So, you want to jog the minds of the people who didn’t convert while they were on your website. Imagine if you were able to target your business specifically to the people who are already familiar with your brand. What if you were able to continually advertise to them as they traveled the web? Retargeting allows you to do just that.
It’s almost a miracle that you can remind your customers about your business even after they leave your site. This means your customers are getting a personalized advertising experience – which can be a good thing!
Target based on people who have checked out your referral program. There could be a number of reasons why a person doesn’t join right away. So, in the case that someone doesn’t sign up the first time landing on your registration page, put the feelers out there. Let them know you still exist. Use retargeting to get them back to your referral program.
What is retargeting?
What is retargeting? It’s when you use a cookie (a little file that collects a little information from a user) to help you track a customer on your website. Let’s say a customer visits your referral program landing page, but they didn’t sign up. Well, because the visitor was tracked with a cookie, the next time they browse the web they will see your business in their ads. Meaning they have quick access to navigate back to your site or even better right to your referral program.
So how can you use retargeting to boost engagement for your referral program?
1. Consider what made the user leave
It helps you gain insight to what users do on your site. Perhaps you notice that people check out your referral program, but never actually sign up. You can gain valuable information in understanding your users by using retargeting. Because users are given a cookie to be tracked you can see where they are falling off and why they aren’t converting. Maybe the landing page for the referral program is confusing.
With this information, you can learn how to target your users a little better. Plus, when you use retargeting software, you’re one step closer to getting those customers back. You can fix what isn’t working for them or what is stalling them from converting. This will help you arrange your program in a way that can churn more conversions. Since you have gained some insightful information from this user before they fell off retargeting can place an ad where the user will see it or you can set up an email to be sent to these types of users.
2. Use analytics
Analytics can help you discover so many things. Some including how much time people spend on your referral page, how many pages visits you received and even where the traffic is coming from. So, maybe your landing page is fine. But, analytics can show you if a person is only on your referral program page for a second. Which may just imply that the user just simply does not have enough time to join at that particular moment.
In instances of people running out of time, a user might forget about your program completely. So what retargeting does is it allows them to remember. A user can get back on the computer the following day, or week and see an ad for your referral program while they are browsing the web. Once the user clicks on that ad they will be taken to your referral program. Retargeting those who fell off the page early can be very beneficial.
Google Analytics is great for tracking session, and which pages people drop off of. There are of course a few different awesome analytics tools out there, so look around and see what could work best for you. You may find yourself using multiple tools along with Google.
3. Retarget to members of other programs
In the worst case scenario, maybe you have a referral program that just isn’t doing well. Maybe you’re even running a few referral programs, but one is just seriously lagging behind. You can segment this program to retarget towards your most loyal customers, the members of your other programs or even your referrals (who can turn into program members). Target the people who you know will work well with this particular program, and watch the engagement boom
4. Retarget to specific customers
If what you sell offers a trial version or a free version use retargeting ads to get those trial users to make more of a commitment. You may turn a trial customer into a paying customer and you may also get a referral out of the deal. Perhaps adding rules to your referral program could help with this one. For example: retarget to trial customers – and show off your amazing referral program, but mention that the program is only for paying customers or customers who have purchased the service or product.
Additionally, you could retarget to any of your customers. Maybe someone made a purchase for the first time but didn’t join your referral program. Retarget towards them! Or maybe use remarketing to bring back a customer who hasn’t been active in awhile. You may get them to buy more from you and if you send them to your referral program they may send you more customers.
5. Avoid being weird
When done right retargeting can work miracles. It can, however, also be kind of weird for the user “How did they know I was looking at that?” So avoid being creepy at all costs. However, with that being said make sure your ad is redirecting to a specific page, in this case, your referral program landing page.
If you want to boost engagement to your referral program, create regular promotions that make it easy to find. Sure, you may have other ads that lead to your main website, but using remarketing specifically for your referral program can truly boost program engagement. It makes sense that an ad about your referral program leads right to the program. Try to make things consistent, it would be weird if someone clicked on an ad for a referral program just to be brought to a completely different page on your website. Go through the process as a customer to make sure the steps seem logical. If a customer thinks they are clicking for one reason, but are confused about the landing page, then they probably will not engage with your program.
6. Don’t use retargeting ads too often
There is a fine line between just enough and way too much. The frequency you choose is important. Overexposure can be annoying, but worst of all it can cause blindness. If you overexpose yourself, people will eventually learn how to tune your ads outs. That’s the complete opposite of what you’re going for. Some people say the perfect number is 10 times a month, some people say it’s up around 20 times per month. Just do what makes sense for you. But I will say I haven’t ever seen anyone suggest a number higher than 20 times per month. So I’d personally stay under 20.
Think of retargeting ads as your second chance. Remember to run through the process before using it on your customers. You want to create a seamless user experience, not a weird one.
