Retargeting a part of your online marketing strategy

Behavioural remarketing also known as behavioural retargeting, or simply retargeting is a form of online advertising targeted to consumers. Its goal is to  allow you to target the right people at the right place convincing them to purchase your product or service. Retargeting should be a part of a company's online marketing strategy because of the invaluable consumer data collected, the brand awareness generated and the overall cost is usually a fraction of a traditional display ad campaign. 

As retargeting becomes more mainstream it continues to grow in popularity.  In fact, according to a 2014 study by SOTI Inc., 71% of marketers spent 10-50% of their entire online ad budget on retargeting. Because of the percentage of spend marketers are now allocating to retargeting and the many types of retargeting available; search, website, email, contextual and social media it is sometimes challenging to understand how it works and the value it brings to the marketing mix over a one size fits all online display ad campaign. Let's look at how it works in a very basic form and why you should consider using it as a part of your online marketing strategy.

Retargeting's goal to collect, convert and optimize

Simply, the goal of any type of retargeting is to collect online data which allows you to convert into online programs optimized to a specific consumer segment encouraging a specific behaviour. Retargeting in it most basic form allows you to follow your website visitors with ads and messages as they move around online on the platforms and the devices where they spend the most time. 

You can think of retargeting as a way to convert a window shopper into a buyer
by getting them back to finalize a purchase.

Retargeting online basics:

1. A visitor comes to your site.
2. They leave without completing your desired action which could be purchasing a product or requesting information, etc.
3. While online at another website they see one of your display ads (retargeting).
4. The display ad recaptures their interest, keeps your brand top of mind and encourages them to return to your site to complete the desired action.

In the more complex forms of retargeting, complete online campaigns can be created specific to your visitor that includes personalized ads and messages, banner ads, landing pages, emails and more to encourage the individual to behave to your desired action. 

Behind the screen how it works

The retargeting process starts by when you decide what type of data you want to collect on what page or pages of your website. Once you decide your data needs, you'll need to put specific remarketing coding to capture the data on a page or pages of your website or in the mobile app that you want to capture the information.

Remarking coding is specific to the type of information you want to collect from your visitor. Companies like Google provide the different coding to be installed so all you have to do is install it within your website.  The information collected can be as simple as demographics to complex such as what was specifically looked at, for how long, were items placed in a shopping cart, did you pay by credit card and the device used.  

Once a visitor comes to your site it activates the retargeting coding which drops an anonymous cookie in the visitor's browser. This cookie leaves a trail of crumbs to follow as the visitor leaves your site and moves across devices and platforms allowing your display ads to keep popping up on other sites they visit.

Retargeting to leverage buyer intent

Because retargeting collects visitor data it allows you to understand your consumers purchasing needs and most importantly keep your message top-of-mind when they're ready to buy, leveraging their intent. It also allows you to build a list of visitors who have come to your website from which you can create customized campaigns, tailored to those specific consumers and will only be seen by those consumers.

Superior ROI is achieved by retargeting 

As retargeting focuses on your specific visitors the display ad campaign provides a superior ROI even in their most basic form as the messaging is following the interested consumer around the web. Broad based display ad campaigns are usually more costly and overall less effective as they use a one size fits all online approach popping up all over the web as well. they do not provide specific data on your website visits.   

Easy to set-up and use 

Retargeting is easy to set-up and use and is suitable for all budgets. Google AdWords offers the basic set-up tools when you run an AdWords campaign and an easy to use tutorial allows you to get up and running. Alternatively, if you're not comfortable doing your own online campaigns there are many companies that specialize in reasonably priced retargeting services who can help you achieve your goals. 

A key point to remember before creating online campaigns using retargeting is that it should form a part of your online strategy. It should not be your entire strategy. As a marketer, you have to understand what you want to measure, why and what benefits it will have for your brand. As well, the value of retargeting will vary depending on the amount of time elapsed between the action used to retarget and time the retargeting ad is served. However, when used properly and if your campaign performance is consistently measured, retargeting can be an incredibly powerful online tool. It can become one of the best ways to actively and effectively capture relevant data and pinpoint the right person to receive your online message.