How remarketing work

Remarketing is an advertising system that allows you to show online advertising to those potential customers who have previously been on the site, but for some reason did not perform a targeted action. A classic example: a user in an online store for a long time looking at watches, but never decided to buy, because he concluded that they are very expensive. Going to another site, he saw an advertisement for the same watch, but with an offer to buy it at a ten percent discount. The most extensive options for remarketing actions are provided by Google AdWords.

What is the difference between remarketing and retargeting

We can say that it is almost the same thing: it is a method of broadcasting an advertisement to consumers who are a little familiar with the company and its products beforehand. But still, there is a separation of these terms:

• at times remarketing is generally referred to as the entire advertising concept of retaining consumers who have shown interest in the product;
• and retargeting – the very configuration of showing ads to these consumers.

That is, in this understanding, remarketing contains retargeting.

How remarketing works

Remarketing helps to analyze user interests. Ads for a product are shown to a certain person only if he or she has been interested in that particular product at least once. Technically, this happens in the following way: a person who has visited the site receives a special marking in his browser cookie. Thanks to special settings, it is possible to differently mark users who have or have not performed the desired action. If a person who has received such a tag visits the site in a contextual media network, he will see your advertisement, which will motivate him to return and perform the target action.

Remarketing objectives

1. Increase conversions

Remarketing gives you a boost in conversions because there is a chance to win back lost users. You are reaching out to a “warm” audience that already knows your product. Moreover, you have the opportunity to offer something more relevant and interesting, which increases the likelihood of purchase.

2. Brand promotion and brand recall

A portion of consumers sometimes forget what is in their shopping cart. Some may not remember the name of your online store. And when the advertisement is seen even on YouTube, it gives respect to the advertiser.

3. Increase ROI

This is a measure of the return on your advertising investment. To put it in other words, you get a good return on your ads even if you don’t invest much in them. Usually, the conversion price of remarketing is less than that of contextual advertising.

This indicator is calculated in the same way as for any contextual advertising:

ROI = (profit – costs) / costs * 100%. If the result of calculations above 50%, it means that the project is successful. But it should be remembered that the figure you get not quite accurate, because it is difficult to take into account all the traffic brought by remarketing. For example, the client opened the ad more than once, but never made the desired action. After a while he remembered about the product, went to the site, entering the name of the product just in the search. The system will not realize this, but in fact, the buyer became you thanks to advertising.

Remarketing will be of interest to everyone, but especially to those who do not plan to spend large sums on contextual advertising (small and medium-sized businesses, industries with a lot of competition). It is usually set up if the attendance exceeds 300 users per day. But if the company is engaged in the sale of expensive goods with a long approval cycle, then a hundred visits will be enough. Remarketing is not suitable for those industries that are not allowed to show ads by advertising systems (cigarettes, alcohol, ritual services).

Benefits of remarketing

What is remarketing? It is one of the basic and most powerful online advertising tools. Below, let’s take a look at the benefits of remarketing, which can be set up using Google AdWords:

• Audience selection

Unbundling is accomplished with the help of remarketing lists. In them you can specify a special requirement for selection: by action (defining the product in the cart or leaving the site), by cost (more expensive or cheaper), by interest (to a particular product), by resource (search engines).

• Coverage and depth

You can adjust the number of ads shown to a person per day, week or month and adjust the list of sites where ads will be displayed. It is possible to generate specific lists depending on a special remarketing campaign page.

• “Smart” prices

You do not invest in the number of ad impressions or pages seen by a potential client, but only in clicks.

• Good customer conversion

Remarketing targets the public who have previously shown interest in your site or products, unlike contextual advertising. Due to this, the conversion rate increases and the cost of attracting customers falls.

• Branding

The effect of the continuous appearance of advertisements causes users to think that a lot of money is spent on advertisements, which cannot help but give credibility to the company and brand image in the eyes of the consumer.

• Superiority over competitors

Remarketing is not used as often as contextual advertising, so by using it, you automatically gain a privilege over your competitors.

Types of remarketing

Depending on the objectives set, there are these types of remarketing:

1. Standard

Shows ads for specific sectors to potential customers who have visited the site but have not taken targeted actions.

Example: a person showed interest in an online English course but did not register for it. Properly arranged advertising will remind him from time to time about these courses on various sites.

2. Dynamic remarketing

The target audience, which has viewed some products, sees ads with the same products in messengers, search engines and social networks. In addition, the ads may include an additional incentive: discounts, promotional offers or a similar product.

Example: a user wants to buy a scooter. While he is thinking, choosing, searching on one site or another, he periodically comes across ads with already viewed products.

3. Search Engine Remarketing

This type of remarketing shows advertising exclusively on search engines.

Example: a person typed the query “travel bag”, visited the site, looked at it and closed it. Now the next time the same query is typed into a search engine, the online store will be positioned above other results in the search engine.

4. Cross-device remarketing

Shows ads on different gadgets of the user, while he went to the site from only one. What is interesting is that the potential client, based on the selected strategy, sees a variety of versions of ads in the smartphone and on the PC.

5. CRM-targeting

Broadcasts ads with accompanying products to existing customers. This method is good because it is possible to find new potential customers, taking into account the data of existing customers.

6. Video remarketing

This option is suitable for those who are intensively promoting a YouTube channel.

Example: a user who watched a 10-minute video “How to choose a washing machine” will see banners with this product.

