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4 Proven Strategies for Retargeting to Hot Prospects Once you've gotten your feet wet with some successful Facebook ad campaigns, put these retargeting techniques to work to turn more prospects into customers.

By Perry Marshall

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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The following excerpt is from Perry Marshall, Keith Krance and Thomas Meloche's book Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | IndieBound

A hot audience is made up of people who started the buying process but, for some reason, didn't complete it. It's possible that the reason they didn't purchase was because they weren't interested in your offer. However, it's also entirely possible (and common) that they just got interrupted or distracted. The attention span online is about five seconds. So if you don't have a system picking up these lost customers, you're leaving tons of easy money on the table.

The following are some proven strategies that work.

1. Try a different message

Remember, inside every audience, there are different people with different levels of awareness and intent, as well as different buyer personalities. There are the "I want the best" people, who are competitive and sometimes egotistical; the "I'm an impulse buyer" people, who purchase on a whim and the "I am a process-driven person" people, who are methodical, slow, structured, logic-based decision makers. And finally, there are the "I go with my gut" or "listen to my heart" people, who are slow, unstructured, humanistic, emotion-based decision-makers. The best way to deal with all these different personality types is to have different messaging and/or ad types hitting them with different angles and hooks.

Related: 13 Habits of Exceptionally Likable People

2. Use testimonials

Testimonial videos (or image ads using screenshots) work great as an authentic way to provide more proof that your product can do what it claims. Plus, it may help your prospects believe they can also achieve a similar result. Be careful not to over-produce these types of videos, however. Sometimes, if it's too perfect or polished, people may not trust them as much as a video that looks like it was shot on an iPhone.

Following is a list of questions to ask people if you want some testimonials that will sell the heck out of your products. Use these questions for gathering great stories for your main website and sales pages, too.

  1. What problem, challenge, pain or frustration were they looking to get help with before using your product/service?
  2. What were they worried, concerned or hesitant about your product before they pulled the trigger? (This will help overcome common objec­tions and give you more data around objections for your sales process.)
  3. What were their results? How is their life or lifestyle, business, etc. better now? (You're looking for transformation stories here.)
  4. What did they like best about [your product]?
  5. Would they recommend [your product] to a friend? If so, how can it help them?

3. Buying incentive (discount, scarcity, etc.)

Perhaps your prospect just needs a little nudge to get them to take action. One of the best ways to do this is to give them an incentive -- a deal. This could be a bonus, a discount, an expiration, etc. For example, "Get a 40 percent discount if you purchase by tomorrow!" Or "Get a free tote bag with purchase of any performance gear! (Value $25. Hurry -- offer ends soon!)"

Related: 10 Powerful Business Networking Skills to Build Rapport Quickly

4. Cross-sells or bundles

Another easy strategy, especially for ecommerce stores with multiple products, is to offer a cross-sell of a similar or complimentary product. Maybe you piqued their interest, but the item they were looking at wasn't quite right. If you have other products, this may be the perfect time to make your prospects aware of them.

If you have an ecommerce store, a great way to do this is by using Dynamic Product Ads. Dynamic Product Ads are customized ads that automatically promote the appropriate products to people who've visited those specific products or product categories. For example, if you own an online clothing retailer, you can set up automation rules to show unique ads to anyone who visits the add-to-cart page or checkout page for your "Fall Selection Boots." You can show them product ads reminding them to get the boots before they're out of stock, you can show them other similar products they may like or you can do something different. You don't need to get it perfect. Remember: This is low-hanging fruit. You just need to get something running -- you can always get fancy later.

Perry Marshall

Author, Sales and Traffic Expert, CEO and Founder of Perry S. Marshall & Associates

Perry Marshall is the president of Perry S. Marshall & Associates, a Chicago-based company that consults both online and brick-and-mortar companies on generating sales leads, web traffic and maximizing advertising results. He has written seven books including his most recent, 80/20 Sales and Marketing (Entrepreneur Press, 2013), Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising (Enterpreneur Press, 2014), Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords (Entrepreneur Press, 2014), and Ultimate Guide to Local Business Marketing (Entrepreneur Press, 2016). He blogs at perrymarshall.com.

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