Remarketing in Facebook Ads. Step by step

Remarketing (retargeting) as a form of re-targeting a user who has already had contact with a brand is taking on more and more new forms. Nowadays, it’s not just tracking a user using cookies and then displaying ads to them, but it’s already a comprehensive strategy that includes dynamic campaigns, product feeds, copy, or creative matching. Remarketing planning starts with arranging the marketing funnel in such a way as to properly move from its top phase (awareness) through the middle phase (interest) to the final phase (conversion).

Remarketing with FB Ads

Like any advertising platform, Facebook provides many tools for reaching users again. It is up to you, however, how you use these opportunities. You will have data from the implemented pixel, events you configure, and audience groups based on interactions with social profiles.

What do you need to start remarketing on Facebook?

To take full advantage of Facebook Ads’ remarketing capabilities, you need to implement a pixel on your website or, in the case of an app, implement the SDK (and register your app at developers.facebook.com). A pixel is simply the equivalent of the remarketing code from Google Ads to collect information about your site’s users. A basic implementation will, therefore, include tracking traffic from every subpage of your site.

In the next configuration stage, you can send information about events (conversions), i.e., moments most relevant to your business. Such events will be, for example:

• purchases
• transactions
• additions to cart
• view product sheets
• use the search engine
• download material
• Fill out the form

The more events you set up, the easier it will be to manage audience groups for remarketing campaigns later. To fully utilize the data to create audience groups and optimize your campaigns for these conversions, you should primarily use the so-called Facebook standard events.

Is it worth using remarketing campaigns in Meta Ads?

First, it would be appropriate to start with the question, Why does remarketing work? It is related to the behavior of users, who rarely decide to make a purchase on their first visit to the site. It is related to a lot of anxiety, the comparison process, the transition from the interest phase to the active search and purchase phase, and so on. Your task is to sustain interest, inspire trust, and ultimately lead to the first purchase. Here, I refer you to an article about indicators for assessing marketing effectiveness – monitoring user lifetime value and acquisition cost will be key in the future.

As the above example of how remarketing works shows, its main purpose is to deepen interest. However, remarketing can be used in completely different ways, for example:

1. Bringing to the finalization of an incomplete transaction – in case the user has not completed the purchase process
2. Presenting suggestions to complete the shopping cart – for example, after buying a bed, you can use remarketing to sell mattresses
3. Excluding the remarketing group (negative retargeting) – e.g., when you don’t want remarketing ads to appear to people who have already downloaded some material

The answer to the question of whether it’s worth it is 3xtak. In today’s digital world, it’s a marketing obligation.

How to run a remarketing campaign on Facebook?

Creating a remarketing campaign is no different from creating a standard Facebook Ads campaign. First, select the appropriate ad target on Facebook. If you have already installed the FB pixel, all you need to do is prepare your audience groups (the people you want to reach with ads). Then, design ads for each of the selected groups to meet your goals.

Custom Audience Groups in Meta Ads

In remarketing, creating the right audience groups is key. FB provides five sources of data that can be used to create them:

1. Web site
2. Mobile application
3. Data catalog
4. Customer list
5. Set of offline activities

In each case, you need structured data. You need to implement a pixel/SDK for the website and app beforehand, you need a product data file for the catalog, and the customer list or offline data requires preparing batch files according to Facebook’s specifications. The more data you have, the more events you collect, and the more possibilities you will have in configuring Facebook remarketing.

To create custom audience groups, you can also use data from the Meta platform, i.e.:

• Film
• Contact form
• Fastening material
• Ar material
• Facebook announcements
• Account on Instagram
• Events
• Facebook page
• Purchasing

With these features, you will create additional audience groups, such as people who have interacted with materials on your brand profile (page) or viewed posts on Instagram. In the configuration of audience groups, you can freely combine conditions and add exclusions, which will be useful for advanced settings of remarketing campaigns.

Examples of Facebook Ads remarketing

1. Abandoned shopping carts

The average rate of abandoned shopping carts is already high and only increasing. Right now, it is just over 69.99%, meaning that less than 1/4 of the people who put products in a shopping cart buy them. This is disheartening, but one has to accept this data.

People will add products to the shopping cart, get distracted, find a better deal, or treat the shopping cart as a place to store „purchases for later.”

Facebook remarketing ads are perfect for closing deals. You can show them exactly the products they were initially interested in and encourage them to return to the site by offering, for example, an extra bonus, free shipping, or a return guarantee.

Remarketing ads are a great way to get them to close the deal.

2. Similar audience groups

The Facebook Pixel collects information about your site’s visitors and allows you to create customized audience groups. The pixel tracks who visited what page and when so you can display personalized ads to those users based on their behavior.

However, if you don’t have a significant amount of web traffic to draw from, it can be difficult to get the data you need to display relevant retargeting ads on Facebook. 

To expand your reach, you can use the „lookalike audiences” feature. These groups create audiences similar to people who have already visited your site (or who have performed an action). They are more likely to be interested in your offer because they have the same job, live in the same area, or are interested in the same things as your customers.

3. Try your most valuable customers

High-value customers are those who have bought from you in the past or interacted directly with your brand, such as by making contact, adding products to a shopping cart, sharing a social media post, or leaving a review.

These people are among the easiest to re-engage – especially in a sufficiently short time. When building a marketing funnel, it’s worthwhile for this select group to try other campaign objectives on FB like Brand awareness ads 

4. Share special offers

Everyone likes to feel special and almost everyone appreciates promotions. So strengthen your relationship with existing customers by sharing special offers such as discounts, free delivery, or additional gifts for people who re-engage via Facebook retargeting ads. Set this campaign only to people who have already visited your site.

5 Dynamic Facebook retargeting ads

Dynamic retargeting ads on Facebook show products that a shopper has already viewed (even if they haven’t added anything to their cart) to create personalized ads. These ads can include information from the product feed, such as price, photo, name, brand, or category.

This is Facebook’s best sales strategy for leveraging the power of personalization to increase conversions. To display dynamic remarketing ads on Facebook, you need a Business Manager account and a product catalog that is regularly updated.

They are a great way to get the most out of your product feed.

Using dynamic ads, recipients can automatically see your products they have previously viewed, added to their shopping cart, or purchased. You can also use retargeting with dynamic ads to suggest comparable or complementary products.

They can also use dynamic ads to suggest comparable or complementary products.

6. Retargeting video ads on Facebook

Facebook is one of the leading platforms for video consumption, so it is worth using it in your advertising campaigns. Video is becoming increasingly popular these days, and video playback is likely to exceed 85% of global Internet traffic in the next few years.

To make the most of Facebook video ads, try to get your brand mentioned as early as possible in the video. A study by Facebook IQ found that consumers are 23% more likely to remember a brand if it’s presented in the first three seconds of a video ad.

Consumers are more likely to remember a brand if it’s presented in the first three seconds of a video ad.

Retargeting video ads will help, especially if your goal is to build awareness, gain interest, or reach with a highly personalized message.

Is Facebook remarketing worth it?

Facebook remarketing is one of the most effective e-marketing tools. It allows you to reach out with a repeat message and increase your conversion rate or even your customer lifetime value (LTV). With complementary tools like creating groups of similar audiences (lookalike audiences), remarketing can also be a source for finding brand-new audiences. If you’re not yet using remarketing in your digital campaigns, it’s time to change that!