Learn How to Remarket on Facebook More Efficiently

People only spend about 3 seconds on shopping cart pages. That doesn’t give you much time to reach them before they abandon their carts. That’s where remarketing comes in, but how exactly will remarketing help you on Facebook?

First, take time to learn what Facebook remarketing is. Then, learn about some pitfalls that cause shopping cart abandonment and how to avoid them. After that, set yourself up to successfully remarket on Facebook as efficiently as possible.

People only spend about 3 seconds on shopping cart pages. That doesn’t give you much time to reach them before they abandon their carts. That’s where remarketing comes in, but how exactly will remarketing help you on Facebook?

First, take time to learn what Facebook remarketing is. Then, learn about some pitfalls that cause shopping cart abandonment and how to avoid them. After that, set yourself up to successfully remarket on Facebook as efficiently as possible.

What is Facebook remarketing?

Facebook remarketing, otherwise known as Facebook retargeting, is the conversion of website visitors who previously browsed your site.

Potential customers may have even added items to their shopping cart but didn’t complete their purchase. You can catch them again later by way of tracking services that target ads for items they’re interested in.

Remarketing works with any category of product or service within any industry. For instance, you could sell T-shirts, but maybe the customer isn’t sure which one they want.

That doesn’t mean your potential customers didn’t want the items they added to their shopping cart, however. They may come back later to complete their order, but might not return to your website right away.

Just in case your website visitors don’t return to complete their order, Facebook remarketing “follows them” (but not in a creepy way – you have to get permission to collect their ordering data). When you track your visitors on Facebook, they will see the items they thought about ordering, and it gives them a new opportunity to make a decision to buy from you.

How can you use Facebook remarketing?

Your Facebook remarketing campaign can in and of itself present your customers with new opportunities to buy. However, just seeing your original offer may not be enough for them.

It may require that you “step it up” a little. Maybe offer them a percentage off or a coupon for some free items along with their purchase. Otherwise, you could offer your potential new customers a free or reduced-fee trial.

How does Facebook remarketing work?

Facebook remarketing puts your ads right in the center of Facebook feed ads. It’s done via a tracking pixel, and they’re positioned right in front of each FB user’s eyes.

In other words, your ads appear in the best spots on a user’s Facebook page. They show up right where your target audience sees them.

3 benefits of the remarketing tracking pixel

Remarketing is done without chasing after or “stalking” your customers, although that is a common misconception. What’s more, ad blockers don’t stop remarketing ads. Instead, they show up naturally in users’ news feeds.

Here are three benefits of the remarketing tracking pixel:

1. Helps you choose ad campaign objective

The remarketing algorithm understands that there’s no “one size fits all” type of ad. For instance, an ad that reaches out to existing email leads requires attention that differs from that required by new signups.

Your objective for new signups, by the way, may be “awareness” instead of “sales” or “app promotion.” Reach them at the level they’re at, with awareness for new leads and sales for existing email (or SMS) subscribers.

2. Fine-tune your ad customizations

The tracking pixel makes it possible to fine-tune your ad customizations. Moreover, you can structure your campaigns according to the specific behaviors of your leads.

For instance, customers you target with Facebook remarketing ads might target people who already signed up for your email list. You also can reach out to people who visited a particular website page or who haven’t been to your website in a while.

When fine-tuning your ad customizations, you can also set existing signups for conversions. This includes reaching them via Messenger or Instant forms, where you can show them new offers.

3. Follows your audience’s interests

You can keep track of both former and new buyers at whatever state of the decision-making process they’re at. Maybe they just browsed your e-commerce listings, for example.

Other visitors perhaps placed items in a shopping cart and abandoned them. Whatever the case may be, you can reach them with specific categories of interests, including household items, self-help books, how to make money and more.

You can also keep track of a person’s personal causes they believe in. It’s even possible to create entire campaigns around it using the “engagement” Facebook ad function.

A tracking pixel Ad example

To give you an idea of what a tracking pixel ad will appear like on Facebook, here’s an example. It’s from a person who just visited a college website landing page. Now, an ad for that same college is showing up on that person’s Facebook user’s feed for that person to see.

