Have you ever shopped online for something—it could be anything from shoes to a car—and then you saw ads popping up for those products hours or even weeks later. It’s a little creepy, right? Creepy like a fox! This tactic is called remarketing, which consists of any marketing materials that remind people of businesses they have visited in the past. This repetitive action increases the likelihood that those people will make a purchase or respond to a call to action.
How Remarketing Works
To start a remarketing campaign, your website developer (coder) places code on your website. That code places cookies on your website users’ computers when they complete certain actions. For example, a user might visit a product page but not complete checkout. When the user behaves this way, her cookie ID is added to your remarketing list. You are not limited to a single remarketing list or criteria.
From there, you can choose how long that cookie ID stays on your list. If a user doesn’t buy a particular skirt, for example, there is no sense in advertising it to her 6 months later, when the weather and fashion has changed. But it might be worthwhile to remarket a car to her in 6 month, or even as many as 540 days. With a big-ticket item like an automobile, it usually takes time to make a decision or even to save up for the purchase.
You can also choose how many ads are displayed per day, week, or month. If you’re an online retailer promoting a limited-time coupon code, you’ll want to make sure your ad is seen frequently in the next day or two. If your goal is to develop relationships and leads, you can take the frequency down a notch.
One other helpful point to consider is that you bid on each of these remarketing targets. As with all Google Ads, you set a maximum amount you are willing to pay for a single impression of an ad to be shown to a single customer. If a competitor outbids you, their ad will be shown instead. Because you can segment your remarketing campaigns to best serve your users’ needs, you can choose to bid more on a remarketing ad for an abandoned shopping cart, and less for just a regular old homepage.
Taking Remarketing to the Next Level
Remarketing ads can be either text ads or graphics. And if you’re using graphics, the opportunities are endless! Use them to offer a special coupon code to customers who didn’t complete a purchase. (You can also offer a coupon code in a text ad.) Use them to educate your customers about your business—that you donate to charity, that you use environmentally practices, that you have a personal touch. You can even remarket to CONVERTED customers! Normally you might plan to stop remarketing once a customer has made a purchase, but you could also use their activity to trigger a follow-up remarketing ad in, say, six months, to remind them about new products or services you’re introducing.
There’s no denying that Google ads provide a dizzying array of opportunities for marketing. If you need help with a Google AdWords campaign, contact us!
