How to Boost Holiday Sales with Retargeting & Dynamic Ads

In today’s digital landscape, consumers don’t stick to just one platform when engaging with their favorite brands. They might follow their favorite coffee brand on Instagram, use the brand’s app for rewards, and visit the website for exciting deals. This behavior—jumping from one platform to another—combined with our ever-shortening attention spans, means brands face a unique challenge. They need to meet their audience wherever they are, and consistently guide them along the buyer’s journey. And when the holiday season rolls around, this need becomes even more important.

Imagine being able to gently remind someone about a product they loved but didn’t purchase, no matter where they are online.

By integrating retargeting and dynamic ads across various platforms, businesses can ensure that their messaging stays relevant, timely, and effective. Today, we’ll go beyond strategy and dive into a few practical steps for setting up and optimizing retargeting and dynamic ads, including screenshots and tutorials to help guide you.

What Are Retargeting and Dynamic Ads?

Retargeting is like sending a friendly reminder to users who’ve shown interest in your brand but haven’t taken the next step. Retargeting reconnects your brand with users who have previously engaged with your site, app, or products but didn’t convert. This is done via cookies, pixels, or app data. For example, if you were just checking out running shoes on HOKA’s website, and now you’re seeing their ads on YouTube and Instagram, you’re experiencing retargeting first hand.

Dynamic ads take personalization a step further by automatically displaying products or services that match a user’s previous behavior. These ads are tailored to individual interests, saving you the hassle of manually creating variations for every potential user.

After navigating to your campaign and then to campaign settings, you will have the option to set up dynamic search ads. In this case, the Dynamic Search Ads will generate ads based on how people search for your site.

For Meta, you can choose to turn on Dynamic Creatives at the ad set level. Remember, you have to choose to turn them on or off before publishing the campaign as you can’t change them after.

Setting Up Retargeting and Dynamic Ads

Step 1: Installing Your Tracking Pixels

The foundation of any retargeting and dynamic ad campaign that actually works is to install tracking pixels. When using Meta or Google, the Facebook Pixel and Google Tag are the tools you’d use to capture user behavior and feed it back to your ad platforms. This data powers your retargeting efforts and enables the dynamic ads to populate.

Using Meta’s Business Suite,for example, you can navigate to “Events Manager” and here you can set up your pixel. The first step you’ll have is to copy the code or email the instructions to your developer.

When the code is copied, you can insert it within the <head> of your website. Using the “Event Set Up Tool,” you can see if the pixel is showing on your site.

Step 2: Building Out Your Custom Retargeting Audiences

Now that all of your tracking is installed onto your site, you can begin to build out custom audiences. These audiences would most likely be based on behaviors. For example, in both Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager, you can set parameters to target users who have visited your site but didn’t convert. In the case of an e-commerce site, you can retarget users who might have added your products to their cart but didn’t complete the checkout.

For Google, on the left hand side of your ads account, you can navigate to tools > shared library > audience manager.

You’ll have to click “Audiences” on the top navigation bar when you’re in the “audience manager".” From here, you can build out an audience based on segments, your own website data, interests, demographics, or geographic information.

Step 3: Enabling Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads showcase your products to users who’ve already expressed interest, across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google. This approach personalizes the ad experience without having to adjust each user’s behavior manually.

Why Integrate Retargeting and Dynamic Ads Across Platforms?

Running retargeting and dynamic ads across multiple platforms amplifies your chances of engaging users at the right moment. When users hop from one platform to another, an integrated strategy ensures your brand stays visible and consistent across devices.

Here’s why cross-platform integration is essential:

Setting Up Dynamic Ads in Meta Suite

To set up this cross-device retargeting on Meta, you’ll have to install the Meta pixel on your mobile and desktop websites and select the Meta pixel or app event in your ads.

Setting Up Google Dynamic Ads with Google Merchant Center

Step 1: Create a Product Feed in Google Merchant Center

Go to Tools & Settings > Data Manager > Google Merchant Center.
Follow the prompts to set up your product feed, which will serve as the foundation for dynamic ads.

Step 2: Link Google Merchant Center to Google Ads

In Google Ads, navigate to Tools & Settings > Data Manager > Google Merchant Center.
Link your Merchant Center account to Google Ads by following the connection prompts.

Step 3: Create a New Dynamic Ad Data Stream

Once connected, return to Tools & Settings > Business Data.
Set up a new dynamic ad data stream to activate dynamic ad delivery.
Reference: See the video here.

Step 4: Build Out Dynamic Ad Streams

From the Google Ads dashboard, go to Tools & Settings > Data Manager > Google Merchant Center.
Configure your dynamic ad streams using Google’s preset templates or by creating custom settings.
Reference: See the video here.

Final Step: Launch Your Dynamic Remarketing Campaign

With dynamic ad streams set up, you’re ready to serve dynamic ads across search and display networks.
This completes your “dynamic remarketing” campaign setup.

Boosting Returns with Dynamic Ads

Now that everything is set and ready to launch, it’s a good time to talk about the benefits of dynamic ads. At the end of the day, the goal is to boost returns and drive more conversions. Dynamic ads allow you to serve highly personalized content to users, making your retargeting campaigns more effective.

If a user browsed specific products on your website, dynamic ads will display those items across platforms, boosting relevance and engagement.

Consider this: If we look at data from McKinsey, personalizing ads for each customer is highly effective – which is exactly what dynamic ads allow us to do – as 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions with brands. If you’re neglecting dynamic ads, then you’d be on the opposite side of consumer preference as data suggests 76% of consumers are frustrated when experiences aren’t personalized.

Set Up Proper Tracking: Make sure all tracking pixels are installed and functioning properly. Without this, you won’t be able to capture user behavior and serve personalized dynamic ads.
Segment Your Audience: Don’t rely on dynamic ads alone to personalize the experience. Create audience segments based on behaviors—such as cart abandonment, product page views, or blog browsing—to further improve ad relevance.

Utilize Lookalike Audiences: Once your retargeting campaigns are set, extend your reach by using lookalike audiences. These are new potential customers who share similar interests with your existing audience, increasing the chances of conversions.

In Meta’s Business Suite, you can navigate to “Audiences” and you’ll be shown this page. Click on “Create a Lookalike Audience” and get to it!

Takeaways

Integrating retargeting and dynamic ads across platforms isn’t just about re-engaging your audience. It’s about providing a seamless, relevant experience that guides users toward conversion. As consumer journeys become more complex, a unified approach to retargeting will help you optimize your ad spend and drive better results.

If you want to learn more about crafting an effective cross-platform strategy, check out our previous post, Crafting a Cross-Platform Strategy for Maximum Holiday Reach.

By following the steps outlined here, you’ll be well on your way to creating retargeting and dynamic ad campaigns that deliver consistent, engaging content – driving conversions and boosting ROI across platforms.