Seeing a spike in online traffic might put a smile on your face, but unless you know how to get consumers past the click, this joy will prove fleeting. Here are some tips on increasing conversions.

Find Them on Facebook

With 1.13 billion active daily users, Facebook is not only an effective way to reach your potential customers, it's also an efficient way of driving conversions. With the data the company has access to, it's possible to target your reach to specific locations (e.g., ZIP codes or geo-fences) and purchase behaviors. Be sure to create a Facebook Pixel to place on your own website so you can retarget audiences.

Even if you're familiar with the general concept of retargeting, you may wonder what search retargeting is, specifically. According to Econsultancy, search retargeting is different from site retargeting as it allows marketers to serve display ads to consumers who recently searched for specific keywords related to their business.

For instance, if a marketer aims to boost a locally owned hotel in Atlanta, they could use searches for "cheap hotel in Atlanta," "travel to Atlanta" and "flights to Atlanta" to serve ads to those potentially considering a trip to the area.

Although the concept behind search retargeting is simple, this marketing tool is far more valuable than you may initially expect.

In today's world of content overload, it can be next to impossible to get the instant click and conversion that nearly all Facebook ad campaigns strive to achieve. Though a consumer may click on an ad, and maybe even read a little of your sales pitch, it's easy for them (especially on mobile platforms) to be distracted by an incoming text, social media notification or even real life. When distraction occurs, and the initial momentum generated by that original ad is gone, you're back at square one. However, Facebook retargeting can help recapture those lost conversions.

Converting competitors' customers into your own is an art form. Beyond being the best at what you do, you need to beat the competition at their own game. If you want your business to grow, you must constantly be seeking new opportunities. It's only logical that the most effective place to seek out those opportunities is among users who are already inclined to purchase your products and services. As the information economy evolves, there are several highly effective strategies for nabbing the competition's audiences.

Bidding on Competitors' Brand Keywords

One strategy involves going right to the source — include your competition's brand name in your pay-per-click ad campaign. You may have seen this plan in action when you're searching for a particular store or item and another brand name pops up. The challenge, however, is to keep your quality score high. Consumers looking for Best Buy may not be happy to see Bob's Computer Services pop up, and search engines will rank your ads and site lower for that. But for new businesses, or in markets where there is brand confusion, this can be a highly effective technique.

Reaching Consumers Where They Are — Literally!

Whereas in the past, dealers had to rely mainly on commercials and flashy billboards to entice customers into their stores, today they have the added benefit of being able to reach consumers in real time right when they're in the neighborhood. As consumers continue to spend more and more time on mobile devices, it's important to reach them where they are — not only where they'll be most likely to see your message, but where they'll be the most receptive to respond to it. That means using geofencing to serve ads in social networking apps, Web browsers and other mobile applications to target consumers who are close by your dealership. You can target consumers while they are out car shopping and serve them a deal right when they're in your neighborhood.

In today's online shopping era, consumer activity is far from anonymous. In fact, there are tools available that allow you to track a user's online behavior to determine whether or not that user is a member of your target audience. You can then use this data to generate ad displays through a process known as search retargeting.

What Is Search Retargeting?

According to Econsultancy, search retargeting is "a form of 'behavioral retargeting' where a user of a search engine will be targeted with display ads based on their search queries." This retargeting process uses a consumer's online search history to build a user profile and present relevant ads to him or her. So, for example, if someone searched for a new couch online earlier in the week, he may see a weekend sale for a local furniture retailer show up in a Facebook ad a couple days later. Or if a consumer searched for running shoes online, she might see that very same pair of shoes in a video ad on another site.

Retargeting has become a staple for marketers eager to increase conversions, and it's one strategy that's getting better all the time. Retargeting platforms have only become more precise and effective over the years, thus encouraging one of digital marketing's most rewards-rich campaign channels.

Building a retargeting strategy may seem like a challenge at first, but armed with the knowledge of what to do — and, perhaps more importantly, what not to do — you can launch an effective campaign. Here are some essential dos and don'ts to lay the foundation for a successful retargeting strategy.

Do Target Shoppers Who Abandon Carts at Checkout

Retargeting can be deployed through several channels — social media, email or website, for example — but when it comes to increasing sales, the best bet is on retargeting those close-but-not-quite conversions on your website or online store. There, the primary target audience is made up of consumers who've recently shown interest in or intent of conversion before bailing out at the last minute. Reminding them of their interest may convince them to return and complete their purchase.

Digital marketing mistakes can be deadly to your bottom line. You've done the hard work of getting visitors to your site, but the job of conversion has only just begun. Here are five of the biggest digital marketing mistakes — and how to fix them.

1. Your Site Is Slow

Consumers love to look, but hate to wait. With the average page size coming in at a whopping 2 MB, according to SitePoint, load times are slower than ever. Search Engine Journal notes that making your page load just one second faster can increase sales by 7 percent. Shoot for a 1 MB page size.

There's a reason some marketers consider retargeting to be the highest-value digital campaign, and it all starts with the audience you choose. Unlike many other types of digital marketing, which aim to reach new consumers and expand brand reach and visibility, retargeting concerns itself only with past website traffic and consumers who have demonstrated an interest in your products or services.

Retargeted ads, whether delivered through traditional computers or via a mobile retargeting strategy, attempt to reconnect with those prospects who have since moved away from your brand's properties without completing a conversion. The retargeted ads function as a means of trying to rescue and secure a potential conversion.

The trick to optimizing retargeting campaigns all hinges on the quality of their underlying strategy. Here's a guide to making the most of this digital opportunity.

If you've ever gone from one website to another and saw an ad for a product you viewed earlier at an online store or website, then you've experienced retargeting. This process, in the simplest terms, uses digital marketing techniques to target website visitors who left a site before completing a conversion.

While it might seem that a failed conversion is a sign that a consumer will not convert, online research suggests that this isn't the case. According to CMO.com, only about 2 percent of visitors to any given commerce website make a purchase on their first visit, but many more will ultimately execute a related conversion through that online retailer or through one of its competitors.

Retargeting helps businesses stay visible to consumers and increases the chance of ultimately gaining their business. It's a simple marketing strategy that offers great returns when executed properly, and many businesses are investing in these campaigns.