What is remarketing advertising?
Remarketing advertising is an incredible tool that is not available through any other media channel. It’s a rare form of advertising that allows you to follow people who have previously visited your website and target them directly.
If someone visits your website and then leaves, Google allows you to place targeted ads for them to see on other websites they visit. Subtly, this ensures customers and potential customers are reminded of your products and/or services, in the hope they return to complete their transaction.
The best kind of remarketing advertising is when the ads are extremely specific and targeted. For instance, if a customer added a specific item to their shopping cart but left the website before completing the transaction, remarketing ads can display the very same product they were about to purchase for a cheaper price. This might be enough to entice them back to complete the transaction.
Yes, it’s kind of creepy to follow customers around the web but it’s also very effective and also cheaper to manage than you’d expect.
The different types of remarketing (ecommerce Vs. non-ecommerce)
The example above is a great way of prompting customers to make a transaction online. Sometimes a customer might abort on a transaction even if they are still interested in the product or service, for example, if they simply ran out of time.
Remarketing advertising provides a subtle reminder that the product is still available, and you can even offer them an exclusive price to get them over the line.
Even if you are not selling products online, there are still a number of effective ways you can utilise remarketing ads to improve your brand and generate more traffic.
Here are just a few ideas to consider:
eCommerce
- Seasonal sales
- Abandoned shopping carts
- General sales
- Product launches
Non-eCommerce
- Company news
- Contact details (phone, email, address)
- Special events
What are the main benefits of remarketing ads?
Remarketing advertising is very cost-effective for the results it generates, especially in comparison to other forms of display ads. This is because payment arrangements can be established on a per-click basis, so you only pay when someone actually clicks on the ad.
Secondly, Google Adwords makes it incredibly easy to set-up and manage campaigns, so you don’t always need to employ the help of a big web agency. All you need to do is create the graphical banner ads to be displayed, and link them to your campaign.
What are the main concerns?
One of the biggest concerns with remarketing advertising is that it’s quite invasive. This is the opinion of businesses however that is not generally shared by customers. After all, anyone reading this has probably been exposed to remarketing ads before in their life, yet you don’t hold it against the brand that was advertising. It’s an accepted form of modern marketing.
The frequency in which customers see the ad can also be controlled from your Google Adwords account. Businesses can cap how many times a user sees the ad in the space of 24 hours. You can even fine-tune the campaign to ensure ads stop appearing once a customer has successfully made a transaction.
So what’s next?
If you are interested in starting a remarketing advertising campaign for your business, then the first step should be to analyse your typical customers. Identify who they are and explore the typical purchasing cycle.
This is important because it will help you with the creative brief for your remarketing ads. Work out why customers could possibly leave your site and what kind of products and marketing text will be likely to bring them back.
