Facebook Retargeting Isn’t Dead. It Just Needs a Jump Start

Here at Customers.ai, we like to say our platform helps you remarket like it’s 2019 again.

The glory days of remarketing, when audiences were large, costs were small, and the Facebook ad pixel could identify ~50% of website visitors.

When remarketing was the pinnacle of Facebook ads and even a dollar per day could garner you results. 

Of course, we all know what happened – iOS 14 rolled out and remarketing became well, not so great.

Then iOS 17 rolled out, Click IDs and cross-channel tracking were minimized, and our already shrinking audiences and making them even smaller. 

Where does that bring us now?

Sadly, there’s an 84% drop in efficiency and you’re lucky if the ad pixel catches 7% of site traffic today.

Advertisers have moved their budgets elsewhere and there is definitely a belief that retargeting is dead.

So, should we just say our goodbyes and move on with our lives?

Not a chance!

Remarketing isn’t dead. We just have to give it a jump start.

Expand Your Retargeting Audiences with First-Party Data

One of the main problems with retargeting is that audience sizes have become so small that you can’t reach the number of people you need to in a cost-effective way. 

Whereas Facebook used to be able to identify a large number of your website visitors and put them into your remarketing campaigns, it can’t do that anymore (we haven’t even talked about the Chrome cookie situation which will make it even worse).

This is where first-party data comes into play. 

If the Facebook pixel isn’t going to capture your website visitors, then you need to do it yourself. 

With the Customers.ai Website Visitor ID X-Ray pixel, you can capture the names, emails, locations, phone numbers, etc. of people coming to your site. 

Those people can then be put into workflows, including your Facebook retargeting audiences. 

What’s important about the direct Meta integration is that we not only ID users, encrypt the data, and send it securely to Meta Ad servers, the integration is done via a server-to-server connection, allowing user IDs to remain in place and tracking to remain functional.

The great thing about this is that you can grow your audiences, grow your reach, and target users who are genuinely interested in you with almost no effort.  

It’s silly how effective this is.

Inform & Train Advantage+ Audiences

One piece of feedback we’ve gotten from Facebook advertisers is that they have shifted away from retargeting and are focused on using Advantage+ audiences.

If you aren’t familiar, Advantage+ is Meta’s AI audience generator. It relies on past conversions, Pixel data, interactions with previous ads, and user behavior. 

Facebook’s “Advantage Plus” ads targeting can’t match the precision of actual first-party data.

However, you do have the option of providing targeting suggestions that Meta will initially prioritize.

You can add custom audiences, age ranges, genders, and even interest and behavior targets, to help point Meta’s AI in the right direction.

So if you aren’t running remarketing campaigns but are using Advantage+ audiences, you can take your first-party data and build custom audiences to inform and train Advantage+. 

When it comes to AI, the more data you can provide, the smarter it will be.

Your website visitors are your target audience. They are the people you want to reach. 

Use your website visitor data to inform and train Meta AI.

Build Better Lookalike Audiences

I’ll keep this part short but the bottom line is this – lookalike audiences are only as valuable as the data you provide.

If you are building really solid remarketing lists or using first-party data to inform your Advantage+ audiences, then you can use those same audiences to create better lookalike audiences.

Here’s a tip – let’s say you want to build a really solid lookalike audience.

Do you want to base it on everyone who has visited your site? 

No. 

You want to base it on your high-intent prospects and existing customers. 

Put X-ray on these ‘high-intent’ pages (think pricing pages or shopping carts) and start building your audience. 

This way, you’ll end up with a list of people who aren’t on your site to just read a blog post or window shop, but instead are truly interested in what you have to offer.

Remarket Like It’s 2019

Customers.ai is giving advertisers the ability to bring remarketing back from the dead and return it to it’s former days of glory.

Ad targeting is hard and with all of the privacy changes that continue to roll out, it’s only getting harder. 

Shouldn’t you be doing everything you can to ensure you are reaching your exact audience and driving the best ROAS possible?

The Customers.ai Website Visitor ID X-Ray pixel is free (and easy) to install. 

See for yourself how many visitors you can capture and just how fast and efficiently you can 3x your Facebook remarketing campaigns.

Start remarketing like it’s 2019 again!

Important Next Steps

• See what targeted outbound marketing is all about. Capture and engage your first 500 website visitor leads with Customers.ai X-Ray website visitor identification for free.
• Talk and learn about sales outreach automation with other growth enthusiasts. Join Customers.ai Island, our Facebook group of 40K marketers and entrepreneurs who are ready to support you.
• Advance your marketing performance with Sales Outreach School, a free tutorial and training area for sales pros and marketers.