Bring that Traffic Back!
My dad is in his mid-70s, and although he is not on social media, nor likely to ever send anyone a text, he does occasionally go online. One of the things that always freaks him out about it, however, is remarketing ads. He frequently brings these up during our “tech support” calls.
“How do they know I want a new fly-casting rod?! That’s crazy!”
Although I’ve tried to explain, my dad seems to think there is a room full of people monitoring his online usage like an undercover FBI operation, and quickly posting things just for him to see.
I agree, remarketing can be a little unnerving, and the average internet user probably doesn’t really understand how it works. But here’s the thing you need to know if you’re a marketer – it does work.
What’s Remarketing & How Does it Work?
Remarketing, also known as retargeting, are banner ads that target consumers after they’ve visited a company’s website, or even a specific page on that website. That’s how Zappos magically knows that you just almost bought a pair a fabulous shoes and keeps reminding you about them. Are you sure you don’t want them? Look how cute they are. Really?
Remarketing ads are triggered by a snippet of code (no room full of investigators) that you can place on whatever pages of your website you want. When a visitor spends time on a page tagged with a remarketing code, a cookie is placed in that visitor’s browser that calls up your targeted ads. Those ads will then appear wherever that visitor goes in the Google Display Network, which includes a vast network of Google partner sites.
This means previous visitors to your site will see your ads when they browse other sites, or as they search for terms related to your products or services on Google.
Why Remarketing is Cool
Let’s say you are spending money on a PPC campaign. That will drive traffic to your site, but once those potential customers leave, remarketing can help bring them back.
Remarketing is one of the most powerful tools available in PPC, and lets you capitalize on ALL of your site traffic. Better yet, the leads that come through remarketing are pre-qualified since they’ve already shown an interest in your site.
Another great benefit is that, because you only pay when people click on your ad (and not when they just see it), you’re basically getting some free branded advertising.
Remarketing provides you with cheaper clicks and conversions than PPC, but it’s important to note that with Google you cannot run a remarketing campaign without at least a small PPC budget to go with it. And you must have at least 100 unique visitors to your webpage before the remarketing ads trigger.
Check out the great results we got from the PPC/remarketing campaigns we implemented for one of our clients.
Need more convincing? Despite the “freak out” factor:
- Retargeted customers are 3X more likely to click on your ad than people that haven’t interacted with your business before.
- Retargeted customers are 4X more likely to convert than new customers.
- Retargeting can boost ad response by 400%.
- 1 out of 5 marketers now has a budget for retargeting.
Interested in implementing your own remarketing campaign? We can help. Let’s talk.
Diane Callihan
With more than 20 years of experience writing for some of the country’s top brands, Diane helped to shape Roger West’s content strategy, lead generation, and PR efforts as Director of Marketing. She currently serves as President of Callihan Content Creation.