Reading Time: 3 minutesYou’ve heard about display advertising through Google Display Network, social media, and other platforms. Display advertising provides a tempting set of benefits for eCommerce sites, including broader reach, lower cost per click (CPC) and CPM as well as a visually stimulating and engaging format. For all its strengths, however, sometimes this marketing technique doesn’t convert well for B2B companies that are targeting companies that need services and not consumers focused on products.
B2B Display Advertising
While 3.8 of the 4.5 billion internet users worldwide also spend time on social media, the vast majority of them are not actively searching for B2B software or service opportunities. Similarly, while Google Display Network can reach billions of users on over 90% of all websites across the internet, many of them, at the time of media usage, are simply not interested in B2B efforts.
For these reasons, many B2B companies choose to forego display advertising in favor of a focus on other paid and organic search endeavors. However, we believe that is a mistake. You’ll find that B2B display advertising efforts can be well worth your while through the process of retargeting.
What Is Retargeting and Why Should You Do It?
Simply put, retargeting is the process of tracking people who visit your website and following up by displaying ads relevant to your products or services. In this way, you can continue to present opportunities for customer engagement and promote conversions even after a potential client leaves your site. While retargeting can take place via text ads or generate email follow ups, display ads are one of the best retargeting methods available.
Retargeted visual display ads will appear on other, third-party websites your potential clients visit. Depending on the audience targets you choose for your ads, you can access clients who engaged with your site but didn’t make a purchase, contacts who have joined an email list, or even all users who visited your website. Done the right way, retargeted display ads can have click through rates (CTRs) as high as 0.70%, as compared to the traditional display CTR of 0.07%.
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There’s a Right and a Wrong Way to Approach Retargeted Display Ads
If retargeting can reap great CTRs and increase conversions when done the right way, perhaps the next set of questions we should ask involves the positive and negative approaches to the practice. How do you do it the right way? What happens when you approach retargeting the wrong way? More importantly, what does each look like in the world of display ad retargeting?
Have you ever made a purchase with a company and then felt harassed or stalked by repeated ads on every page you visited? Worse, what about when you’re targeted by ads that aren’t really relevant to any product or service you’ve researched recently? When done the wrong way, targeted ads can feel creepy, irrelevant, or target users who have already made a purchase by unnecessarily pushing the same product.
The Importance of Customer Relationship Management
Conversely, the right way to approach display ads – particularly for B2B companies – is by utilizing the wealth of customer information you already have in your customer relationship management, or CRM, system. By tracking your display ad efforts back to your CRM system, you’ll be able to reap a few advantages, including:
- Better defined audience segments. Your sales, email, and customer preference data are all housed within your CRM system. This is information you won’t find anywhere else – at least not to this level of detail – so why not use it to your advantage? With the information already stored in your CRM system, you can target specific display ad campaigns towards clients in several different segments.
- Upselling and cross-selling for existing clients. With the data mentioned above, you can personalize your customers’ experiences and provide additional opportunities for engagement. For those who haven’t converted, you can push your main offerings. For those who already utilize your services, you can increase your opportunity to push additional offerings.
- Focus on contacts most likely to convert. Information housed in your system like the user’s current stage in your funnel, business type, links clicked, opened emails, and more can help you identify the potential leads most likely to convert. By focusing some of your retargeting efforts on those most likely to convert, you avoid pushing away potential clients in earlier stages and wasting your efforts on those who haven’t shown interest.
Take the Time to Set Things Up Correctly
Like anything else, however, it’s crucial to check and double check your efforts before going live. For example, you don’t want your entire client base haunted by incessant reminders that they haven’t yet incorporated your newest offering when most of them, in fact, have done just that. By failing to set your audiences targeting up correctly, you’re risking turning away potential clients with creepy ads as well as losing some of your loyal ones.
Are you in need of more advice regarding how your existing CRM system can help you refine your visual ad retargeting efforts? Reach out to the B2B team at Vizion Interactive. Our marketing experts can help ensure you’re putting your best foot forward no matter your target.
At Vizion Interactive, we have the expertise, experience, and enthusiasm to get results and keep clients happy! Learn more about how our status as a Google Partner, along with our PPC Management, Google Shopping Ads, Social Media Advertising, Amazon Advertising, and other Paid Media services can increase sales and boost your ROI. But don’t just take our word for it, check out what our clients have to say, along with our case studies.
