What do Remarketing and Retargeting mean?
With Remarketing or also Retargeting one describes the re-engagement of potential customers to one’s own website.
If a visitor has been on your website but left without making a purchase (see bounce rate), the remarketing method is used to bring the person back to your website. There are different categories for filtering and categorizing the visitors to your website, but the basic principle is the same everywhere.
Remarketing: The User’s Journey
For remarketing to be effective, there must be first a fundamental interest of the user in your website and your products. Only after the user has visited your website once can you leverage remarketing as a strategy. In this context, you can define individual conditions that must be met before you address the person with personalized advertising. Two possible scenarios in which retargeting is applied would be, for example:
- The user browses your website in the category “Men’s Pants”. Without adding a product to the cart, he leaves your site. Now he visits other websites, such as Facebook or an online news outlet. There, he is shown various products from the category “Men’s Pants” of your website in the form of advertisements. Ideally, the user likes one of your products and decides to make a purchase after all.
- It is not uncommon for visitors to a website to add a product they are interested in to the cart and then leave the page without making a purchase. In this case, the visitor will see the corresponding product on other websites to encourage them to make the purchase after all.
The first scenario is based on the condition that the person must have spent a certain duration in a category. The length of the duration – that is, the time it took for the person to bounce back – must be defined before a later remarketing can automatically take effect, which you can set individually.
If the user has only spent 5 seconds in the category, it is more likely that they simply clicked by mistake and actually have no interest. Therefore, the use of remarketing would be fruitless at this point.
The second scenario is much more specific, as the user has already decided on a specific product. The previously defined condition would state that a product must be in the cart, but no purchase has taken place.
The possible scenarios for the meaningful use of retargeting are numerous and can be determined by different conditions. You can decide for yourself which conditions you believe must be met before remarketing should follow up.
Types of Remarketing
Similarly customizable is the way in which one or more products should subsequently be displayed to the users.
- Standard are the so-called display ads. As the name suggests, products are visually displayed to users here, for example in the form of a advertising banner. There is also the option to tie the way your ads are displayed to conditions. For example, you can specify that your products should only be displayed on certain mobile apps.
- In the form of search network campaigns, your products are displayed to the person based on text basis. After a person visits your site, they will now be shown text ads in later searches in search networks (e.g., Google) based on your products and the associated keywords.
- Another type of remarketing is dynamic ads, where users are given suggestions based on their previously viewed products.
- In remarketing, you can also include your customer lists.First, you upload a list of your customers. This is then compared with their Google accounts. If one of your customers is active online through their Google account, your products will be displayed. Your list has already indicated that this is a customer and therefore an interested party in your products.
- To make as specific statements as possible and then only show selected customers in certain ways special products is a major part of remarketing. For example, you can also determine whether your ads should be displayed only on certain apps or video channels depending on the user.
- In a similar way, you can acquire completely new customers: You suggest your products to users who do not yet know your site but exhibit similar search behavior to your existing customers. This is a targeted targeting – that is, aiming at – new customers and no longer about the previous retargeting.
Advantages of Remarketing or Retargeting
When used correctly, remarketing can be a valuable tool in selling your products. Some of the advantages:
- More precise targeting of the target groups: Since you are addressing users in Re marketing who have already shown interest in your website or products, the chance of a purchase being completed is significantly higher than with non-personalized advertising.
- For the same reasons, both the conversion rates and the click-through rates increase. The likelihood that a customer’s interest converts into a purchase or that a customer who has already expressed a need in another way clicks on further ads is high.
- The Cost-per-Click (CPC) is also at a relatively low level in retargeting, as the bids on the specific keywords do not necessarily have to be high and still achieve high CRs and CTRs
- Precise & individual: By setting individual conditions that must be met before your ads are shown to users, this allows for much more precise targeting of truly purchase-ready users.
When used strategically, remarketing, or retargeting, is an efficient component of online marketing. However, you must be careful not to overwhelm the user with excessively high-frequency ads. You are also required to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, which means that visitors to your website are always given the choice to accept or decline the acceptance of cookies.
If you are interested in implementing remarketing for your company, we look forward to your contact. As a contact for online marketing in Bonn and surrounding areas , our motivated SEA team is at your disposal. Would you prefer to take retargeting into your own hands? Then take a look at our analytics seminars.
