So you’ve visited a website, and now they won’t leave you alone? You keep seeing their advertisements everywhere online?
Don’t be afraid, you’re not being stalked, really – this technology is called remarketing.
Remarketing is a tool used by advertisers to display advertisements to users who’ve previously visited a website. Depending which side of the fence you’re sitting on – remarketing is a powerful tool that helps drive more qualified traffic back to a site, and increases the likelihood of more conversions.
When done correctly, remarketing can produce significant results without annoying prospective customers with a barrage of unwanted advertisements. According to the 2012 Digital Influence Index, 89% of consumers surveyed use Internet search engines to help make purchase decisions, including researching a number of competing retailers prior to completing a purchase.
As consumer behaviour continues to change, so must the efforts of marketers attempting to re-engage visitors who are actively seeking more choice in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Remarketing provides a unique opportunity to connect with consumers who visited your site, added products to their cart, but decided to leave the site during checkout. Remarketing helps re-engage lost prospects by showing customised ads based on the page they visited, in an attempt to entice them to complete the purchase or get in contact.
How does remarketing work?
Remarketing works with your existing Google AdWords campaign and allows you to create customised image advertisements, which can be displayed across the Google Display Network. You simply embed remarketing code in the pages you want to track, and categorise them into individual campaigns in Google AdWords.
Whether you want to track your homepage or a specific product page, you can tailor advertisements based on your targeted audience. The following audience profiles are commonly used in most remarketing campaigns:
- All visitors to your site
- Visitors to a specific page or area of your site
- People who read a blog post on your blog
- Visitors who completed a conversion
- Visitors to match the criteria of a particular audience segment
You simply define your audience in a number of individual lists, with a targeted message to engage visitors. As people navigate to your site, their cookie is added to your predetermined lists, which can be targeted for up to 180 days.
Who is remarketing to me?
Here’s a super handy site, to see all the brands currently with you in their sights. whoisretargeting.me is a great little tool.
How do I remove myself?
So you stumbled upon a site and now they won’t leave you alone? If you’re sick of a company targeting you with non-relevant ads, Google has made it possible for users to dismiss or mute ads. Simply click on the close symbol on the advertisement, and you can ensure that ads from a particular campaign can no longer target you.
If you’re looking to improve your site’s conversion rate, remarketing is a powerful tool in the digital marketers toolkit.