Did you know that only 2% of customers convert during their initial interaction with a website? Imagine the potential if you could boost that conversion rate and increase your customer lifetime value. This is where retargeting steps in—it helps you re-engage the remaining 98%, getting them back to complete their purchases through personalized ads or messages.
Retargeting is essential for any Shopify store’s marketing strategy, with retargeting ads being 70% more effective at driving purchases than standard ads. However, retargeting ads can cost anywhere from $1 to $5 per conversion, and this can add up quickly if you are aiming for high traffic. Each time a customer is targeted, you’re paying for clicks or impressions, making this strategy pricey. In some cases, ad blockers and irrelevant targeting can result in wasted spend.
Fortunately, push notifications offer a more affordable alternative. In this blog, we’ll explore how to reduce retargeting costs with push notifications while maximizing conversions.
What Are Retargeting Push Notifications?
Retargeting push notifications are messages sent directly to customers who’ve previously interacted with your store but haven’t made a purchase. By re-engaging these users, you drive them back to your Shopify store, offering personalized deals or reminders. Unlike traditional ads, push notifications allow for direct, low-cost communication with opted-in users, helping Shopify merchants avoid high ad spend while nurturing customer relationships.
How Push Notifications Reduce Retargeting Costs
1. Lower cost-per-action (CPA)
Imagine you’re investing in traditional retargeting ads, where the costs can quickly add up. Most retargeting campaigns can easily reach $1,000 a month if you’re trying to convert just 1,000 customers. That’s an expensive bill for getting your message across! In contrast, most push notification services charge a flat fee—usually between $100 to $200 per month. By making the switch to push notifications, you could save up to 90% on your monthly marketing expenses!
With push notification, you will avoid paying per impression or per click, making this a significantly cheaper option for engaging customers who have already expressed interest in your store.
2. Behavioral targeting
We’ve all seen those ads that seem to follow us everywhere—even after we’ve already made a purchase. It can feel a bit frustrating, right?
Push notifications solve this issue by using real-time behavioral triggers, ensuring the right message is sent at the right time—such as after an abandoned cart or product view. If someone abandons their cart or browses a product without checking out, we can send a targeted notification to gently nudge them back. This precision not only makes our marketing efforts more effective but also saves us from wasting ad spend on customers who have already converted.
3. Higher Relevance & Pearsonalization
Personalization is key in today’s marketing landscape. With push notifications, we can tailor our messages based on specific customer actions. For instance, if you’ve added items to your cart but haven’t checked out, wouldn’t it be helpful to receive a friendly cart recovery notification? This level of relevance makes customers feel valued and understood, which in turn increases engagement and reduces the chances of wasting money on irrelevant ads. And the result? A better return on investment (ROI) for our marketing campaigns.
4. Building Trust Through User Consent
One of the standout advantages of push notifications is that they require user consent. Customers opt in to receive these messages, meaning they’re genuinely interested in our brand. This aspect creates a positive experience and builds trust, unlike retargeting ads that can feel intrusive or “creepy” as they follow users across the web. When customers know they’ve chosen to receive notifications, they’re more likely to engage with our messages, leading to stronger brand loyalty.
Types of push notifications that are effective
Here are some push notification messages that are far more effective than retargeting ads for engaging customers and getting them to take action.
1. Abandoned Cart Notifications
These are one of the highest-performing types of push notifications. When a customer leaves items in their cart, you can send a reminder that recaptures their attention. Unlike retargeting ads, these notifications go directly to users who are most likely to convert.
2. Product Recommendations
Personalized product recommendations based on a user’s previous browsing or purchase history work far better than broad retargeting ads. Push notifications allow you to send curated lists of products that are highly relevant to each customer.
3. Back-in-Stock Alerts
Notify customers when an item they were interested in is back in stock. This type of push notification directly targets customer demand, resulting in high engagement and conversion rates.
Best practices for combining Retargeting Ad and Push Notifications
You might be thinking that with retargeting ads, you can reach almost everyone who allows cookies anywhere on the web—and you’re right. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t harness the power of both push notifications and retargeting campaigns in sync. In fact, integrating these two strategies is highly recommended.
By combining push notifications with retargeting ads, we can reduce Shopify retargeting campaign costs without sacrificing effectiveness. Push notifications allow us to target customers more precisely at a fraction of the cost. The personalized, consent-driven messages we send via push notifications can significantly enhance our marketing efforts, making them a high-ROI alternative for Shopify store owners eager to maximize conversions without overspending.
Think about it: the money we save on push notifications can be reallocated toward awareness campaigns to drive even more users to our website or app. When customers opt in to receive push notifications, we gain a valuable opportunity to retain and retarget that audience at a fraction of the usual ad costs. This multi-channel approach not only lowers our dependence on external advertising platforms but also improves our overall revenue generation.
The key here is to use retargeting strategically for top-of-funnel marketing while relying more on the higher-converting, lower-cost push notifications to nurture prospects through the funnel. By maintaining a healthy mix of both channels, we can substantially boost our overall marketing effectiveness. Let’s embrace this powerful combination to create deeper connections with our customers while maximizing our marketing potential!