Many of you will have experienced all the trials and tribulations associated with web traffic but no conversions. There is nothing quite as frustrating especially if you know your digital marketing strategy is fully optimised. Fact is, it’s more common than you might think but there is a solution and it’s called, ‘remarketing’.

There are many reasons why people don’t buy on their first visit and it’s not always your fault. Some may just be surfing the web while others could have clicked the wrong button and forgot how to get back to your site. Anything is possible but it’s best to be prepared for all eventualities. You won’t always know the reason behind their decisions but an effective remarketing campaign can help get your visitors back.

What Is Remarketing?

Also known as retargeting, it’s an incredibly powerful advertising strategy that yields impressive and consistent results if implemented correctly. It uses online display ads to retarget visitors who already visited your site without taking action. This includes subscribing to a service, purchasing a product or simply clicking on items they were interested in.

Remarketing essentially displays relevant ads across their devices based on browsing history. Not only is it a fantastic way to increase brand awareness, it also improves brand recognition. Once setup, your brand and products follow your customers everywhere they go online.

Remarketing And Google Ads

There are essentially five ways you can use remarketing in Google Ads:

• Standard remarketing
• Dynamic remarketing
• Remarketing lists for Search Ads (RLSAs)
• Video remarketing
• Customer list remarketing

1. Standard Remarketing

This involves showing display ads to visitors who landed on your webpage and subsequently exited. A static image ad is displayed to people who previously visited your website using search engines like Google to search for terms related to your products or services.

2. Dynamic Remarketing

Here, visitors are shown dynamic image ads for specific products and services that they had previously looked at. For example, if you’re shopping on Amazon for a new UHD television, they can display an ad on your favourite blog post showing the exact model you previously searched for. Dynamic remarketing includes ad messages that are created specifically for the visitor who’s viewing the ad. This increases their chances of revisiting your web page and buying what they were looking for in the first place.

3. Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSAs)

Google Ads offer remarketing lists for search ads (RLSAs) that allow you to customise your search ad campaigns for people who have visited your webpage in the past. You can use RLSA’s for visitors who leave your website and then use Google search to find similar products or services.

There are two ways to effectively implement RLSA’s:

• You can target visitors with specific ads who performed a specific action on your website, e.g. click on the pricing page or add an item to their shopping cart.
• Bid on keywords you don’t normally bid on only for past visitors or those who have bought something from you in the past.

4. Video Remarketing

You can use video to show ads to visitors that have recently seen your clips or to those who have visited your website. In YouTube, you can display ads at the beginning or in-between videos that your potential customers are watching. These ads can also appear in the right margin where they find video suggestions.

5. Customer Lists 

Using Google Customer Match, you can upload lists of contacts who willingly provided you with their email address. These customers should be more qualified to see your ads as they already expressed interest in your product or service. You can show them your ads across different Google products as soon as they sign into Google.

Remarketing is such an effective tool as it focuses ad spend on visitors already familiar with your brand and who recently showed interest. That is why most marketers who use it report higher ROI than most other digital channels.

Advantages Of Remarketing

Whether you want to drive sales, increase subscriptions or promote brand awareness, remarketing should be part of your digital advertising effort. These campaigns also tend to show a lower cost-per-acquisition compared to standard display targeting. Take a look at some of the advantages:

• You have the ability to refine your message to each and every potential lost sale. You already know there was a real interest in your brand, so by remarketing, you’re simply reminding them of your brand and the missed opportunity to buy from you.
• Your captured data will allow you to access lists of existing customers, to browsers, to sales that didn’t convert. From there, you can segment them into categories for simple, personalised ad creation.
• Easily produce text, image or video ads for free with Ad gallery. Combine a dynamic remarketing campaign with Ad gallery layouts for stunning ads across all your products or services.
• Remarketing will also offer you trackable, data-based reports to see exactly how many of your sales convert.
• Your campaign will also allow you to piggy-back off other websites that have a proven track record of delivering results. Think Facebook, YouTube and Google.

While it is relatively simple, highly effective and budget-friendly, some small business owners may find it a little technical. In addition, as incredibly powerful as it may be, it works best with a total digital marketing strategy.

At WSI eMarketing we can help you maximise your ad spend for optimal results. We specialise in digital marketing strategy, PPC, SEO, marketing automation and social media marketing among others.

Get in touch if you need more information on how to get started with retargeting and PPC display ads.