ClickCease

What is remarketing?


According to AdEspresso, only 2% of visitors will convert on their first visit to the website. This means that 98% of your traffic won’t! Even if some of them add items to their cart, around 70% of users will abandon the purchase during the process.

No matter what type of business you are in, you will definitely need a remarketing strategy, built into your global digital strategy. So whether you own an e-commerce or a service business that generates leads, remarketing will help you convert potential customers.

 

Discover our SMM services

 

1. WHAT IS REMARKETING?

 

To start, we will clarify some terms that will help you understand the rest of this article.

 

1.1 DEFINITION OF REMARKETING

Remarketing is the concept of marketing to a user who already knows you (in our case, from digital channels). A business that uses remarketing seeks to keep acquired users in the buying process (or funnel).

Important fact to mention : You absolutely must have a strategy for acquiring new customers on your website, since you are going to retarget these users.

 

1.2 DEFINITION RETARGETING

Retargeting is the notion to target a user based on specific actions more or less related your brand. For example, it is possible to retarget users who have added items to the cart, but have not completed the purchase.

 

1.3 HOW DOES IT WORK?

Using an identification system (commonly known as cookies), the user who has visited your website is marked based on their behavior. Let’s say that someone is shopping for a winter coat on your online store, the cookies will identify this person as having consulted this specific item on your site.

It is also possible to make this identification of the user according to certain behaviors on social networks, for example, if a user has watched a video, or if he has clicked on shared content on your page.

Note : in all cases, this data collection is completely anonymous and encrypted by the platforms.

 

The Steps

In summary, remarketing is about targeting a user based on their behavior on your website or on your social media pages : Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Linkedin, and more.

 

To do this, you need to set up a buying process (commonly known as a sales funnel).

 

This process is generally organized as follows:

  • 1. You make efforts to acquire new customers – Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Media Marketing (SMM), or other) ;
  • 2. The user visits the website and / or social networks;
  • 3. The user views your products;
  • 4. The user is then marked by cookies;
  • 5. The user leaves your site without having purchased anything;
  • 6. We can now present remarketing advertisements to this user;
  • 7. Then, when the user is convinced by your offer, he will revisit the site;
  • 8. Finally, he will proceed with the transaction.

 

Obviously, this is a simplified scenario, a buying process can be much longer and more complex.

 

2. WHAT IS IT FOR AND WHY TO USE IT?

 

Building awareness of your brand and increasing sales are among the top reasons why a remarketing strategy is essential.

 

2.1 AWARENESS

Firstly, it can help you stay top of mind (with top notoriety compared to your competitors). A remarketing campaign also means that your ads will likely be seen multiple times by the same user, so with higher frequency, your audience could be more qualified.

 

2.2 INCREASE YOUR SALES AND ONLINE CONVERSIONS

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, few users will buy at first glance, without knowing the brand or the product you are offering. It’s a buying process that takes some time. This must be kept in mind. When a user has seen your product multiple times after viewing it on your website, they might be tempted to complete the purchase. This Internet user is then qualified.

 

2.3 CUSTOMIZING DIGITAL CAMPAIGNS

Retargeting also has the advantage of offering a personalized message and creative according to the stage of the purchasing process at which the user is at. Let’s say that a potential customer of women’s swimsuits has added products to her basket, but does not buy anything, it would be possible to retarget her. As an advertiser, you could wait a few days and then offer her a certain discount using a targeted campaign. Eventually, she will probably want to get the item in question.

 

2.4 MULTI-CHANNEL REMARKETING

It is important to know that remarketing also allows cross-targeting of digital media; for example you have a Google Search (AdWords) campaign to acquire your new customers, you could retarget users on Facebook. It can work in both ways; you have a Facebook Ads campaign to acquire your customers, you could retarget your users using Google Display.

 

3. REMARKETING USING DIGITAL MEDIA

 

3.1 SEARCH ENGINES

3.1.1 SEARCH ADS (SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING – SEM)

SEM is paid search results found on most search engines – Google primarily.

You can use remarketing on Google Search Ads (or Bing! Ads) (RLSA — Remarketing list for Search Ads). A visitor comes to your website looking for “Shoe” in the search engine, but leaves without buying anything. You can retarget him when he searches for “Shoe” again a few days later. This time, using a personalized message to be more attractive to the user who already considers you.

 

3.1.2 DISPLAY AND DOUBLECLICK

Display is defined by banner ads that you find on a vast network of websites and mobile applications. Remarketing will be used to present banners to your website visitors. Following their visit, they browse the internet (check the news, blogs…) and here and there, they will see banners inviting them to come back to your website. This is probably the most widely used form of remarketing. It is mainly done using the GDN (Google Display Network) and DoubleClick, networks of thousands of Google partner sites on which your ads are likely to be displayed. Note that there are other display platforms like Facebook Audience Network, Bing! and some private display networks.

 

3.2 SOCIAL NETWORKS

3.2.1 FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM + OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS (SNAPCHAT, PINTEREST, LINKEDIN AND OTHERS)

Even if the Display is commonly used for remarketing, be aware that social media platforms, such as Facebook Ads, have set up several useful remarketing tools. The idea is that users who already know your brand will be more likely to take action.

Users who have visited your website will be tagged using the tracking pixel, which will allow you to retarget them through your social networks. Tracking pixels allow you to identify if a user has viewed your products, if they have added items to their cart, if they have purchased, and more.

This is where Facebook comes into action. You could, for example, retarget users who have added specific products to the cart, but have not completed the purchase, and then present an advertisement with these same products to those specific users. We call this feature, Dynamic Ads. Your brand stays in the mind of the user and your target is more qualified to convert. Amazon is probably one of the champions in using this tool.

 

 4. HOW TO DO IT?

 

This part is probably more for the tech-savvy. Integrating tracking tools may require the help of a professional, as this step will ensure that your remarketing campaigns are set up correctly.

 

4.1 GOOGLE TAG MANAGER

Your best ally will most certainly be Google Tag Manager (GTM), available for free in the Google Suite. This tool easily integrates into any website without having to manipulate HTML code. Once in place, it becomes very easy to install all those conversion tracking tools.

 

4.2 OTHER TRACKING TOOLS

If you find it difficult to use Google Tag Manager, be aware that there are other tools. There is among other things Google Analytics which contain useful tools. There are also some platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify and others that allow the implementation of tracking tools in a relatively simple way. They even offer plugins that can take your remarketing to a whole new level.

 

5. THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD REMARKETING STRATEGY

 

It can be tempting to use remarketing in a very intense way to get a quick return on investment, however, do not risk annoying users.

Have you ever been targeted by an advertisement that featured a product you had just purchased?

Today, advertisers with a well-defined strategy will, for example, exclude recent buyers from their digital campaigns. Eventually, these buyers could be retargeted with your new product collection, and they’ll be more qualified if you haven’t bothered them with too many ads before.

Remarketing is more than essential to your overall digital strategy, because it is at this stage that you must convince your potential customers to purchase your product / service. Your digital remarketing must integrate with the platforms used by your audience: Facebook, Snapchat, Linkedin, Pinterest, Google…

Rablab is there to help you set up your remarketing campaigns. Contact us now and we will help you find the best strategy to put in place.

Discover our SMM services


Articles reliés

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT ATTRIBUTION MODEL?
En lire plus
How to use Reels in your digital marketing strategy?
En lire plus
WHAT'S NEW TO THE DIGITAL MARKETING IN JUNE 2021?
En lire plus