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The Power of Retargeting: A Journey Through the Sales Funnel for Cannabis Brands
BEFORE WE BEGIN: PROSPECTING
Prospecting is the practice of serving ads to consumers who haven’t necessarily engaged with your brand before. While not itself retargeting, prospecting ads to cannabis consumers is vital for expanding your audience and raising actionable awareness. It’s also an important first step in any retargeting strategy, as it helps identify the best leads on whom to focus your retargeting efforts.
FOLLOWING THE FUNNEL
The funnel, as it’s called, is how advertisers describe the journey consumers take to get from initial awareness to eventual conversion. The sales funnel for consumers is broken up into three fluid phases:
Top of Funnel
At the top of funnel (TOFU), consumers are generally unaware of your brand. This is where your initial audience is created through prospecting. Here, they will be served your ad and introduced to your brand for the first time.
Middle of Funnel
The middle of funnel (MOFU) is often called the research phase. Here, consumers are aware of your brand; they’ve been served your ad and have visited your website. In this phase, retargeting is introduced to help drive further engagement.
Bottom of Funnel
The bottom of funnel (BOFU) is the last step before conversion. Consumers in this phase have generally engaged with your brand and exhibited repeated interest. They’ve visited your website several times and may have left an item in their cart. Retargeting during this phase is used to serve tailor-made ads, often including the products they were looking at and a direct call to action, i.e. buy the crockpot.
HARNESSING THE POWER OF THE PIXEL
If retargeting is the vehicle that connects brands to consumers, then pixels are the engines that drive it. A pixel is a short line of code embedded in a website that collects various pieces of information—location, device, IP address, and more—about consumers who visit. The pixel sends this information to a data management platform (DMP) or other database for storage and analysis. By tracking behavior like page views and ecommerce activity, pixels help you identify consumers who have shown the most interest and are closest to conversion. These people are your ideal audience for retargeting.
RETARGETING AT WORK
One thing is clear about retargeting: it works. In fact, statistics show that retargeted ads have as much as 10x the CTR (Click Through Rate) of traditional display ads* and that retargeted website visitors are up to 70% more likely to convert than first-time visitors*.
But moving consumers through the sales funnel for cannabis consumers is only the beginning. There are several ways to make retargeting work for your business. For instance, retargeting is a great way to “reactivate” your past customers. A simple “we miss you” email or ad can be exactly what they need to buy from you again.
Retargeting ads to cannabis consumers is a powerful tool. But like any tool, it’s at its most effective when part of a larger toolset. The right retargeting strategy depends on your business, your audience, and your goals. Want to know how you can make retargeting work for your business? Get in touch. We’d love to show you.
