Retargeting: reminding past visitors about your membership

Most people who visit your sales page leave without joining. That is normal. Some were just curious, some were interrupted, and some wanted to think about it and then forgot. Retargeting is the practice of showing reminders to people who have already visited your site, so the ones who were genuinely interested get a second chance to come back.

For a membership, retargeting can be one of the more efficient forms of paid advertising, because you are talking to people who already know you exist. It can also be irritating and intrusive if done carelessly. Here is how it works in general terms, and how to use it with restraint.

How retargeting works, in plain terms

When someone visits your site, a small piece of code from an advertising network, often called a pixel or tag, notes that this browser has been there. Later, when the same person browses other sites or social platforms that use that network, you can pay to show them an ad. You never learn who they are; the network simply lets you reach “people who visited this page in the last thirty days.”

A second kind uses lists you already have. Many ad networks let you upload a list of email addresses, such as newsletter subscribers who have not joined, and show ads to matching accounts. And the most overlooked form of retargeting involves no ads at all: a follow-up email to someone who started signing up and stopped.

Handle privacy and consent first

Retargeting relies on tracking, and tracking is subject to privacy rules in many places. Before you add any ad network's code:

• Update your privacy policy to explain what is collected and why.
• Check whether you need visitors' consent before tracking loads, which is often the case, and set up your cookie notice accordingly.
• Only upload email lists if your sign-up wording and privacy policy allow that use.

The rules vary by country and change over time, so check what applies to you with a qualified professional. Beyond the law, remember that people notice when an ad follows them everywhere. Care here protects your reputation as well as your compliance.

Choose who to remind

Not every visitor deserves the same message, and some should not see ads at all. Group visitors by what they did:

1. Reached the checkout but did not finish. The warmest group. They were minutes from joining.
2. Visited the sales or pricing page. They were considering it seriously.
3. Read several free articles. Interested in the topic, not yet in the membership.
4. Visited one page once. Usually too cold to be worth paying for.

Just as important is who to leave out. Always exclude current members, so you are not paying to advertise to people who already pay you, and exclude people who cancelled recently unless you have a specific message for them.

Match the message to the visit

Someone who abandoned the checkout needs a different reminder from someone who read one free article. Take a hypothetical membership for aspiring voice actors, run by Renata, which offers weekly script reads, feedback on recorded auditions and a library of technique lessons:

• For checkout visitors: “Still thinking it over? Your first audition feedback is waiting. Cancel anytime.”
• For sales page visitors: A short clip of Renata giving feedback on a real audition, shared with the member's permission, and a line about what members get each week.
• For article readers: An invitation to a free resource, such as a ten-minute vocal warm-up, rather than a membership pitch.

Each message moves the person one step forward, rather than asking cold readers to buy immediately.

Limit frequency and duration

The fastest way to turn interest into annoyance is to show the same ad many times a day for months. Most ad networks let you cap how often one person sees your ads and how long they stay in an audience. Reasonable starting points are a few views a week and a window of two to four weeks for the warm groups. Refresh the ads every few weeks, so regular visitors are not staring at the same image forever.

Run the numbers before you scale

Retargeting audiences are small, especially for a young membership, so costs can be modest. Judge results by members gained, not clicks. Here is an illustration with round, made-up numbers. Say Renata spends $300 in a month retargeting sales page and checkout visitors, and six people join who can be traced to those ads. That is $50 per member. If members pay $30 a month and usually stay for many months, that is a healthy return. If her payback period were much longer, or the ads brought in only one member, she would pause and rethink.

Be cautious about credit, too. Some of those six might have come back anyway. A useful check is to compare sign-ups in similar months with and without the ads running.

Start with the free version

Before paying for any ads, set up the retargeting you own. A short email to people who began checkout and stopped, and a reminder to subscribers who visited the pricing page, can recover members at no cost. Then add paid retargeting on top, once you know your numbers and where people drop out of your marketing funnel.

1. Review your privacy policy and cookie notice, and take advice if you are unsure.
2. Set up an abandoned-checkout email if you do not already have one.
3. Install one ad network's tracking code, and build audiences for checkout and sales page visitors.
4. Exclude current members and recent cancellations.
5. Write one message per audience, cap frequency and set a small monthly budget.
6. After a month, count members gained and cost per member, then decide whether to continue.