Facebook and Instagram advertising play a key role in retargeting strategies for many marketers. This is per survey data [download page] from Ascend2 and SharpSpring Ads that found that for about three-quarters (77%) of B2B and B2C marketers, retargeting is a part of their Facebook and Instagram advertising strategies.
Retargeting is one of the most popular strategies among marketers. Second only to content marketing, some three-quarters (77%) of B2B planned to use retargeting as part of their overall strategy last. This recent data shows that, other than Facebook and Instagram advertising, respondents also expect to use retargeting as part of their Google Advertising (69%), email (55%) and Twitter Advertising (44%) strategies.
The channels used most for retargeting vary depending on business size. When comparing SMBs to enterprise-level companies, SMBs (60%) were more likely than enterprise (39%) to use search for retargeting. However, enterprise businesses show a stronger preference than SMBs for using video (58% of enterprise vs. 27% of SMBs) and display (41% vs. 27%).
The use of channels isn’t the only area where businesses vary in regards to retargeting. The survey found that while most marketers are using retargeting for brand awareness (57%), driving sales (57%), and customer retention (55%), these goals aren’t equally valued by B2B and B2C businesses. B2C companies are using retargeting mostly for customer retention (66%) and driving sales (64%), while B2Bs are using this strategy primarily to raise awareness (58%) and drive sales (44%).
Measuring Success and the Challenges Faced
For those using retargeting strategies, more than half (54%) consider ROI to be the most effective KPI for measuring success. This is followed by return on ad spend (RoAS; 40%), cost per acquisition (36%) and click-through rate (35%).
Fortunately, 9 in 10 (87%) are a least moderately satisfied with their ability to determine the ROI of their retargeting program
That’s not to say there aren’t challenges. B2B respondents cite resources (38%) and brand image as their top challenges, while B2Cs are faced more with challenges involving ad fraud (43%) and attribution (37%). Indeed, improving revenue attribution is one of the features about one-third (43%) of all respondents believe their retargeting platform should improve on.
Finally, while both B2B and B2C companies cite access to desired audiences as a top consideration for evaluating new retargeting technology, B2Bs are more apt to consider associated costs and the ability to customize, while B2Cs look at the technologies’ ease of use and customer services.
The full report can be found here.
About the Data: Findings are based on a survey of 176 B2B and B2C marketers, half of whom work at companies with more than 500 companies.
