Balancing the Risks and Rewards of Remarketing

Is it Cool or Creepy?

Story time.?

A while back I was scrolling through Nordstrom’s website for a pair of shoes. I browsed, I clicked, and I settled on a pair I liked. I didn’t love them, but I liked them enough to click “add-to-cart.” I hesitated. Then, the questions started coming:

“Do I really love these? Should I wait until my next paycheck? I can always wait until they’re on sale…”

I stared at them for a while, but one thing was certain. I just wasn’t ready to click “purchase.”

A day later, when I was spending an hour or three scrolling through TikTok, there they were. The shoes were following me around, harassing me.?

Strategic Stalking

Let’s put this in perspective.

Suppose I’d actually gone to a Nordstrom’s location and passed up on the shoes like I did online. Imagine if a salesperson showed up at my doorstep a day later. As creepy as that sounds, it happens all the time online. It’s called remarketing. And a lot of the time, it works.

Remarketing (sometimes called retargeting) is a very common and popular digital marketing tactic. Brands purposely serve ads to users who visited their website but didn’t complete a purchase. In my case, it was an abandoned cart. It’s an effective way for brands to say, “You’re ready. It’s time to come back to us.”

Psst… You Forgot Something

Remarketing is an excellent way for businesses to remind consumers that they showed interest in their brand and they’re not worth forgetting.?

Advertisers define interest as visiting a certain website, engaging with a social media post, looking up a product or service on a search engine, or speaking loudly enough for your phone to listen in on your conversation.?

(I’m only kinda joking about that last one.)

After any one of these engagements, you might notice the brand… well, taking notice of you. Sometimes this creeps people out. Enough so that state legislatures are starting to regulate consumer privacy online.

But remarketing is a fundamental practice for digital marketers. When done right, it establishes brand recognition and (eventually) brand loyalty. It’s the best way to nudge potential customers down the marketing funnel. Ideally it leads to repeated conversions - the real reason brands are strategically stalking their consumers.?

How to Do It

So how do you set up computers to virtually stalk people? The simplest answer is to configure a pixel.?

A pixel, in this situation, is a piece of code on a website, usually in the header, that captures a user’s digital ID. When you visit a website, you have the option to opt in or out of enabling cookie-tracking. Cookies are small pieces of text sent to your browser when you’re on said website. That way, the website recalls the details about your visit when you choose to opt in.?

Basically, you’re building a retargeting pool for your ad network to anonymously track where that user goes. This is where the creepy magic happens; the retargeting ad appears on another platform via that cookie.?

You Got Them, Now What?

There’s currently a lot of talk about a cookie-less future that could potentially cause the end of retargeting. I joke about “stalking” and “harassment,” but realistically, a lot of people feel unsettled. This is why even the government is getting involved.?

If you don’t want to creep people out or further anger the government, the best thing to do is be subtle. Don’t be excessive. You’ll need a plan – or, in digital marketing terms, a thoroughly researched strategy.?

There are some brands that think an always-on strategy is key. That means you have one part of paid media, usually paid search, always turned on. Then you have other paid channels turned on during certain periods. This could be surrounding a specific time of year, say, or a new sales promotion that you have those channels turned on for a month or so. If you have a short window of time to convert - maybe need new leads immediately, or have an immediate deadline – then yes, a short time period to make remarketing work is still fine. But if you're in this for the long haul, then I would consider having a game plan for how and where to remarket.?

For example, if a consumer just looks at your homepage, then the likelihood of them converting is nil. But if they click two or three pages deep, the likelihood of a conversion is much greater. I call this approach conditional retargeting. Although it requires a bit more patience – something most brands lack – it has two major benefits:

It has a higher percentage of success.

It saves you wasted remarketing dollars since your targeting is much more strategic.?

Lastly, the content you serve your audience matters. Brands consistently make one of two mistakes with their display content. They either never update the content, so users become exhausted seeing the same thing over and over. Or they leave it entirely impersonalized, so users become annoyed that the content is irrelevant to their interests.?

Quality assets are expensive, and dynamic assets cost even more to produce. Brands shouldn’t waste their investment by implementing a poor retargeting strategy. Instead, they should:

Swap out creatives if the campaign’s average frequency is high and engagement begins to decrease.

Establish a threshold users must pass that determines whether they’re interested enough in the product or service to potentially convert.

Types of Retargeting Strategies

Most platforms offer some type of retargeting method. Just the other day, my Gmail account retargeted me with another Nordstrom ad. I’d say I’m not interested in another pair of shoes now, but who knows? They might reach me at a good time tomorrow.?

Here’s a couple of different retargeting strategies:

Display retargeting: A display campaign is probably the most common method of retargeting. First, a user engages with your brand in some way. They can click on an ad, come to your website organically, purchase a product, etc. Once you obtain that digital ID, they’re served with banners commonly found on another website like a blog or a news article. Popular display platforms are Google Display Network or a programmatic partner.?

Search remarketing: This type of retargeting strategy is a little more specific. Search remarketing services display ads to people based on their search engine history, usually Google. Advertisers compile keywords that are relevant to their business and products. Once a user searches several keyword variations, they’re eventually served with display ads.?

Social media remarketing: Another strategy is to retarget audiences on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok. Alternating your messaging as well as your offers is the key to success with social media. For example, let’s say you launch a single image ad on LinkedIn promoting a downloadable whitepaper for your software business. If they click and don’t convert, one effective retargeting approach is to show them a carousel ad offering a free demo next time. And if they’re a past customer, then upsell or cross sell a complimentary product or service.

Voice/Listening/Geographic retargeting: Is this really happening? Are our phones or digital assistants prompted to listen to wake them up? Yes, they are listening. Are they using this information to target or retarget someone who’s interested in a certain product? Not entirely. Apple, Amazon, and Google have all stated that they treat the audio from their respective virtual assistants with the utmost security and privacy.

How Do You Measure Success?

As many of us marketers know, there is a big distinction between a goal and a key performance indicator (KPI). If your remarketing goals are conversion-based, then your KPIs can include:

Impressions: The number of times your display ads were served.

Click-through rate (CTR): The number of clicks your ads received divided by the total number of impressions. This measures how much your audience engages with the ad.

Cost-per-click (CPC): Your total amount spent divided by the total number of clicks. This measures the average amount you’re paying for a single click.

Click-through conversions: The number of people who clicked on an ad, visited your site, then made a purchase. This measures the likelihood of conversions once a user clicks on your ad.

Visits: The number of people who viewed your ads, and then came to your site.

Call us, we won't harass you :)?

At the end of the day, retargeting can be a great way to engage with potential customers. A well thought-out remarketing strategy is what distinguishes annoying, repetitive ads from interesting and engaging reminders.

At Cordelia Labs, we establish and execute strategies that engage and convert your target audience. Together, we’ll find more creative ways to get your brand in front of your buyers - and get more buyers out of your budget.