Everybody that has ever used the Internet, even in the slightest capacity, has experienced retargeting ads or remarketing as they are referred to with Google Ads. This strategy is very ethical and powerful and used by advertisers of all sizes from startup local companies to the largest and most respected major brands.

How Does Retargeting Work?

To enable retargeting, a small bit of code is placed on your website by you or your webmaster. This is commonly referred to as a pixel. When someone visits your website, this code places an anonymous cookie in your visitors’ website browser. 

As your potential customer visits other websites across the Internet that allow advertising, your message could be displayed to remind visitors of your product or service they may have been interested in. 

These could be major sites like FoxNews.com, CNN.com. Weather.com or millions of other smaller sites, especially those that are targeted to specific niches or interests. Examples may include health and fitness, travel, entertainment, and much more that match the demographics or interests of the prospect you are attempting to convert to a customer.

In general, the conversion rates for these ads are higher. This is because people are somewhat familiar with your brand since they visited your website which would indicate there is some level of interest in your brand. Frequently they may also have a higher level of trust especially if reviews or testimonials are prominently displayed on your website. This is always a highly recommended strategy regardless of which marketing techniques you are using.

Keep in mind that retargeting or remarketing is only effective when used in conjunction with other strategies that first introduced your prospects to your brand. This is because the prospect must have already visited your website at least once and had a cookie dropped in their browser in order to initiate the retargeting process.

Retargeting can be effectively used regardless of the industry or vertical you are in, but it is especially important if you have an e-commerce website. 

Retargeting and remarketing campaigns can be designed to be quite sophisticated, especially when they are focused on predefined criteria. For example, visitors could be targeted only when they land on a specific product page, a certain time of day, or based on the actions that they took or did not take. 

An action-based behavior could be useful with an abandoned cart situation. You could send that potential customer a follow-up ad to remind them to finish their transaction or reconnect with someone that visited an opt-in page but did not complete the form. The potential is unlimited.

Where Will Visitors See Your Retargeting Ads?

Most commonly, these are simple banner ads or video ads that appear on frequently visited websites like some of the ones mentioned earlier or on other display ad networks such as Google or Bing.

Why Should You Utilize Retargeting?

According to Forrester Research, around 97-98% of your visitors leave without taking an action or identifying themselves. 

Why Is This Statistic So High? 

There are many reasons why people may not have purchased, contact you, or joined your list when they initially visited your website. Here are some of the most common ones;

  • Maybe your site is outdated or poorly designed and does not display well on mobile devices
  • Your content is difficult to read because of the font size or color
  • They got distracted
  • The price was more than they had planned to pay
  • They are merely at the research phase and not ready to buy
  • There was not a high enough level of trust because your site lacked reviews or testimonials
  • Your site navigation is confusing
  • Your website takes too long to load
  • The benefits of your product or service are unclear

There are many other possible scenarios, but it all comes down to one thing. Unless you have some type of mechanism in place to follow those prospects around the Internet, you may not have the opportunity to present your offer again. 

If you would like to discuss your company’s goals, and how these retargeting techniques can help you reach your desired outcomes, please give us a call today. We would love to can learn more about your business and what you would like to achieve so we can make the best recommendations.