Retargeting for your Endurance Coaching Business

How many times do you think someone needs to be exposed to your product or service? and how long will it take before they buy something?

It's probably a lot more than you thought.

I was listening to a podcast this morning that was referencing a study that was done last year. It concluded that for online purchases of products and services the average number of days from the first time that someone is exposed to your product or service, till the time that they actually make a purchase is 42 days. And also that the number of exposures to your product or service, before a purchase was around 12 times. These stats will be very similar for your endurance coaching products and services whether that be traditional coaching or products like self-service training plans.

That's quite a long time and lots of touchpoints.

So why is this happening? and what does that mean for use when we are thinking about our sales and marketing strategies?

Read on or watch my video version where I explain why this is happening and how we can address it with retargeting.

Video Version

Text Version

Why does it take so long to buy?

Increased competition is one reason. People have to compare lots of different products and services before they'll make a decision, that takes time and often results in decision fatigue and a customer may decide just not to decide at all or will put it off till later.

There is also fierce competition online for attention and not just for competing products and services. Social and the online world is full of different businesses and ideas competing for the attention of internet users. There is more and more to wade through every day to find what we need online.

What is retargeting? and why should you do it?

I'm going to cover Facebook retargeting specifically but retargeting can also be used on other advertising platforms.

Traditionally when you think about advertising, you're thinking about creating an ad for a product or service you put the ad up choose an audience you want to see the ad based on their demographics and/or their interestest. The ad tries to convince your audience to buy your products or services.

Retargeting can do that as well, but retargeting can do that for people who have already engaged with your brand before. So day one of day 42 they come to your website, and if you have your Facebook pixel on your website, Facebook records that, and then after that date, you can over time, show them through Facebook ads, different aspects of your products and services or content that you create. With the intention of nurturing them through that early period and towards that magic number 42.

A well designed retargeting campaign will include a mix of content to help build trust and rapport but also more traditional ads referring to your paid products and services.

So you can’t think of Facebook retargeting ads as a straight out advertisement like you'll see on TV about buying products and services.

You’re thinking about building trust, exposing them to your products and services over time.

The other great thing about retargeting ads is that they are really inexpensive compared to advertising to a cold market using demographics and interests.

So, for Facebook retargeting, you can spend as little as a dollar a day, which is the minimum for a Facebook campaign. So that's only $30 a month. 

If you have a small budget or limited time and had to choose from only one paid advertising channel I would strongly recommend setting up a simple minimum budget Facebook retargeting campaign. I'd almost go as far as to say that every business should have a small retargeting campaign that they keep updated 100% of the time. Here at Training Tilt most of our advertising budget is spent on retargeting ads that present our content to try and help coaches with their businesses, build trust and ultimately promote our software as a paid service.

Makes sense? To get started you first, you need to actually have your Facebook pixel on your website, create a custom audience and then set up your ads.

Setting up Retargeting in Facebook

In the video, I cover how to set up your Facebook pixel on your website, how to create a custom retargeting audience from that pixel and how to set up your Facebook retargeting campaign. If you get stuck on anything please reach out and I'll help how I can

Conclusion

1. It now takes an average of 42-days before an online customer will purchase from you after they first see your product or service.
2. In addition, they need to be exposed to your product, service or brand between around 12 times.
3. Retargeting your Facebook ads allows you to focus on those who have already interacted with your brand or website and nurture them towards that 42 day period and up to 12 touch points with your product, service or brand.
4. Retargeting FB ads are very inexpensive when compared to FB targeting ads.

Retargeting is great because you can have a really small budget, but still, be able to utilize, paid advertising in a way that really narrowly targets down the people who are most likely to buy your products and services.