage Email

Following up with email retargeting is also a great way to revive a dead lead and remind them of a specific franchise opportunity or to keep an active lead engaged in the funnel. For example, AdRoll discovered that when running both traditional email and email retargeting, email retargeting produced three times the open rate and six times the click-through rate.

Best of all, email can be easily incorporated into a retargeting campaign without needing to pay for an ad placement. But brands should limit the amount of email outreach they engage in to avoid ending up in the spam folder. For example, brands shouldn’t send out more than one email to a specific prospect per day.

These tips will help franchisors master their approach to retargeting marketing and reap the rewards that come with a successful campaign.

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