Connected TV Advertising: Effective Retargeting Strategies for the Performance Marketer

9 Min Read

Ah, retargeting – it’s one of the oldest tricks in the book, yet highly effective if done right. Studies show that around 97% of visitors that leave never return to a website, so you could potentially be missing out of a huge chunk of potential customers if you’re unable to bring them back to the site. Retargeted consumers are 70% more likely to convert, and 89% of users will either respond positively or neutrally to your efforts. Think of it as a friendly nudge in the right direction. You’ll most likely think of retargeting ads as the ones that pop up on your web browser once you visit a site, but did you know that you can also retarget users on Connected TV? Yep, we’ve turned retargeting multi-dimensional. However,  no matter which platform you choose to retarget, the principles remain the same. Here are some best practices you can follow and take away with you to apply to your next campaign.

1. Target users by specific actions taken on your site

It may be tempting to target every Tom, Dick and Harry – like all of your website visitors for example – but more ads doesn’t necessarily equate to more sales. In fact, more often than not, users are likely to be turned off by irrelevant ads that don’t apply to them. An effective retargeting strategy takes into consideration where the user is in the journey – perhaps they viewed a certain number of pages, or added an item to their cart without going through with the purchase. Therefore, you should instead retarget users based on the way they currently interact with your brand. 

Our MNTN Performance TV retargeting feature allows advertisers to build audience segments based on their own user data and then retarget specifically to these different groups. We take it a step further by providing insights on these user groups before retargeting them so you can identify the high value users likely to convert. You can access both of these features with a simple toggle feature built into our user interface – below is an example of how to create an audience based on cart abandoners who have visited five pages on your website. We wanted to simplify the process, so this same interface is used for both Connected TV and retargeting on other devices.

2. Retarget Existing Customers

Think of this as the low hanging fruit, as it’s less costly to re-engage existing customers than find new ones. Repeat customers are responsible for 40% of the average store’s annual revenue, and those numbers climb to 54% after they make a second or third purchase. Furthermore, they buy 90% more frequently and spend 60% more per transaction. The same dashboard you would use to build a new audience is used to find your existing ones, all captured in a single field.

3. Personalize and Simplify Your Offer

Too much choice isn’t always a good thing. An article by Marketing Land explores the psychology behind purchase decisions, and suggests that this can hinder the decision-making process and cause the reverse effect than was intended – all because of an overwhelming number of options. A solution? Keep it simple, and ease the sensory overload through narrowing down options to encourage users to convert. Connected TV retargeting makes it easy to upload creative that is specific to your product offering, since these ads will be delivered to users already familiar with your brand.

And with MNTN Multi-Touch, you can further personalize the brand experience, by infusing dynamic creatives into your campaign that reflect your existing customer and data, such as products that they have browsed or indicated interest. The example below demonstrates what it looks like in practice, and automatically updates this across a variety of ad sizes without having to do it manually.

4. Keep Your Retargeting Ads Fresh – Either by Changing Up the Offers or Creatives

Human beings are creatures of routine, but it’s novelty that gets our attention. Catch the eye with arresting visuals, eye-catching copy, or a combination of both – and don’t forget to switch it up to stir up some curiosity. According to eMarketer, more than half of online shoppers use a website’s shopping cart to check the total costs for their purchase, as over 70% cite money as the core reason why they don’t go through with their purchase. The same proportion adds items to their cart over several visits before checking out. Notice a pattern here? It’s what psychologists called pain avoidance, which is triggered whenever users arrive at the checkout. 

This can be remedied through value-driven messaging that helps to ease the perceived pain of the price tag, whether that be a free-shipping offer, purchase guarantees, free returns, you catch our drift. Furthermore, messaging can be used to encourage users to finish what they started and gently guide them through the sales funnel. A study by The Journal of Marketing Research shows that users are motivated towards progress, or anything that gives them a sense of being closer to accomplishing a goal – which also applies to purchases. Tailor your retargeting messages around this notion, as we’ve shown below in the below example. The MNTN Ad Builder makes it easy to update Multi-Touch copy and have it reformatted in all ad sizes in a matter of a few clicks. 

Ready to put some of these retargeting strategies to work? Sign up for a free demo below, and we’ll show you how easy it is to get started.