Retargeting is a marketing technique that has become more and more popular lately. Retargeting helps companies to have a personalized communication with their target audience and remind them how good their products are. When set correctly, your retargeting campaign can significantly improve sales and customer relations.

However, there are many marketers that don`t have such a good impression about retargeting. Why? Whether because their retargeting campaign failed for various reasons, either because consumers have expressed frustration that they were followed by messages etc.

A miraculously marketing tool or just a nuisance for internet users? Around this question arose most myths about retargeting, which we will try to elucidate today.

1. Retargeting is good only for retail

Most marketers believe that retargeting is a marketing solution that works only for e-commerce. This confusion was created because of how retargeting works. The user enters your site to look for some pants, thinks to buy them, but for some reason he abandons the shopping cart. Then you email to remind him about how cool the product is or a commercial with the product will appear to him on various websites.

Without a doubt, retargeting has proven useful to retail companies, but that does not mean it can not be used successfully also by B2B companies.

Any B2B company that uses a free trial, has a freemium product, engages in active lead generation, or runs lead nurturing campaigns can use retargeting to increase conversions and drive revenue. If your business offers a free trial, serving retargeted ads can encourage your trial users to come back and complete the final steps to enroll in your service. Similarly, if you’re encouraging post trial sign-ups via email, email retargeting offers additional touch points without inundating inboxes.

2. Only large companies can afford to pay retargeting campaigns

Retargeting is a marketing technique useful for both large and small companies. Whatever your marketing budget is, you can have a retargeting campaign. There are retargeting companies that allow you to pay for results. Thus, if your retargeting campaign is successful, then you will pay. Also, some retargeting companies offer you a free trial, so you can test them to see how they are working for you.

Retargeting can help any company to improve visibility and communication with target audiences. Indeed large companies can afford to allocate budgets for several forms of retargeting on multiple channels. But small companies can identify which form of retargeting brings the best return of investment and use it on that. So if you have a small company, you don`t have to spend all your marketing budget for retargeting.

3. Retargeting means only advertisements on other sites

False! Retargeting is a technique that has evolved a lot lately. Today retargeting means not only targeted advertisements on other sites. There are several forms of retargeting, and the most common are:

- Search retargeting: when your are using search retargeting, you`re practically going after individuals on search engines who have searched using keywords or phrases relevant to your business.

- Site retargeting: this is how you can show ads to users that already visited your site

- Email retargeting: as you probably guessed, it allows you to retarget people based on actions they have taken on your emails

- Facebook retargeting: it allows you to display banners in Facebook to users that already visited your site

4. Retargeting violates user privacy

With the increasing use of retargeting, increasingly more Internet users say they are annoyed by retargeting. However, the technique itself is not to blame for this inconvenience, but that is not properly applied. Many marketers are barely acquainted with retargeting and don`t know how to properly set up a campaign. The secret of a successful retargeting campaign consists precisely in what is the advantage of this technique, namely personalization. If the marketer doesn`t segment the audience, does not properly set the frequency with which ads appear, then these situations will happen, and users will be really annoyed by retargeting.

5. Retargeting isn`t effective

Rarely a marketer sets right a retargeting campaign, from the beginning. Hence the general impression that retargeting isn`t an effective technique.

The fact that it works for many companies is a clear proof that it is effective enough. It is not enough to setup some triggers and then suddenly expect to sell more. Retargeting, like any other marketing technique, takes time and dedication. First, you must choose a company that offers you a software suitable for your needs, and the support to use it. Then you have to segment your audience and properly set up the campaign. Lastly, you obviously need to do tests to see which is the best option for you.

The first step to any successful retargeting campaign is to understand how retargeting can work for your company. When used correctly, retargeting serves a valuable component of any marketing mix. If you were apprehensive because you’d only heard the rumors, now you know that retargeting works for businesses of all sizes and brands of all kinds. If it isn’t already, make sure retargeting is part of your digital marketing budget.