What is Facebook Retargeting?

Facebook retargeting is when you run ads to people who have previously interacted with your business in some way. This could be a past website visitor, a returning customer, a Facebook page fan, etc.

These types of people often times are far more profitable to run ads to as they are already familiar with your business and have expressed an interest in your product or service.


How to Use Facebook Retargeting

You can use Facebook retargeting once you have a consistent way of supplying Facebook with those users’ data. An example would be having a Facebook pixel installed on your website and tracking all the people who add to cart but don’t purchase.

You then can use that data to create a Facebook retargeting ad to run ads to just those who meet that criteria.

If you would like to learn more about how to choose the right ad campaign that works for you, check out our post on How To Choose The Right Ad Campaign Objective!

1.) Log into Facebook Ads Manager and select audiences

From the Ads Manager dashboard select the drop down in the top left corner to reveal the Audiences page.

Log In to Facebook Ads Manager and Select Audiences

2.) Click create audience and select custom audience

Select the blue create audience button and choose custom audience.

Click Create Audience and Select Custom Audience

3.) Select which data source you’d like to use

Here you have many options on how you would like to decide who to retarget. Choices range from website visitors and customer lists to video viewers and Facebook fans.

Select Which Data Source You'd Like to Use

4.) Choose your parameters

Now that you’ve selected your data source you can be very specific with who you retarget. Select which action they must have taken and the time frame in which it happened.

5.) Create a Facebook Ad using your new saved audience

Next up is using your new audience to create a Facebook retargeting ad. When creating a new adset select Used Saved Audience and select the audience you just made.

Create a Facebook Ad Using Your New Saved Audience

Facebook Retargeting Strategies

Here are 6 different strategies you can leverage Facebook to retarget people who interact with your business.

1.) Website traffic

Retarget an audience of people who have visited your website. You can go even further by creating an audience of those who visited certain pages or took actions on your site.

2.) Customer list

Retarget an audience of people by uploading a list of customer data you’ve already collected such as names, emails and phone numbers.

3.) App activity

Retarget an audience of people who have launched your app or took an action such as purchasing an in app item.

4.) Video

Retarget an audience of people who have watched one of your videos on Facebook or Instagram. You can even choose how much of the video the person had to have watched. Example: 50% or more.

5.) Events

Retarget an audience of people who have interacted with one of your events on Facebook.

6.) Facebook page

Retarget an audience of people who follow or have interacted with your Facebook page.


Facebook Retargeting Statistics

Average Cost Per Acquisition

There are the Facebook Remarketing Statistics worth remembering – image source

Likelihood of Another Purchase

You can see the lifetime value compounding with each sale – image source

“It’s cheaper to get people to purchase again than to recruit new customers – Repeat customers are responsible for generating 40% of revenue in some cases. So why not double down on your most profitable clientele?”

Repeat customers are 9X more likely to convert than first time customers. That’s simply a conversion rate boost you can’t ignore.


Disclaimer: WebCitz, LLC does not warrant or make any representations concerning the accuracy, likely results, or reliability of the information found on this page or on any web sites linked to from this page. This blog article was written by David W in his or her personal capacity. The opinion(s) expressed in this article are the author's own and may not reflect the opinion(s) of WebCitz, LLC.