Integrating Retargeting Ads With Ecommerce Email Campaigns

Here’s what most brands assume: → “If someone visits our product page, they’ll remember us” Nope. People flip between: • Desktop → Mobile • TikTok → Email → Browser • “Add to cart” → Forget → Instagram → Life If your retargeting, email, and SMS don’t all reference what they saw, you’re making them start over every time. And people hate starting over. Fix it: • Mention the exact product they viewed in SMS • Email follow ups with pre filled cart or scroll location • Run dynamic retargeting with context, not just image + price Memory is friction. Remove it, and revenue flows faster.

I see at least 90% of brands treat email and paid ads like divorced parents. Here's why this lazy approach is costing you at least 40%+ in performance: #1 Paid Ads Fuel Email Growth • Add email capture forms to every conversion ad • Set exit-intent popups on all paid traffic landing pages • Create lead magnets specifically targeting your ad audiences • Track email signups alongside purchases in ad reporting #2 Email Data Improves Targeting • Upload your customer segments to Meta monthly • Build lookalikes from your highest-value email subscribers • Feed purchase events directly into your Meta pixel • Segment audiences by 30/60/90 day purchase behavior #3 Email Reduces Ad Pressure • Build automated sequences that convert cold email subscribers • Use email revenue to fund aggressive ad testing • Create backup income streams independent of ad performance • Test risky ad strategies with an email safety net #4 Lead-Gen Ads Build Lists Cheap • Run $2-3 lead gen campaigns before every launch • Collect emails with BFCM pre-sale hype campaigns • Build engagement audiences through video view campaigns • Retarget email lists with specific product sequences Stop siloing channels when integration drives exponentially better results.

If your marketing team manages 5+ growth channels, read this. Here’s the hard and costly truth: When you’re running multiple channels, attribution is never perfect. That’s why incremental testing is a must. It’s the only way to understand what’s driving conversions and revenue. Versus what is just noise. Let me explain with a wild story from Postmates: We had to shut off all paid acquisition for the last week of the month due to budget constraints. Our hypothesis? A portion of paid conversions were being misattributed as organic. But what happened shocked us: Organic conversions for that week dropped by 25-30%! Paid acquisition wasn’t just driving its own bucket of conversions. But also a huge chunk of organic. Paid acquisition wasn’t just driving 100% of its attributed conversions. It was also responsible for an additional 30% of organic. But here’s the flip side… Not every channel you have turned on drives incremental growth. Take branded search ads: If your brand ranks #1 organically, paying for branded search is a waste of budget. Those users who've searched for you would've converted anyway. However, if your brand has a generic name... Branded search can help you stand out against unrelated results. Which makes it an incremental channel. It’s not about cutting channels — it’s about knowing which ones add true value. A real incrementality test we did at Uber: We tested the impact of pairing email campaigns with retargeting ads for the same offer. Here’s how it worked: Retargeting users were split into two groups. One group also received the email, the other didn’t. The result? Coupling email + retargeting ads drove significantly higher conversion rates. From that point on, we always paired the two for offers. Running tests like these is crucial to: ↳ Validate efforts ↳ Avoid cannibalizing your results ↳ Eliminate duplicative spending across channels If you’re a small startup with 1-2 channels and <$3M in revenue, this level of testing isn’t critical. But for companies generating $25M-$50M+ across 5+ channels? This is a game-changer. You need to ask: • Are channels pulling their weight? • Are they just draining your budget? Attribution will always be a challenge for growth teams. As a growth leader, it’s essential to stay mindful of this. Actively run tests. Validate the effectiveness of your team’s efforts and each channel’s contribution. Focus on what drives the bottom line. Often times, it's not about adding more channels. But optimizing the ones that matter. Run incrementality tests, don't leave money on the table.