Web Contact Based Retargeting Campaign Guide

What are Contact Based Retargeting Campaigns

A Contact Based Retargeting Campaign is a tactic that combines prospecting to a specific list of known contacts from your CRM after they have visited your website.

Use this tactic to display ads to known contacts in your CRM that have visited your site, specifying pages or the number of page views.

This approach boosts engagement by re-engaging potential buyers from your contact lists who know your brand but haven't converted. Create tailored middle or bottom-of-funnel creatives for best results. Learn more in our creative best practices.

To launch this tactic, you will use the Website Retargeting Campaign feature combined with a Composite Audience that tracks your contact list page views.

Essentials before you start

• Install the Pixel to track visitors.
• Create at least one set of Static Web ads.
• A Contact List with a minimum of 100 unique emails. For optimal performance, we recommend at least 1000 emails per campaign.

Launch a Contact Based Retargeting Campaign

To launch this tactic, you will use the following building blocks to define your audience:

• Bring your Contact List.
• Create a Website Audience based on visitors who viewed at least 1 page.
• Create a Composite Audience combining your Contact List plus the 1-page-view website audience.
• Launch a Retargeting Campaign targeting the Composite Audience.
• Optionally, if you have a sizable list, create multiple AdGroups to deliver sequential messaging:
  • AdGroup 1: Contact list + 1 page. Use top-of-funnel creatives.
  • Ad Group 2: Contact list + 2 pages. Use bottom-of-funnel creatives.

Step 1: Bring a contact list over to the AdRoll ABM platform

The first step is to bring over a list of contact emails. You can use one of the following methods:

Step 2: Create a Website Audience to track page views

• Log in to AdRoll ABM and navigate to Audiences > Website Audiences.
• Select Create Website Audience.

• Select Audience Type = Pages Viewed.
• Enter the minimum number of pages your audience must view to qualify.
• Enter your desired Audience Name.
• Enter your desired audience duration (in days) under 'How long to keep a person in this audience'. If you aren't sure, learn more here.
• Click Create Audience.
• Please note that your new pages-viewed Website Audience may take up to 48 hours to start tracking visitors.

Step 3: Combine both audiences using a Composite Audience

In this step, you will overlay the Contact List in Step 1 with the Page-Viewed Website Audience in Step 2.

• Go to Audiences > Website Audiences.
• Click Create Website Audience > New Composite Audience.
• Select CRM in the first dropdown and find the contact list created in Step 1.
• Select Pages Viewed in the second drop-down and find the audience created in Step 2.
• Name the Composite Audience and click Create Audience.

Step 4: Launch Website Retargeting Campaign using the Composite Audience

• Navigate to Advertising > Campaigns & Playbooks.
• Click Create and select Ad Campaigns in the dropdown.

• Select Retargeting as your Campaign Goal and Click Next.
• Under Audience, choose the Composite Audience from Step 3.
  
• Exclude conversion audiences to avoid serving ads to users who’ve already converted.
• Complete the rest of retargeting campaign settings.

Step 6. Finish later or launch

Once you have completed all the steps in this guide, you can:

• Click Finish Later to save a draft. This allows you to save your work in progress and return later to finalize and submit for launch.
• Click Submit if you are ready to confirm the campaign should launch on the Start Date. Launch date is subject to our ~48-hour ad policy review period. 

Campaign Troubleshooting

If you are experiencing issues after launching your campaign, find tips to troubleshoot your campaign in this article.