You’ve probably heard the phrase “retarget your audience with your Facebook ads,” but you may be wondering what that means. 

Before we jump in, you must understand a certain statistic about marketing. It takes an average of 8 messages about an offer to make a sale. 

Fact is — people don’t like to be sold to. We’re in the modern era where dated and slimy sales tactics no longer work. At least, not for a long-term plan. Because of this, we have to approach marketing differently this is where retargeting is helpful. 

Because it takes an average of 8 touch-points for each lead to turn into a customer, we can’t run one Facebook ad and expect the ad to generate a sale on the first try. Instead, we have to have a strategic plan and that plan needs to include retargeting.

Need help deciding whether you’re Facebook ad ready? Click here to find out.

When you “retarget” an audience, you’re putting an ad in front of an audience who is already familiar with you. They may have heard about your brand, visited your website or engaged with a post on Facebook or Instagram. 

You can retarget your audience with the following types of ads:

• Video ads that create a warm audience 
• Ads that lead to a websites, landing page, sales funnels 
• Ads that go to people you who engage with your posts or send you a message through the Facebook Messenger App or Instagram direct messages

Retargeting an Audience Video Views

When you run a video ad, the intention is to gain video views from an audience who would be interested in your offer.

The video is used to warm up the audience so you can retarget an audience who watched a certain percentage of your video. You can create this audience under the “audience” tab in the Ads Manager and setup a custom audience from specific videos. 

Retargeting an Audience that Lands on Your Website, Landing Page or Sales Funnel

Did you know on average only 25% of people who visit a website purchase on the first visit?

This is why you want to retarget your audience and remind them of your offer.

You can setup Facebook ads that retarget all people who visit your website within a certain timeframe, people who land on specific pages, people who view a specific product, and people who take an action on your website such as adding to cart but not checking out.

Just make sure you install the Facebook Pixel so you can track your website traffic and trigger the Facebook ads.

You can also retarget people who do purchase to remind them of a similar product or another product they may be interested in.

You can create this audience under the “audience” tab in the Ads Manager and setup a custom audience from website visit. 

Retargeting an Audience that Engages With Your Social Media Posts and Messages your Social Media Pages 

You can run a Facebook ad to an audience that has already engaged or sent a message to your Facebook or Instagram page and therefore, already has basic knowledge about your brand. Create this audience under the “audience” tab in the Ads Manager and setup a custom audience from your Instagram profile or Facebook page. You can also set the duration of your choice to be a recently engaged audience or a longer duration. 

Retargeting is essential to a successful Facebook ads strategy and help you reach your marketing goals . Which ads are you going to run to retarget your audience with Facebook ads? Tell me in the comments. 

What is the difference between boosting a post and creating a Facebook ad?

I get asked this a lot and it’s a great question to ask when you’re ready to incorporate ad spend into your digital marketing plan. 

When you boost a post, you have the choice of putting ad spend behind a post on your Facebook page timeline.

It’s important to understand the difference between a boosted post and a Facebook ad and also why you want to incorporate ad spend into your Facebook marketing plan so you can make an educated choice as to whether you need to boost posts or run Facebook ads.

Who can I target with a boosted post?

You can boost your post to reach one of the following audiences:

• Custom audience (targets an audience based on their interests, age and gender of your choosing)
• People who like your page 
• People you choose through targeting 

Where does a boosted post appear?

You can boost your post to reach one of the following audiences:

• Custom audience (targets an audience based on their interests, age and gender of your choosing)
• People who like your page 
• People you choose through targeting 

Is there a difference between a boosted post and a Facebook ad when it comes to budget?

You can choose the budget of your choice for both a boosted post and a Facebook ad.

An ad is more flexible and customizeable, and has more budget options.

That said, there isn’t a major difference between the two when it comes to ad spend.

One caveat is that specific ad objectives have different minimum ad spend requirements. Boosted posts can be run for a minimum of $1 per day.

What is a Facebook ad compared to a boosted post?

A Facebook Ad is created in the Facebook Ads Manager and has more capabilities for customization.

This includes:

• targeting a niche audience
• choosing an objective
• creating ads that retarget audiences
• choosing a button option of your choice to be included in an ad

A post is “boosted” when you put ad spend behind a post published to your Facebook timeline. The post cannot be changed, you are simply choosing the audience to reach and putting ad spend behind the post.

Will I have better data from an ad as opposed to a boosted post?

The analytical data is more defined for a Facebook ad compared to a boosted post.

You can choose to retarget the audience of a Facebook ad with another ad when the ad is created in the Facebook Ads Manager. 

Does a Facebook ad show up somewhere other than a Facebook and Instagram Timeline?

Yes, here is a list of the places a Facebook ads can be placed:

• Facebook news feed (including side ads)
• Instagram news feed
• Messenger app
• Instagram stories
• instant articles
• Audience Network

You can customize which placements you prefer in the Facebook Ads Manager.  

If I want to make a sale, should I choose to boost a post or run a Facebook ad?

It is going to depend on several factors but I recommend using a Facebook ad to sell a product. The reason being is that it takes several touchpoints (the latest data shows 8 on average) to make a sale.

The Facebook Ads Manager will allow you to set up a range of ad objectives that can build on one another to retarget your audience and eventually, turn the audience into paying customers.

It’s a process that takes time and you will need to gather data through the Facebook Ads Manager first, but it’s a more streamline and strategized process when running ads in the Facebook Ads Manager opposed to boosting a post.

What is the overall difference between a boosted post and a Facebook ad?

Overall, boosted posts are limited in features and capabilities compared to ads because they are not created in the Facebook Ads Manager and cannot be customized to the extent of a Facebook ad.

Boosted posts can be optimized for page likes, comments, shares or brand awareness.

Facebook ads can be optimized for these options and more which include targeting audiences from data gathered outside of Facebook, such as an email list or website traffic. These optimization options include website conversions, video views, shop orders, placement on third party affiliated websites, and more. 

Facebook ads can be customized extensively based on the objective you choose. Therefore, you can create an ad that meets your marketing goals.