How Pixeling Can Help You Market to Tweenagers
Kids are surfing the web at a younger age today than ever before, partially because they have access to smartphones and tablets without parental supervision.
Before every kid had a computer in their pocket (making them accessible to marketers 24/7), their computer time was limited. So businesses marketed to kids through their parents.
Conventional wisdom just took a permanent vacation
For decades, conventional wisdom said that moms are the primary decision makers in the family. So marketers have focused on targeting moms in order to get to the kids.
Today, conventional wisdom has finally died – moms aren’t the only ones involved in decision making for the family. Dads are involved, and so are the kids. This doesn’t mean you can’t market to kids through the parents, but it does mean you need a fresh approach that will involve the kids.
Marketing to kids through mom and dad blogs
When you sell products for kids, you can increase your ROI by creating a blog for parents to read with articles that promote family activities. When you can inspire parents to get involved with their kids by using your products, you’ll see a higher conversion rate for your efforts.
You’ve probably seen Dan Pearce’s blog, better known as “Single Dad Laughing.” While he’s not marketing products, he’s marketing the pursuit of living a life full of fun. By writing about his experiences, failures, and escapades with his son, Dan inspires parents to connect with their families and enjoy life. If he added products to his website, they would sell on their own.
The power of pixeling (retargeting)
You may have heard a family member complain about visiting a random website and seeing ads for products they’ve viewed on Amazon. How does a blog about recycled art know they added a specific diamond bracelet to their Amazon wish list an hour ago? To a marketer, it’s just business as usual in the form of retargeting.
Pixeling displays your ads to visitors who bounce
Retargeting, also known as pixeling, is a strategy that all marketers should be using to reach their target market. With this strategy, you don’t need to rely on building an email list to reach people. That doesn’t mean you should stop collecting email addresses, but pixeling your blog will allow you to continue to advertise to all of the teens who visit your page and then bounce.
Retargeting in this sense has been dubbed “pixeling” due to the use of a 1×1 gif image in the tracking process. For more information, here’s a technical description of how pixeling works.
How pixeling works on the marketer’s side:
- You place a snippet of code that gets pasted on every page of your website. This code “stamps” the virtual hands of all visitors to say they’ve been to your website.
- This code tracks your visitors everywhere they go, allowing you to use advertising platforms like Google ads, Facebook ads, and more to display ads to people with your “stamp.”
How pixeling works on the consumer’s side:
- A teenager lands on your webpage and browses for a moment, but then bounces. They don’t fill out any web forms, and they don’t buy anything from you. They’re as anonymous as anonymous can be.
- Later on, that same teenager browses the internet where ads are abundantly displayed. They see one of your ads and their attention is recaptured, they click on the ad, and land right back on your website.
- Once on your website, they are more likely to make a purchase.
Why retargeting works
When your ads are displayed to people who are already familiar with your product, you are marketing to people who have already demonstrated interest in your brand. This is where you’ll see the most ROI.
Think about it this way. Once “stamped,” your visitors will continue to see ads for your products wherever they go, influencing them further. When they reach the point where they’re ready to buy, your ad will be right in front of them.
It’s no longer enough to market to kids only on social media because their attention isn’t there. Teenagers are notorious for ditching one social media platform for the latest and greatest, just to be accepted by everyone else. Social media is a fickle platform for advertising to teenagers.
You can use Facebook ads to capture the initial clicks from teenagers, but don’t depend on it for generating a steady stream of sales. Once they’ve clicked on your ad, retargeting (pixeling) is the only way to ensure your ads will continue to be seen by teens you know are already interested in your products.
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