Once a website is set up and gains traction, it can become a targeted marketing sweet spot for companies looking for exposure. Companies or marketing firms analyze shopping habits by demographic and direct efforts accordingly.

When a website reaches a high hit count, it becomes that sought-after spot for displaying retargeting ads. Marketing firms will maximize retargeting strategies on such sites to realize the best percentage per post. Facebook is one such site. Facebook is such a big player it might shift the entire ecommerce and pay-per-click scenes.

First, What Is Retargeting?

Retargeting is all about making a conversion based on someone’s expressed interest in a product or service. Search retargeting takes the keywords that users search for, and delivers relevant ads in a timely manner to a (hopefully) still searching consumer. Site retargeting shows ads to users who leave a site. Ads can show items abandoned in a cart, products that were clicked on, or even just a targeted ad. Retargeting’s main purpose boils down to converting more window shoppers into buyers.

In Front of More People

Retargeting on a venue such as Facebook is a high-profile maneuver for any business. This is because Facebook is at the forefront of the international social media scene. Joining in on the bidding process could potentially put ads before hundreds of thousands of people, not just once but as many times as is advisable.

The risk in investing in this, on the part of Facebook, is volume. Whether or not enough traffic goes through Facebook cannot be determined outside of assumption. However, the assumption is that there are perhaps millions of Facebook unique visitors on a daily basis. Facebook will regularly have upwards of over 150 million unique visitors per month. That tallies to just over 5,000,000 per day. That’s potential.

Retargeting and Pay-Per-Click

Watch groups claim that the shift from per-click prominence on search engines to high-hit volume sites like Facebook will have drastic effects on the pay-per-click game. Their logic is that search engine optimization (SEO) is limited to those searching for a particular item, whereas random visibility on a Facebook page will target others. And further, this will retarget one-time window shoppers and lure them back. The interest is there and the product is there; the assumption is that this will more likely lead to a sale.

Whether or not this new strategy by Facebook will drive pay-per-click or SEO strategies to the outer brink of advertising competition has yet to be seen. But it will be an important game-changer as Facebook and other companies continue to develop this strategy.

Some Shaky Ground

Facebook will reap more than just money. As advertisers “follow” more users around Facebook, it runs the risk of having too much access to personal information and behaviors. Facebook has already had to face the scrutiny of conspiratorial thinkers. Concerned users, competitors and governments demanded answers for such an infringement (at least as it is perceived) on personal privacy.

Assumptions can be made for similar attacks on Facebook Exchange, the network’s retargeting interface. Historically, however, Facebook has not shown much compliance to countries or individuals asking them to augment their operations, and there is nothing that says they’ll start now. The way in which this plays out and shapes the world of retargeting will be interesting as Facebook continues to grow.

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Felicia Savage is a freelance writer, designer and internet marketer living in Indianapolis, IN. As a contributor to technected.com, she loves to discuss her adventures in public relations and marketing.