What are remarketing ads and why is remarketing important?

Most times, we have only one chance to make a good first impression. But not when it comes to online marketing. In online marketing, we have opportunities to do it repeatedly. In essence, we have opportunities to remarket, thus increasing our chances to make a better impression.

Remarketing is an important part of digital marketing because of the customer journey. Shoppers usually don’t discover a new brand, choose a product, and complete their purchase in single visits to the site. Potential customers will take time to consider a brand or product, by browsing online or reading customer reviews, before they make their purchase.

Remarketing is significant in online marketing. Businesses often use it to finally land that big sale. In that respect, remarketing will make a difference to a business’s bottom line. In fact, according to a recent survey, remarketing is a good display advertising strategy when it comes to increasing brand awareness.

What Are Remarketing Ads?

Only a small percentage of visitors who click on your ads will actually convert to paying customers. While you may see a lot of website traffic, those numbers may not correspond to sales. Often times, it takes multiple visits to your site before a potential customer becomes a paying customer.

When you intentionally reach back out to prospects who have visited your website multiple times, have had some type of interaction with you, but have not yet purchased, that’s remarketing. Remarketing is the digital marketing strategy that allows you the opportunity to bring leads back to your site, then turn them into paying customers or conversions.

Are Remarketing and Retargeting the Same Thing?

They’re similar but different. They are similar in that they share the same goal. Retargeting and remarketing are both sometimes used interchangeably, but one really does encompass the other. Both allow you the opportunity to reach those customers who have frequented your site or had some interaction but have not purchased.

The shared goal of retargeting and remarketing is to increase the number of conversions most likely to buy from your brand. They differ in that retargeting is a strategy used within the process of remarketing. Remarketing is the broader of the two and encompasses retargeting. Let’s take a closer look at how remarketing works.

How Does Remarketing Work?

With remarketing, you present remarketed content based on how leads behave when on your site. It’s more about the behavior of the visitor. You promote items your visitor seems to be interested in. That, in turn, increases their brand awareness of your offerings and increases the likelihood they will eventually convert to someone who buys your products or services. Remarketing draws people back to your brand to get them to choose you over your competitors.

What Are the Types of Remarketing?

Some of the most common types of remarketing are remarketed display ads, email remarketing, and video remarketing. It's often a part of PPC Management and remarketing is set up as part of the overall strategy. 

Remarketed Display Ads
This is the act of retargeting. Remarketed ads display a visual of the product previously viewed by your visitor. Google Display Network is a popular platform for this as well as social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. When you create remarketed Facebook ads, etc., your visitor will see this product all over social media and Google ads. Tracking pixels placed on your site collect cookies which follow the visitor to where they live on the internet. This is a strategic way to showcase your products to leads who have already expressed interest in what you offer.

Email Remarketing
Email remarketing involves following the behavior of your site visitor. If they tend to click on everything but the “buy” button, you have a potential buyer. So, you keep targeting them with an email that reflects what they like. What do they click on? Continue to nurture them and provide them with the content they need through email campaigns until they finally purchase from you. Of course, in order to do this, make sure to have a form set up on your site that will capture their email address.

Video Remarketing
Have you begun to watch a video but ads pop up first? Have you noticed the ad is usually about something you’ve previously shown interest in, or better yet, just recently learned about? That’s video remarketing. Use video remarketing to remind your visitor about your product or services. You can even go as far as to monitor the types of videos your visitor views, their channel subscriptions, and their likes and dislikes.

Common Ways to Build Your Remarketing Audience

In order to retarget, collect the information you need in order to reach back out to a potential customer. Here are some ways to build your remarketing audience:

• Contact List based - Start with any contact list you already have in place
• Customer List based - Include your recent and not so recent customers
• Social Media Accounts - Include your social media followers
• Lead Form - Place a lead form strategically throughout your site in order to collect email addresses

Recommendations for Remarketing

Here are six tips for creating effective remarketing ads:

Identify High-Value Pages
Use Google Analytics to identify the most visited sites and the sites with the most conversions.

Segment Your Remarketed Lists
Segment your lists by interests, buying habits, and other factors pertaining to your visitors. Create ads that appeal to those segmented lists.

Offer Them Something
Offer your visitor something that draws them back, like a 20% discount or an exclusive free trial period. It may be just what they needed to make them click the “buy'' button.

Know How Often to Show Your Ad
Find the right balance for remarketing your ads. This can be tricky, but will become easier as you learn the behavior of your visitor.

Test Your Ads
Test individual elements of your ad to ensure you’re putting the very best ad out there. Your objective is to create ads that guarantee more lead generation.

Stop Ads After Conversion
Don’t annoy your new customer after they’ve converted. They don’t want to see ads for products or services they’ve already bought. Keep them interested by showing complementary products and offerings.

The Impact Remarketing Has on Your Business

Remarketing has a direct impact on your overall marketing efforts. When it comes to marketing, sometimes it’s the second, third, fourth, etc., impression that matters most. Because most consumers don’t buy the first time they visit, it’s important to keep them coming back to your site. That’s the art of remarketing.

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