Travel Marketing Checklist: The Five Top Strategies to Boost Leads and Sales with Retargeting (No Matter Where Your Prospects are in the Buying Cycle) Retargeting is probably something you have seen, but didn t recognize it as such. Think back to the last time you visited websites like Zappos, Target or even Amazon. Do you remember seeing their ads everywhere you went online for the next month or so? That s retargeting. It s when a company advertises directly to you to encourage you to come back to their website. There are a number of advantages to retargeting website visitors, including: Your ads are seen by the people who ve already shown an interest in your products/services (the low hanging fruit on your marketing tree) Retargeting ads are 10x more likely to be clicked on than other online display ads Retargeting is extremely targeted, so you re not wasting money on people who would never buy from you It is extremely affordable, costing pennies on the dollar compared to offline advertising, Pay-Per-Click, and other online advertising You own this audience, so you can market to them anytime in the future This list builds over time It is great for branding as your ads re-appear to your site visitors multiple times over a scheduled time frame It can boost ad response up to 400% Retargeted customers are 4 times more likely to convert than new customers Websites see 726% lift in site visitation after just four weeks of retargeting exposure 37% of online buyers enjoy receiving behaviorally Retargeted ads that remind them of what they were looking at previously This is all possible because retargeting allows you to get the right message to the right person at the right time and allows you to continue delivering your message after someone has left your website.
Why retargeting is taking online advertising by storm The fact is 95% - 98% of your website visitors will leave your site never to be heard from again. If you are not staying in front of those people after they leave, all of the effort and money you spent to get them there in the first place is wasted. In this article I m going to share with you 5 simple strategies you can use to stop wasting marketing dollars, and increase your leads/sales by retargeting your website visitors based on their stage in the buying cycle. Specifically I ll be showing you how to retarget the following stages: 1. Casual visitor to increase awareness of your business 2. Active visitor who has viewed your product pages 3. Visitor who has abandoned their shopping cart 4. Existing customers you have by up-selling or cross-selling different products 5. Customers you had a few months after they ve purchased If you have to see ads anyway, wouldn t you rather see ads that are highly relevant and personalized to your interests? Chances are you d be far more likely to click on an ad that offered something you really wanted. Well, your customers feel the same way. So, are you ready to start strategizing? Let s go! 1.) Retargeting to the casual visitor to increase awareness of your business A casual visitor is someone who leaves your website before navigating through your products or pricing pages. It s not that your products or services aren t right for them; they just haven t seen what you have to offer. You can use retargeting ads to increase awareness of your products, your services and your business in general to entice them back to your website to learn more. You can target all visitors that visit your homepage or some of your general pages, like the about page with these casual ads. Keep in mind that if they re visiting targeted pages like your pricing or products pages, you re able to create more highly targeted ads (we ll get into this later). Since you don t have much information about what these visitors were looking for, your retargeting ads will be aimed at your main benefits or offer. They already (vaguely) know who
you are but chances are they don t have enough information to make a purchasing decision. Your retargeting ads need to entice them to come back and learn more (on a designated landing page). Here are three ways you can get a casual visitor to click your retargeting ad, which takes them to a designated landing page: State a benefit they ll get from using your product Share an offer like a discount or a special package (works especially well if it s available only to those being retargeted, and not part of a standard discount) Use a customer review or testimonial to build trust in your product/service and your company 2.) Retargeting to the active visitor who has viewed your product pages Visitors who browse multiple product pages but never actually make a purchase can be targeted by the types of products/services they viewed. Your ads will be a mix of general product categories, Cruises or a narrower category, such as Alaska Cruises, or even as specific as the cruise lines and their upcoming itineraries. Keep in mind that most retargeting ad clicks will happen within two weeks of the initial site visit (for business-to-consumer companies). This means that the majority of your retargeting efforts should end within 14 days of a person visiting your site. Chances are if they haven t purchased in this timeframe they re probably not going to. For visitors with complex itineraries, the buying cycle is much longer. In this case, staying in front of them for an extended period is important. Retargeting campaigns can run as long as six months, keeping you front and center until they re ready to move toward a purchase. 3.) Retargeting to a visitor who has abandoned your booking form Industry research shows that approximately 73% of travelers will abandon booking forms before completion. These visitors are generally close to making a purchase but they ve gotten distracted, or left to find more competitive pricing. Don t let them buy from a competitor without putting up a fight. If you reach out to them using retargeting ads it will help them remember you and entice them back to your site to complete the sale with you. Generally speaking, out of the 73% that abandon a booking form only 8% will come back to complete it. But retargeting those visitors increases the return rate to 26%.
You can reach these people by creating a segment of customers who have visited your booking form page. Keep in mind that you also need to exclude people who ve visited your form and have already converted (we ll get into how to retarget these people later on). Targeting people who have abandoned your booking form before buying encourages them to come back and complete their purchase. When creating ads you want to instill a sense of urgency to get them to come back and buy now. I suggest using limited offers that expire at a specific time. 4.) Retarget to existing customers by up-selling or cross-selling different products When a visitor completes their purchase they become a customer. This person (so long as your product lived up to your promise) is more likely to purchase again than a new visitor to your site. These people are incredibly valuable to your business and great candidates for retargeting ads. You can retarget them with new products or services that will compliment the purchase they just made. By creating a segment of converted customers, you ll be reaching a smaller group of your site visitors, but these customers are your meat and potatoes segment the ones most likely to do business with you again. You can customize your ads and sell additional products tailored to specific groups based on the products they ve purchased or whether they ve made a purchase, period. You can set this up in the same way you did for booking form abandoners, but now instead of focusing on the booking form segment you ll focus on the order confirmation segment. 5.) Retargeting to your customers a few months after they ve purchased If someone makes a large purchase, chances are they re not going to make another large purchase for a while. The good news is a customer will remain cookied (meaning they ll keep being tracked) for up to 180 days. This means that you can continue to target them for up to 6 months. For example, someone has been looking at your Ireland Tour product for a few months and over time they decide to purchase a package. Retargeting this person with ads immediately after they ve made a purchase (especially such a large one) will probably annoy them.
But you can keep them in a specific segment and wait for a few months before showing them any retargeting ads. This way they ll have had time to get value from your company and will be primed to take the next step. In order to have the most positive return on investment from your retargeting efforts you need a solid retargeting strategy. Knowing your ideal customers, and their buying habits, will help you produce even more targeted and relevant ads. I hope this checklist has given you some guidance in running your own Retargeting ads based on where a potential customer is in the buying cycle. If you have any questions or comments feel free to email them to kammy@anchormarketingconsultants.com. Kammy Thurman is a certified travel consultant (CTC) with over 10 years experience as the highest-selling consultant in Montana s leading agency. She also has 17 years as a Web marketing copywriter/consultant who has helped companies of all sizes -- from home-based agencies to international travel publishers -- sell over $200 million in products and services, online and offline. Email kammy@anchormarketingconsultants.com to discuss affordable retargeting strategies that can dramatically boost leads and sales for your business.