Get Started With Retargeting
By Elizabeth Knight, Account Supervisor
Whether you call it retargeting or remarketing, we often see the same questions around this type of display advertising:
- What is retargeting?
- How is retargeting different from traditional display banners?
- How does retargeting fit into my marketing strategy?
- When does it make sense and why does it matter?
In this post, we’ll answer some of those questions and explore how retargeting can easily fit into your marketing mix.
What is retargeting?
Retargeting is another form of online marketing that expands on typical banner ads. It allows a brand to get in front users that have engaged with their company but have not yet converted online.
As a consumer, you’ve probably experienced retargeting. You’re doing some research on the new Weber gas grill, and suddenly Weber ads are popping up all over the internet. By simply visiting the Weber website, you’re now more likely to see Weber ads elsewhere online. That’s the power of retargeting, and it can make a huge difference for your digital marketing plan.
Where does retargeting fit in my marketing plan?
In the marketing funnel, digital tactics can lack in the nurturing phase. At COHN, we focus on raising awareness online and driving conversions once a user is ready to purchase, but retargeting helps us capture that valuable middle-of-funnel user.
There are many online tactics that drive traffic to a website, but what happens to qualified leads that do not convert on their initial visit? These are users that might intend to do more research, shop around or purchase later. However, more often than not, users do not convert on their first interaction. In fact, on average, only 2% of website visitors convert on their first website visit. Retargeting gives us the opportunity to re-engage the other 98%.
So how does it work?
Traditional display advertising serves ads based on estimated demographic and psychographic information to target users that may be interested in a product. Retargeting targets users specifically by their behavior on your website—after they leave your website. This allows us to target and tailor audience-specific messaging to where a user is in the marketing funnel or for a product they have shown interest in.
Here are a couple examples:
- A retail center is looking to recruit new employees and targets users that visit their careers page with messages specific to the benefits of working there with a call to action to apply online.
- A retail company creates product-specific ads to target users with abandoned items in their shopping cart to encourage purchase completion.
Because retargeting allows us to engage users as they browse the web, we serve ads on sites and social platforms they are already visiting versus trying to estimate what sites our target visits through traditional run-of-site media buys. We are also able to remove users that have converted to save ad budget.
This tactic is effective and obvious for e-commerce websites; however, it is relevant and effective for many industries, especially those that have a longer sales cycle or decision-making process before customers convert.
As with any single marketing tactic, retargeting works most effectively as part of a larger marketing mix with multiple touch points both on and offline.
Have questions? Let’s talk.