Basic remarketing strategies

In order to “finish” potential customers who never made a purchase on the site, use such strategies:

• Sequential remarketing. It is used for products with a long sales cycle. This product is almost never bought on the first meeting. The buyer may ponder for days to months. The goal of the seller is to unobtrusively “warm up” the customer so that he does not forget about the product. To do this, advertising informs about promotional offers, alternatives and discounts. Advertising broadcast in the context-media network, in social networks, make mailings to e-mail addresses – that is, the consumer is bored everywhere. But it is important to remember that the main thing is not to overdo it.
• Temporary remarketing. In contrast to the above-mentioned option, all customers in the same group, broadcast the same advertising. For example, first a collective offer, then cards of specific products, then a discounted offer. Ads are shown in a strictly allotted time interval.
• A/B testing. This is a technique with which you can compare two options and determine which of them is more effective. In this case, with the help of split testing you can find out which ads and resources bring more customers and revenue.

There are only 19 strategies in Google Ads. You can choose the right one when you are setting up remarketing.

Effective remarketing options

Remarketing strategies contain certain campaigns, each of which is aimed at the consumer’s action: did not buy a product from the cart, paid for products of everyday use, went from page to page for a long time, but never purchased anything.

• Abandoned cart

The customer left the order unpaid: he took time to think, decided to postpone the purchase until payday or simply something distracted him. The purpose of remarketing in this case is to occasionally broadcast advertisements or send an e-mail with a reminder.

• Sales of goods of everyday use

This method is suitable for products that are purchased on a regular basis. These include diapers, cell phones, toothpastes and brushes, and lenses. For example, a person buys lenses that he will be able to use for 3 months. After two and a half – he will receive a reminder message that it is time to buy new ones. The advertisement or e-mail letter should contain relevant text.

• Complementary sales

Firms with a large selection of products often recommend add-on items to already paid for purchases. For example, a new laptop owner may be shown an ad featuring laptop bags, and a new purse owner may be shown a bag from the same manufacturer.

• Demonstrated interest

This option contains a narrow division of users into segments and the display of advertising, depending on the actions performed on the site. For example, if the consumer has been on one page for a long time, we show context with this product, but at a discount. To potential buyers who consider up to 10 categories, we make an exclusive promotional offer – an individual price for the product for two days or inform about a sale.

Setting up remarketing

There are two methods to collect information for remarketing, segment the target audience and adjust the conditions of advertising broadcasting: Google Ads or Google Analytics. Often specialists monitor both services at once. Below we will consider in detail how to make the necessary settings.

How to configure remarketing using a tag in Google Ads

This method is good for configuring dynamic remarketing, as here you have the opportunity to set more options in order to monitor consumers. To set up this feature, you need to include an analytics counter to the site linked to your Google Ads profile. If you have previously organized advertising campaigns in the contextual media network, then these requirements are fulfilled and you can move on to the next steps.

1. Put the remarketing code on the site. To do this, in Google Ads in the tab “Tools” – “Shared Library” – “Audience Manager” – “Audience Lists” – button “Customize Audience Source”:

2. You need to select “Google Ads Tag” – “Customize Tag”. It is possible to collect general customer data or more in-depth information (for dynamic remarketing).

3. You will have 3 options to install the code: by yourself, with the help of Google Tag Manager or send the guide to the developer by e-mail. Choose the option “By yourself” and get a part of the code, then insert it into the site according to the manual. The first option is “All visitors”. Then you can form personal lists with certain options. To do this, go to “Tools” – “Shared Library” – “Audience Manager” – “Audience Lists”:

It is possible to select the site guest, specific pages or set other conditions:

• It is necessary that the audience satisfies Google’s rules – at least one hundred dynamic consumers in the last month.
• Initiating an advertising campaign. Set Target – Type – “CMC”. – “Standard Media Campaign.” Here you need to designate budget, geography, etc.

4. Choose the ad broadcast period: from 30 to 540 days. For products on promotion or those that can be purchased spontaneously, small remarketing lists are used. And for users who are determined, for example, with a car or an apartment, the list can be 180 or more days. For seasonal products or services, a 360-day list can be made to initiate only during the most active shopping times. Then, if needed, the time frame can be extended. For example, specified an expiration date of 4 days for everyone who entered the “Shipping” menu. If the customer came in at least one more time during that time, but never purchased, extend for another 4 days.
5. In the “Users” menu, specify the audience that we selected earlier.

That’s it, the advertising campaign is ready. Its results can be analyzed using Google Analytics. In order to maximize the number of purchases and income, to improve the effectiveness of remarketing, try different variants of the text of advertising, location, increase or decrease the audience.

What to do if a client from a remarketing list has bought a product

Quite often there is a situation when a product has already been bought, but its owner is still annoyed by advertising. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to remove from the list those users who have already purchased the product. Or for such a public to form another list and apply it to subsequent sales. Only in this case, do not forget about the features of the product. If the user has made a purchase of an apartment or a car, the possibility of a second purchase is small, so you do not need to “push” former buyers with advertising. If purchases are made offline, information about them should also be submitted to the analytics system. Otherwise, you simply will not be able to take into account all those who bought the goods.

To summarize

A rather annoying situation: the user got to the site, considered the product, thought about it, a little later an advertisement came into view – and bought. It would seem that everything is great, but the ad constantly pops up in different places, and the positive impression of the store replaces indignation. Therefore, we must not forget to remove consumers who bought the product from the lists of remarketing audiences. You should also remove those who made an offline purchase or placed an order over the phone.

Take into account that the text of contextual advertising should be in harmony with the content of the page to which it leads. If you provide a promotional offer, the buyer must understand how to use it (for example, as a hint – a pop-up window with a promo code).

Remarketing has great potential to promote the brand and increase the conversion rate of the advertiser’s enterprise. It is necessary to clearly think about the concept of interaction with the guests of the site, otherwise this marketing mechanism can easily become a factor of dissatisfaction for existing and future customers.

Olha Tyshchenko

Editor

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