Best Practices

Product Retargeting Ecommerce Ads on Facebook


Placing product retargeting ecommerce ads on Facebook is a powerful conversion tool for online retail business. Previously, we wrote about developing a retargeting strategy on Facebook and how it's an effective way to increase sales. Now, we want to look at why product retargeting for ecommerce ads is a good idea for retailers.

Custom Audiences vs Facebook Exchange (FBX)

Retailers often ask us about the difference between Website Custom Audiences (WCA) and Facebook Exchange (FBX): What is the difference? What is the advantage of WCAs? And how do WCAs specifically help ecommerce?

FBX only delivers ads to desktop users and mobile web users. That means FBX will only reach users on mobile devices, if they are using a browser not the Facebook native app. Many recent reports show mobile web is used less and less, and mobile commerce is increasing along with mobile app usage. Therefore, by spending budget on FBX, you're essentially missing out on reaching your customers where they spend time.

Apps continue to dominate the web

Advanced Segmentation & Targeting with WCAs

WCAs not only allow you to reach consumers across all devices, but also provides powerful segmentation capabilities. Ecommerce advertisers can target consumers with greater accuracy, which increases conversion rates and ROI. We often advise ecommerce retailers to create WCAs for every category and product on their website. These can then be used for retargeting. WCAs can also be created from individual's interests, demographics, etc.—giving online retailers a highly targeted segmentation for prospecting in addition to retargeting.

Retargeting Across Devices

As consumers move from device to device, retargeting becomes a great way to reach them when they are ready to purchase. Many retailers are seeing success by setting up retargeting campaigns using WCAs in the following way:

Facebook Retargeting Website Custom Audiences

Here are a few other ways to target and retarget using WCAs:

  • Target visitors who viewed certain sections or product types on your site with related products.
  • Target visitors who visited a particular section or product on your website, but did not complete an action like purchase or sign-up.
  • Target customers who bought a particular product with related products or accessories to cross-sell.
  • Target visitors who have not visited your site in a while. This is done by including visitors in the last 180 days and excluding visitors in the last 150 days (two different WCAs).

Product Retargeting Ecommerce Ads

To build on the use of WCAs for product retargeting, check out our blog post on direct response marketing tips for ecommerce. Another thing to consider, along with product retargeting, is Facebook Multi-Product ads, which have given early adopts a distinct advantage.