Three months ago I swore retargeting was a scam. A $47 campaign changed my mind.

3 comments

3 Comments

Man, that's exactly how it went for me too. I think the thing people miss is that retargeting works best when you've got something really specific to sell. Not just any generic product, but something that solves a clear problem someone already searched for. Like, if you're running ads for a random t-shirt, retargeting probably won't do much. But if you're selling a solution to a headache people already have, it's almost scary how well it works. What kind of product were you pushing with that $47 campaign?

thomas.parker1mo ago

Actually it was a $27 campaign, not $47. Small difference but I remember it exactly because $27 was that weird sweet spot where people didn't think twice about clicking buy. I was selling a simple PDF guide on fixing bad credit score errors. Nothing fancy, just step by step instructions for disputing stuff on your report. The retargeting kicked in for people who read the first few pages of the free sample and then bounced. Those folks already knew they had credit problems so they were halfway sold before they ever saw my ad again. You're right though, the specific problem thing is key. Nobody wakes up wanting a PDF, they wake up wanting their credit score to stop ruining their life.

riveradams29d ago

Oh man that credit score thing is wild because I had a neighbor once who got hooked on those fix your credit videos on YouTube and ended up buying like three different courses before he figured out it was all basically the same advice from different people. He spent way more than $27 trust me. But the thing that stuck with me was how he'd talk about the retargeting part because he said the ads would follow him everywhere even after he bought the first course and he'd be like "stop following me I already know my credit is garbage" and then he'd click again anyway because it kept reminding him how much he hated his situation. It's almost cruel how well that stuff works when people are emotionally raw about something. Makes me wonder if that PDF you sold is still out there haunting people who already bought it.