Remarketing is an Internet marketing advertising strategy that allows businesses to target consumers who have previously visited their website. The first time most potential customers visit a website, a majority of them leave without taking action. Many companies employ remarketing techniques to lure these visitors back to their website to “convert,” or purchase products, submit contact information or create an online profile.
For a full definition of remarketing, please consult “Retargeting vs. Remarketing.”
When done correctly, remarketing can be a huge advantage for online retailers because it provides invaluable data on how users interact with the website and what makes them convert. Companies can use this information to help improve their customer experience, increase conversion rates and ultimately boost website revenue.
In terms of investment, remarketing can be highly effective for both large and small companies. With a cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) campaign, brands can pay very little for ad impressions. Standard, non-remarketing CPM campaigns are effective, but remarketing CPM campaigns typically have higher conversion rates, making them a much better investment.
In order to attract and retain visitors through remarketing, businesses must fully understand where page views and conversions are coming from. This requires the following remarketing components:
- Email URL Tracking: With a URL tag attached to website links placed in promotional emails, marketers can learn how much traffic is coming from the emails they send out to consumers.
- Referral Link Awareness: This helps companies gain a better idea of which outside websites are leading consumers to their web pages. They can use this knowledge to determine appropriate ad-placement opportunities.
- Social Network Tracking: Companies can monitor social network accounts to determine which ones lead to increased page views. This helps them decide which accounts should post content more often.
- Paid Search Campaign Tagging: This data reveals the effectiveness of a business’ paid search campaign.
With a better idea of how each channel performs, businesses can determine where they should display high-quality promotional content and remarketing ads. They may then implement one of these three remarketing strategies:
- Remarketing with Branding: This strategy targets visitors and tracks them with a piece of code after they leave a company website. The business places ads in front of them as they surf the Internet to ensure their website stays fresh in users’ minds.
- Personalized Retargeting: This is similar to remarketing with branding, but instead of displaying general company ads, businesses show previous visitors the exact products they viewed on the website. Personalized retargeting aims to lure users back using specific goods the user has already seen.
- Remarketing with Discounts: This strategy resembles personalized retargeting but with added discounts. For example, if a customer viewed a television from Best Buy that they ultimately did not purchase, they may later see advertisements that feature the same television alongside a 10-20% discount that is intended to boost their incentive to purchase.
Remarketing to website visitors as they browse other websites helps to establish and strengthen brand awareness. As Internet users continue to consume content, they will begin to trust the brands they see over and over, and continue to consider specific products until they ultimately convert.
As remarketing evolves, brands are selling remarketing to other brands. One example involves Amazon, which partnered with technology provider Triggit to manage display advertising on its own site and third-party sites. Amazon collects data during consumer visits and creates groups of potential marketing targets. With Triggit, Amazon uses tracking cookies to follow visitors after they leave its site and records which ads they’re viewing. Brands can advertise in these spaces and pay Amazon for impressions.