A Little Tracking Pixel Humor for You Too

“I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it was not fate; it was remarketing,” says Margo Whitney of Wordstream.

Whitney was referring to her mother, who thought that seeing the same pair of boots three times in two weeks was “fate.” Whitney, who refers to remarketers as “sneaky advertisers,” describes the power of what this type of promotion can do.

Again, remarketing is not “stalkerish” if you target customers who agree to see your ads through some form of opt-in form or email signup. It also happens after a customer visits your website and consents to allowing “cookies,” which gives you permission to track them.

What are the benefits of investing in remarketing ads?

Facebook ads remarketing gives you the chance to keep track of brands that your target audience either already have consumed or are thinking of consuming, and it establishes new suggestions for them based on that.

A Facebook remarketing campaign can also do this for you: 

1. Boost shopping cart conversion rates

Shopping cart abandonment rates typically range from 59.2% to 79.8% as of 2021. However, that doesn’t have to be your e-commerce shopping cart statistics. You can increase the number of successful sales using remarketing.

2. Provides greater brand exposure

Remarketing increases the number of people who see your brand and the products or services you sell. This happens by message reinforcement and linking different forms of media. For instance, you can link your website and Facebook Messenger together when reaching out to buyers.

3. Improves overall return on investment (ROI)

Your ROI will drastically improve when using Facebook remarking as part of your brand promotion strategy. That’s because you know more about your customers by collecting data from their past browsing sessions and their purchase behaviors.

How do you remarket on Facebook?

Facebook has its own guide on how to remarket in Facebook ads. They call it “retargeting.” They give you a couple of options when using a catalog, an app event or a remarketing pixel.

Before You Start Remarketing Setup

Before you start the remarketing setup, you’re going to have to first decide how you plan to retarget your customers. One way is to set up the Meta Pixel on your website. That’s the remarketing pixel we’ve been referring to when explaining remarketing in Facebook ads.

Otherwise, you can learn how to create a catalog within your commerce manager. This could include an existing catalog from your e-commerce site if it integrates with Facebook. Some integrations you can connect include BigCommerce, Magento or Shopify.

A third option involves creating an app event, which you can also use the Meta Pixel for. You’ll want to read through more of Facebook’s help documentation to learn more.

The following steps assume you already have the Facebook Pixel installed on your website: 

1. Select “Ad Manager” from your FB sidebar menu.

It depends on the screen you’re using, but your Facebook menu is usually on the left-hand side. If you don’t see “Ad manager” listed, click on the “see more” drop-down arrow to expand your sidebar menu.

2. Click on one of your “ad sets” (or create one).

3. Choose to retarget ads to people.

You can only do this if you already have a live ad campaign running or already have a website that people have already visited. If you do, then you would go to the “audience” section of your ad set and choose to “retarget ads to people who interacted with your products on and off of Facebook.”

4. Select the number of days for remarketing.

The option to choose your number of remarketing (retargeting) days will show up after you choose the retargeting option. Right now, this would be for people who have interacted on your sites or Facebook. You can decide how many days you want to run your Facebook remarketing campaign to retarget them.

5. Set inclusions and exclusions

This customization could include people who added products to their shopping carts to see if you can get them to purchase them. You can include people who haven’t made any purchases in 45 days.

Likewise, you can exclude people who have already made a purchase within 45 days if you want. Otherwise, you can market a new offering to your regular customers.

6. Select products (or services) to include

Maybe you’re selling marketing video courses or silver earrings that a customer has shown interest in. Include whatever products or services you have that you believe would interest them. This also would be an excellent opportunity to call them to action with a coupon, percentage off or free trial.

Does Facebook remarketing really work?

Facebook remarketing does work if you have the kind of products that you know your target audience would want.

If you’re just getting started and haven’t a clue what to sell to your potential customers yet, learn more about how to craft the perfect product with Hotmart. It’s also important to learn how to get traffic to your website if you want to reach customers with remarketing in the first place.