How to Use Multiple Retargeting Layers in Marketing

Remarketing is often the misunderstood middle child of performance marketing. Let’s break a couple of myths🔨 🎯 One size fits all fits probably no one:  I’ve seen many companies burn money on campaigns that don’t recognize that every section of their audience has their own motivations. Why, if I had a penny for every time I visited a site with no intent to purchase their product at all, only to spot a “Schedule a Demo Today” ad by them on whichever site I visit, I’d probably be the richest guy in SaaS! I read somewhere that 84% of users either ignore or are put off by retargeting ads! Shows how important it is to get it right. Start doing these things: - Segment visitors by page depth (1 page vs 3+ pages) - Track time-on-site thresholds (>2 min = higher intent) - Create separate campaigns for pricing page visitors vs. blog readers Tailor your content based on your audience’s behavior and stage in the buyer journey (URL path visitors, action completers, cart abandoners) 🎯 Retargeting works like a mosquito coil:  Retargeting is not plug and play, and it typically doesn’t stop with one level. Retarget for all customer stages. Not only demo and trial signups. This insulates your prospects from leaving the funnel midway. We’ve had cases where we spent thousands of dollars on a retargeting campaign only to make zero sales. But here’s what happened afterward ⭐ : When we triggered another retargeting campaign for the warmer folks from the previous campaign, giving them BOFU content, we made sales. A lot of it! What’s to learn here? You’re unlikely to be bet on with just the first touch point. You have to build that awareness consistently. Create a 3-tier remarketing structure: > Tier 1 (Cold): Educational content, industry reports > Tier 2 (Warm): Case studies, comparison guides > Tier 3 (Hot): Free trials, demos, limited-time offers Build custom audiences for each segment, assign specific content types to each, and implement frequency caps based on ‘bucket temperature’. Also, the focus should also be on increasing the credibility of your company rather than only pushing them towards the CTA. Here's one customized Google + LinkedIn campaign strategy we used for a client recently. What are some retargeting tactics that’s worked for you?

You know retargeting with #linkedinads is important. But do you know how to build your next layer(s)? One size does ❌ fit all, so here's how to approach it: -- Step 1: Outline your journey If you were a sales rep, what would be the 10 pieces of content you'd LOVE prospect to see before showing up to a call? Is there an order that makes sense? As much as you plan, prospects will NOT follow your nice, pretty path. Group your content into common themes to marinate them in each layer. - Step 2: Strategize your approach Budget matters. Maybe senior leadership isn't bought into the "dark social" movement, so you need early wins to earn more budget (aka TRUST). Instead of tagging them in posts from Chris, build off-ramps into your strategy. (lead gen forms with 'some' friction) As much as the sales team complains about "poor quality" leads, you know what they dislike more? No (quality) leads. Educate your audiences but create (attributable) ways for prospects to say, "Hey! I'm interested, and it's because I saw you on LinkedIn." - Step 3: Learn how to use Campaign Manager You thought LinkedIn was going to make it easy? Think again, bud. There are a thousand ways [for your budget] to die, and 14 just did in the time it took you to read this sentence. Depending on how you structure your layer(s), you can tackle this a few ways, and this little nugget 🪙 might be the best thing in this post: ONLY use people who engaged in your initial retargeting layer for your 2nd layer. i.e., single-image ad interactions, video viewers, lead gen form opens + company page visitors (30-60 days), website visitors (30-60 days) Why? You want to create a journey for prospects. Not everyone (yes, I'm talking to you) is a LinkedIn junkie who logs in daily to post, comment and engage. MOST LinkedIn users check it once a week (maybe a few times a month). And they lurk -- by golly, they lurk. - By *only* using retargeting audiences who engaged with your primary layer and people who visited your company page/website 30-60 days ago, you can create a journey that's unique for everyone. -- There's more to share here, but LinkedIn limits my characters, and I've avoided writing an article, so this is what you get. Got questions or comments, drop 'em here, or DM me and tell me to get my life together.

Retargeting is a secret weapon in demand generation. Any retargeting is generally going to produce better results than cold audience marketing, but there are strategic ways to generate even more. Below is real data from a Storybook Marketing client campaign, where we were promoting a high-value asset to audiences on LinkedIn. Before we took over the program, there had been an existing retargeting group which was a relative 'catch-all' for all kinds of behavior: - All website visits over the last 90 days - Interactions with all ads (clicks/form fills) over the last 90 days When compared to the cold audience who had no prior engagement, this audience was already a superior one - getting a 3.5x better click through rate and a 77% lower cost/lead, and was the only audience of the two that actually resulted in MQLs. Without a doubt, the general retargeting audience was a better option when promoting high-value assets that require some consideration before a conversion. But wait, there's more! We also built out much more orchestrated retargeting groups, based on specific topics, page types, and campaigns, so that we would have a much more recent and relevant touchpoints so that we could build an orchestrated journey. And the results show the value of that effort: - Additional 40% improvement in CTR - Additional 58% improvement in CPL - Additional 26% improvement in cpMQL The more co-ordinated a marketing journey is, the better the outcomes tend to be. Of course, this isn't always possible and we certainly don't control their journey, but we can co-ordinate our own efforts better. In this case, most of that effort was simply the creation of some more focused retargeting groups and it reduced the CPL by over 90% compared to the cold audience.