Social Media Marketing for Business

In the modern age of social media marketing, it’s easier than ever to target incredibly specific audiences with your ads. Thanks to this technology, remarketing campaigns have become incredibly popular, allowing businesses to reach out to customers that they might have otherwise missed. Instead of delivering ads to a wide variety of people who may or may not be interested in what you have to offer, you can make sure that your message reaches the right viewers from the start.

With Facebook’s Custom Audiences in particular, targeting specific social network users has become much more simple. This targeted advertising can be extremely useful for bringing previous customers back and reminding potential customers of what you have to offer, but the success of your campaign will depend on how you decide to run it. Keep these tips in mind the next time you decide to do some remarketing on Facebook.

Create Different Ads for Different Audiences

If you’re going to go through all the trouble of targeting specific audiences, don’t be lazy when it comes to the message you’re trying to send. After all, it’s going to be a lot easier to sell something to someone who has experience with your products or services than it will be to bring in entirely new customers who simply have an interest in what you have to offer.

Generating return business could be as simple as reminding the right viewers about what you offer, whereas enticing first timers might take a little more effort. For each individual group that you choose to target, make sure that the message you send is specifically targeted at them.

Focus on Interested Visitors

Although you could target your advertisements towards people who simply visit your main website, doing so will probably be about as effective as any non-targeted advertising. Instead, focus more of your time and energy on visitors who have been to pages on your website which indicate that they are interested in what you are selling.

Bounced traffic from shopping carts is going to be much more valuable than bounced traffic from your home page. After all, we’re talking about people who have been very close to making a purchase but ultimately decided against it, so you know that they’re at least interested in doing business with you. However, when it comes to bounced traffic from your home page, those viewers could have mistakenly clicked on your link and may have very little interest in your company.

Offer Coupons and Discounts

If you’re focusing on visitors who have either come close to making a purchase or have been visiting product pages frequently, there’s a possibility that they may be hoping to get a better deal. If you’re tired of seeing all of that bounced traffic, a good way to increase conversion is to offer coupons or discounts.

Everyone likes to feel like they’re getting a good deal, so coupon codes and discounts are a great way to entice potential customers who have already shown an interest in your product or services. This type of advertisement can also be useful to bring back customers who haven’t visited your website in a while. Sometimes all it takes is a little nudge to send a little return business your way.

Don’t Forget Your Mobile Audience

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The mobile audience has grown extensively over the past few years, and it’s time to take notice. We’re talking about 143 million devices that can be used to make purchases online, and yet investment in this area is severely lacking overall. Considering that Facebook now offers new remarketing ad types aimed at mobile users, it might be wise to consider devoting a larger portion of your marketing budget to your mobile audience.

In particular, Facebook offers what they call a multi-product ad, which shows off up to three different products in a slideshow. Imagine paying for one ad and advertising three different products at the same time. Considering that mobile phones are the perfect interface for swiping through slideshows, this new remarketing ad could be incredibly useful.

Test Everything Extensively

Testing the waters can be both time consuming and expensive, but with a relatively new type of targeted advertising such as this, it’s important to make sure that you’ve done your homework. What works well for one business might not be as lucrative for another, so you might not want to devote a huge chunk of your marketing budget to a specific ad unless you are reasonably confident that it will be successful.

While remarketing isn’t exactly new, Facebook’s remarketing options have evolved and become much more targeted over the past year, so it will be important to do some testing in order to find out exactly what works and what doesn’t. Before you make any costly decisions, take the time to test your marketing extensively. With these concepts in mind, you’ll surely get the most out of your remarketing efforts.

Meet Megan Ritter

Megan Ritter is a graduate student at USC and has worked for various financial institutions and marketing firms. Follow her @megmarieritter