Behavioral Retargeting: Reconnecting With Old Friends (or Site Visitors)

It's likely you've used behavioral targeting to reach out to and convert shoppers on your website or through display ads. Now, however, with so much of your online marketing occurring on social media sites, wouldn't it also be valuable to reach consumers there with behavioral targeting? And what if you could actually improve your campaign effectiveness by retargeting those same people via social media?

Welcome to the new world of behavioral retargeting via social media interactions. Finally, it's possible to reach consumers in a much more personal and meaningful way than through banner ads alone.

One leading beauty product retailer, for example, recently used social media interactions to get 200,000 consumers to opt in for future retargeting efforts. In the process, it awarded 150,000 free product coupons to be redeemed at brick-and-mortar locations.

Its secret? Using display ads that invited consumers to join a game experience that rewarded them with the promotional offer. Consumers were excited to share this experience with their friends and followers via social media because they were given incentives to do so — not to mention the fact it only took a simple social sign-in on an opt-in basis to join. The retailer was equally excited because once it had the data from that opt-in, everything the consumer did related to the initial ad could be tracked and used for behavioral retargeting purposes.

Better still, analyzing this rich trove of data allows marketers for the first time to create powerful segments of their social media audience, identifying and targeting groups of influencers and sharers.

Using this process, standard social media advertising — e.g., display ads on Facebook — is replaced by advertising into social media. Through a strategic combination of display ads, social media and behavioral retargeting, groups of sharers and influencers pass along offers and game experiences so that they spread outward like ripples on a pond. Consumers thus become active participants in the experience created by the brand instead of passive recipients of a message. In effect, they become "living ads" for the brand.

8 Steps to an Effective Social Media Retargeting Campaign
1. Provide a compelling offer that can be won through a simple game — e.g., the chance to sample a new product via an in-store coupon.

2. Embed the game into paid ads and your website. Do this on your social media pages as well so that consumers can directly share the game without needing to go off-site.

3. Retarget those consumers via both paid ads and email campaigns so that they play again and use social media to invite their friends and followers to play. If they don't win the free product coupon on their first try, give them daily chances to win while the campaign is ongoing. Also, give them additional chances to play each time they successfully refer friends and followers to join the fun via Facebook, Twitter or email.

4. As those friends and followers opt in to play the game, start retargeting them too.

5. Once someone wins your "prize," retarget them yet again via email with a reminder to redeem their coupon in-store.

6. Use first-party analytics throughout the campaign to better understand your prospects. Who are the influencers that are driving multiple responses from friends and family? Who are the sharers? Who are the shoppers that actually redeem coupons?

7. Use those analytics to engage the three groups with more precise targeting as the campaign progresses. This strategy enables you to reach more and more people who are highly likely to share, influence others or even buy your product in-store.

8. Once the campaign is over, begin long-term re-engagement through further retargeting by creating individualized messaging for influencers, sharers and shoppers.

Reaching influencers with a tailored message — all of whom have great potential to become highly active brand ambassadors — is a particularly crucial element of behavioral retargeting through social media. Consider that the top 15 influencers in the beauty brand's campaign drove an eye-opening 19 percent of total campaign opt-ins.

As a result, that brand is now creating "lookalike" groups based on interests such as favorite brands, social activities and shopping patterns. By continuing to retarget and engage these influencers based on mutual interests, future campaigns can further refine and build a brand's network of influencers. In turn, those influencers will continue to spread the word to their friends and followers.

Behavioral retargeting through social media opens up a new world of opportunity for brands as social media users become enlisted in their cause. Segmenting your social audience also enables much more focused messaging, paving the way for still greater precision and sales growth. It's behavioral targeting taken to the next level.

Todd Parsons is the founder and CEO of ADITIVE, a media solution that combines the power of paid and social advertising. Todd can be reached at tparsons@aditive.com.