Last year, Google unveiled a powerful new advertising tool that we at 5280 have become rather fond of. Remarketing, or retargeting as it’s sometimes called, allows the advertiser to re-engage users who have already been introduced to a website, product or service. It is based on the concept of behavioral targeting which, like demographic or geographic targeting, isolates a population defined by a shared attribute. In the case of behavioral targeting, that attribute is the user’s stage in the buying process and it’s a very valuable piece of information.
How Remarketing Works
To make it clear, let’s say you’re an online retailer selling art supplies and you would like to reach out to visitors who add items to a shopping cart but for whatever reason, fail to follow through with a purchase. These individuals are much farther into the buying process than someone that executes a simple Google search for “art supplies” and are therefore more valuable. Using Google AdWords, you generate snippets of code to be applied to the shopping cart page as well as the order confirmation page of your website. Once active, these codes will collect users into lists. In order to target just those users that enter a shopping cart without purchasing, you customize a new list that includes all those that begin a cart and none of those that follow through with a sale or “conversion”. From there you create highly targeted ads specific to the potential consumer’s stage in the buying process, something like: “Your Shopping Cart is Still Active, Return Here & Take 20% Off Entire Order of Art Supplies”. These ads, which can include images or just text, will follow the audience throughout Google’s display network, appearing in the margins of websites they visit following their interaction with your site. A click from these users is highly valuable to you because of the high likelihood that they will complete their order.
Why Remarketing Works
We have found the remarketing model to be so successful for two reasons. First, the way in which advertisers can define and target desired audiences is extremely valuable. Generally speaking, good advertisers will “meet the consumer where they are” meaning they will tailor their marketing strategy to appeal to the underlying characteristic that defines the group being targeted. Thanks to behavioral targeting, remarketing does just that by isolating a group of users based on their position in the buying process and engaging them with highly targeted ad content. Audiences and their respective ad strategies can be highly differentiated, yielding superior conversion rates. Secondly, remarketing deals with those already familiar with a company’s website, products, or services so there is no need to introduce yourself but instead, remind the user where they were in the purchasing channel and re-engage them. Even if the user does not click on a shown display ad, they have still seen it. According to a study by comScore, users who have previously been exposed to display ads are 49 percent more likely to visit the advertised site. It’s the same idea behind aggressive political campaigns. If nothing else, make sure they know your name.
Privacy and Remarketing
The remarketing model has been criticized on the grounds that it invades privacy by tracking browsers across the web. It is important to remember that remarketing tags can only track information about where on a site a user spent time, nothing else. No identifying personal information is gathered. The model is sound and issues of privacy should be addressed and clearly explained but should not infringe on this viable tool for small and mid-sized online companies.
