A Beginner’s Guide to Retargeting

Zanthe Martinuzzi is the digital marketing manager at Arc Interactive. Today she takes us through what exactly retargeting is and why ads are stalking you everywhere you when browsing the internet.

Why are those ads following me online? A Beginner’s Guide to Retargeting Have you ever been surfing the web and felt like a brand or company is following you wherever you go? Irrespective of the website you visit their banner ad is there? Remember those shoes you were eyeing out on that online store? Now they’re being shown to you everywhere. The good news is that you’re not paranoid, and no, this isn’t “the universe” giving you a sign- you’ve just been retargeted to!

While it might seem slightly creepy to follow your audience online, it’s only because the audience segment has expressed an interest and is potentially in-market. Which really is a smart way to increase the likelihood that window shoppers convert into actual customers. With standard display advertising, marketers have the ability to reach millions upon millions of users across a huge range of websites but with retargeting enabled, not only are your ads seen, but rather they are seen by people who have shown an interest in your business.

This is essentially a high relevance medium to reconnect with past website visitors and more importantly, utilise that information to convince them to return to your website and perform some valuable action.

How does remarketing work?

It works like this: When a website visitor meets your criteria of the ideal target market, cookies are placed on their machine which follows the user as they travel to other sites on the web. Their cookie ID is then added to your retargeting lists- you can have multiple of these with a wide range of different criteria. Let’s say you want to target viewers that have come to your site, added an item to the cart but never proceeded with payment; you could even then entice the audience to proceed with a payment by offering them a discount on the item they have shown an interest in.

Here’s a basic and concise version of how retargeting works:

1. A potential customer visits your website
2. The customer leaves your site without making a purchase
3. They continue surfing the web
4. Your ad is displayed on a different webpage
5. The ad draws the potential customer back to your site, where they then make a purchase

Retargeting is a powerful tool because generally only 2% of website traffic actually converts on the first-time visit and it’s highly likely that your visitors will periodically retreat to scope out your competition, especially if your business contains a particularly long sales cycle or the products are costly enough to warrant extra consideration. The benefits of retargeting are numerous so here are just a few reasons why it’s a form of marketing to consider:

• Keep your business on top of mind. Retargeting increases brand awareness and metrics allow you to do this without annoying users.
• Retargeting remains an exceptionally cheap option in comparison to other forms of digital marketing.
• Increase your conversion rate and ROI. The users you target have already expressed an interest in your brand or company. Therefore, they are more likely to complete your desired action. Some best practice tips for utilising retargeting effectively include:
• Ads shouldn’t be retargeted to any customer who has already purchased that product. However, you can rather show a display ad that with a product that compliments what the customer has already bought.
• Retargeted ads should be tailored to a specific individual through segmentation. Just because the website they visited happens to sell slippers doesn’t mean they want to buy slippers. Target the user with ads relevant to their interests and behaviour and the products they were viewing.
• Cap how many times you show the same ad or the same brand to a specific user. Don’t be annoying. If that customer hasn’t come back to your site after a few reminders they probably never will. In fact, that ‘brand recognition and awareness’ will turn into negative feelings towards your brand.
• Provide a clear call-to-action button in the ad, provide an incentive like a coupon for the user and upon clicking through, take the user to a relevant landing page or product page, not just the homepage.

Helpful retargetting tools

Some useful tools and resources to help you get started: If this leaves you wondering which brands and websites are retargeting you, visit this link to find out more http://whoisretargeting.me/ For easy, effective, Web Targeting visit http://www.perfectaudience.com/

Keep customers coming back

While your website might be great at attracting website visitors, you may not necessarily be getting a lot of sales or leads from your website, and that’s where retargeting plays a crucial part into getting those valuable sales, business leads, newsletter signups etc. With these best practices adhered to, everyone from small start-up businesses to larger corporations can utilise retargeting effectively to turn website visitors into great customers.

Recommended reading

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Connect with the author

For more tips or to see how your company can gain new business leads with a retargeting strategy you can contact Zanthe at www.arcinteractive.co Or follow Arc Interactive on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.

About the author

Zanthe is a former designer, and HTML web developer turned digital marketer based in Johannesburg with an acute eye for detail and a creative spark, she decided to pursue a career in graphic design. After qualifying, she worked as a designer and developer for a few years and then began studying marketing whereafter she found her niche in digital marketing.

Zanthe has since been doing digital marketing work on some big brands such as ABSA, Russell Hobbs, Danone Brands, as well as non-profit organisations and now works as the Digital Marketing Manager at Arc Interactive based in Johannesburg.

When she isn't glued to her computer screen - blogging or making the digital connection between her clients and their customers, she spends time playing with her two cats, stays active, keeps her finger on the pulse regarding the latest trends in fashion and food, and tries hard not to be the worlds worst tennis player.

Tags: Google Adwords, remarketing