You may well have noticed that adverts showing products and things that you have looked at in the past can start appearing on sites as you browse the internet.
This because of something called ‘Remarketing’. It is what it sounds like, companies taking the opportunity to try to sell to you again, this on the basis that you seemed to be interested as you had visited their site and / or have looked at one of their products in the past.
All perfectly reasonable you might think, but it is worth remembering that many people don’t like the whole concept, thinking that it is all bit too much like Big Brother (and I’m not talking about the TV programme).
The process relies on cookies of course, these being placed on your browser when you visit pages that are set up to support the remarketing process.
Not all products areas are covered however, Google, one of the biggest provider of Re-marketing, not allowing some areas to use the service, sites providing medical products being an example.
Remarketing has been found to be so effective that more and more businesses are using it now, but, just because they can, should they, and if they do, are there any thing that they should bear in mind?
We found this article about the whole process and thought that you may well find it interesting…
Please click the link for the full article on remarketing
Advertisers are allocating more spend to retargeting than ever before, and those who aren’t are missing out on aiding customers in all stages of their journeys. But there are right and wrong ways to retarget.
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Retargeting is quickly becoming a staple tool in most marketers’ arsenals, but according to experts, there’s a right way to retarget and a wrong way.
Recent research has shown that 64.3 percent of brands are planning on bumping up their retargeting budgets this year, while 54 percent of all marketers are currently retargeting on mobile. But as the popularity of retargeting rises, so do the pitfalls. No one wants to be chased around the Internet by products they don’t want, and bad retargeting could actually cost marketers money. That’s why we’ve rounded up some expert advice to help marketers make the most of their retargeting budget.
Do: Use first-party dataBefore you buy third-party data, make sure you’re using your own assets to their best advantage, says Will Aronson, account director at 3Q Digital.
“As the industry continues to grow, there are more and more ways to take first-party data, like lists of email subscribers, lists of existing customers, data on purchase behavior, and remarket to those customers through your existing channels,” Aronson says.
“Google’s Customer Match is a great example of one of the latest new options for putting a company’s first-party data to use and allowing marketers to directly target specific segments of their customer base using their own data,” he adds.
Don’t: Discount cookiesEven as marketers begin to rely more on first-party data, third-party ad technology, such as cookies, isn’t going to become as immediately irrelevant as some might say, according to Craig Teich, executive vice president of sales and business development at Connexity.
“Retargeting won’t be as effective in a cookieless world,” Teich says. “Even if we are seeing more activity on mobile, marketers should be thinking about how to connect those experiences to go from big screen to small screen.”
Don’t: Rely on just one networkMake sure you’re exploring your options when it comes to partners, and don’t settle in with just one.
“Many marketing teams aren’t fully exploring all remarketing channels. Relying on just one network, like the Google Display Network, is not going to give you full coverage across the web,” Aronson says. “Additional networks like Facebook Exchange, Adroll and YouTube give you new places to get in front of the customers you’re retargeting. Retargeting is efficient and effective, but looking to more than one network ensures you’re maximizing your volume.”
Do: Look beyond the click
For many marketers, click-through rates are the be-all end-all of retargeting, but Teich argues that clicks account for only a piece of the puzzle.
“It’s pretty antiquated to only look at clicks,” Teich says. “And it severely discounts other aspects of your campaign. Instead, look for a reasonable view through window. Run some studies looking at the impact of the view or the impression on driving people to the site. Maybe they went back to the site, or searched the brand, which should get some credit in the attribution.”
Do: Get creative
Advances in programmatic technology make it possible to test countless segments of an ad incredibly quickly, so there’s no need for brands to “spray and pray” the same creative to every user across every channel.
“Creative needs to keep up with technology to get attention. Dynamic creative is extremely important, especially further down the purchase funnel. We see a 100 percent increase in engagement with creative that customizes the best deals or the best product to relevant users. You absolutely do not want a generic standard,” says Teich.
Do: Get personal
Audiences expect brands to know what they want, according to Julia Stead, director of demand generation for Invoca.
“The content and offers we serve should be based specifically on the pages of our site they visited, the products they researched, and what stage they are at in their buying process,” Stead says. “Our prospects expect this kind of personalization. In fact, in a recent survey we found that 20 percent of consumers already expect that the ads they see will be more targeted based on data that is collected during a previous phone conversation.”
Don’t: Be a nuisancePart of personalization is knowing what customers don’t want. The biggest mistake Stead sees marketers making is harassing customers around the Internet with pictures of products they’ve already purchased.
