PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is the fast lane of advertising: it’s quick, but you pay for every kilometre.
How can we, as marketers, achieve our goals without having to fork over cash for every ad we show? Luckily, we can take the scenic route: organic growth.
This is where a strategy like remarketing comes in handy, as we can re-engage our interested audiences without constantly bidding for new clicks; however, taking this route means growing your business through your own internal efforts and existing resources. As a result, you cannot rely on Google and Meta’s remarketing data anymore. You have to do it the old-fashioned way.
Below, we’ll show you exactly how you can use remarketing to gain more from those who are just inches away from becoming a repeat customer.
Remarketing with PPC
“Hey, what if I want to use PPC for remarketing?”
If you’re asking this question, you’re in luck, because the chief PPC advertising platforms (Google and Meta ads) are thoroughly equipped for remarketing.
Without getting too bogged down in the details, the main method for PPC remarketing is utilising the extensive targeting options of Google and Meta’s ad platforms. In this context, useful choices for targeting are:
- Targeting visitors who have visited your website before. On average, 97% of all website visitors click off without purchasing. By using specific information gathered by Google and Meta—i.e. time spent on a page is greater than 30 seconds—you can target visitors who have an intent to purchase, in turn lowerer ad spend.
- Targeting visitors who have purchased from you before. Simple conversion data can go a long way as fuel for remarketing. Targeting customers who have purchased before but haven’t repurchased in X amount of time is a great way of encouraging repeat purchases.
- Targeting visitors who have clicked on your ads before. A simple approach, but it works. In this case, you must ensure your ad copy reflects the visitor’s having seen your previous ad. As they are now aware of you as a business, this might mean emphasising the reasons to choose your brand over your competitors.
- Targeting visitors who have interacted with your social media before. Another simple yet effective approach that near-guarantees customers with high intent. Again, ad copy must reflect these visitors’ greater understanding of you as a business as well as their position in the buyer’s journey.
Remarketing outside of PPC
Now, for what you came for: remarketing with no immediate cash put into Google’s or Meta’s pockets.
There are two main channels that I use for ‘free’ remarketing: organic social media and email. We’ll start with the latter.
Email remarketing
Much like the PPC versus organic advertising split, there is an ‘easy’ and a ‘hard’ route for email remarketing.
The ‘hard’ route is sending personalised emails to each of your previous clients/customers. This means going through your list of customer email addresses and manually typing up a follow-up email for every one of them.
Evidently depending on your industry and pricing strategy (low margin/high volume or high margin/low volume), personalised emails may or may not be an option. So how do we do this with a large number of customers? How do we personalise at scale?
Personalisation at scale
We take the ‘easy’ route, through automated email flows. Certain CRMs and email management software can be set up to take a specific customer input, or ‘trigger’, and to fire off a series of premade emails upon detecting this trigger.
A trigger may be someone being invoiced, which can be determined by their visiting the post-purchase screen on your website. This will then send them into an automated email flow which takes them through the buyer’s journey from the problems they may have to the solutions you provide.
Below is an example of a post-purchase email flow that remarkets to a customer depending on if they have made a repeat purchase within a specific amount of time or not:
Ultimately, this method of remarketing is about saving your time and money. With a small investment into your CRM of choice, you save countless hours of manpower that would have otherwise gone into personalising every single email you send. Again, it’s about personalisation at scale.
Social media remarketing
The second channel I use for unpaid remarketing is organic socials.
Anyone with experience in organic social media knows it’s essentially the polar opposite of what I just described in automated email remarketing. A great organic social strategy is difficult and time-consuming; however, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t leverage it for remarketing.
Social media is still one of the most powerful ways to keep your brand top-of-mind in the eyes of your existing and high-intent customers. For remarketing’s sake, it’s an essential strategy.
If you’re looking for an effective social media strategy without having to spend so much of your own valuable time on it, give us a shout today and we’ll do it for you.
If you’re looking to learn how to effectively run your organic socials for remarketing yourself, here’s how we do it:
1. Content Bridge Posts: Connecting a user’s initial interest in one of your services to a related or more advanced offering.
- Content bridges, in an organic social setting, are essentially posts that cross-sell or upsell your products or services.
- This is done by using your own in-house data to see what product/service is most bought by your customers. With this information, create a post that connects the use of the product/service with the purchasing of another.
- This strikes directly at your largest group of previous customers and encourages repeat purchase behaviour.
- Content Bridge in action…
2. Case Study Posts: Short case studies that advertise a main product/service while also promoting a supporting product/service.
- In an organic social setting, these are a great way of showing your visitors tangible proof of your products/services working in the real world.
- This is achieved by writing a short recount of a success story you’ve had with a prior client.
- The goal here is to provide evidence of your expertise and prowess while also advertising the products/services outlined in the case study.
- Case Study in action…
3. Post Series: 3-4 posts that educate your customers on your individual services. These posts must lead naturally from one another.
- Again, the goal here is to catch customers who have used a certain product/service and make them interested in other supporting products/services.
- For example, if you’re advertising a car mechanic, you should structure your posts in a way that leads from an initial, common service into several other additional services (i.e. tyre repairs -> wheel alignments -> brake inspections -> full suspension check-ups).
- The goal here is to be genuinely educational in your posts while also promoting yourself earnestly.
- Post series in action…
4. Problem? Solution Posts: Taking the most common problems customers have and addressing them directly in a short informative post.
- This method for social media remarketing begins with making a list of your client’s most common questions and problems.
- With this information, you simply make a post answering these queries clearly and succinctly.
- By the end of the post, the reader understands the solution to their issue but also understands that you are the best service provider for them.
- Moreover, this kind of post shows previous customers that you are listening while also helping new customers convert more easily.
- Problem? Solution in action…
In short…
Ultimately, effective remarketing outside of PPC is challenging, but not impossible. By focusing on the smart re-engagement strategies we offered above, you’re not just chasing new leads; you’re building lasting relationships and unlocking the true potential of your existing audience.
If you’re looking for an effective remarketing strategy, with or without PPC, Stellar Digital has got you covered. We’ve been in the digital and branding industry for nearly three decades, and for us, remarketing through email and social media is nothing new.
Ready to turn your interested prospects into loyal customers? Let’s talk strategy.
Lingo and Acronyms
Remarketing – A digital marketing strategy that involves reconnecting with users who have previously interacted with your website, app, or social media, encouraging them to take a desired action (like making a purchase).
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) – An online advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked.
Buyer’s journey – The process a potential customer goes through from first becoming aware of a problem or need, to actively researching solutions, and finally making a purchase decision.
Automated email flow – A series of pre-written emails that are automatically sent to subscribers based on specific triggers (e.g., a website visit, a purchase, or a sign-up).
Organic growth – The expansion of a company’s revenue, market share, or output through its own internal efforts and existing resources.
