How Retargeting Ads Work | Retargeting Pixels & the Remarketing Cookie Process
Retargeting, which is also known as remarketing is a type of online advertising that can help you recapture bounced traffic. In most cases, only 2% of the web traffic converts on any site. Retargeting gives you access to almost 98% of the traffic that was no beneficial to you the first time.
If you have never used retargeting, do not fear. The following post will assist you to go through the basics of how it works. You will also learn how to utilize it to achieve your marketing goals.
How it Works
It can be divided into two broad categories, list-based and pixel based. Each one works slightly different from the other. However, they all have their unique benefits.
Pixel-Based
It is a type of retargeting that allows you to re-display your ads to anonymous visitors to your visitor. It is the most common method used in retargeting. When a visitor comes to the site, a pixel, which is an unobtrusive piece of JavaScript, is placed on the browser. Thus, the browser becomes cookied. The cookies are what will be used to determine retargeting efforts.
Benefits of Pixel Based Retargeting
Its benefit is that it is timely. That means visitors can receive ads immediately upon leaving your site. The ad can be targeted based on the page they visited and their particular behavior while on the site.
The Downside
The main issue is that the campaign always has a lower volume of people been targeted at any time. It is because it depends on people coming to the site and visiting a particular page.
It can also be quite time sensitive and complex to implement JavaScript on some web pages.
List-Based Retargeting
It is a model based on the contact information in your database. The method works by allowing you to upload a list of emails to your retargeting campaign. It usually works on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The social network will then retarget ads to them.
Although it is not as widespread as pixel-based retargeting, it gives you the opportunity to access highly customized criteria for the ads. The reason for this is that it is based on more than just how visitors to the site behave.
However, there is the risk that a person uses a different account to opt in and for their social media. If that is so, they will not receive your ads. In short, you will require having a significantly huge list if you want to make it work. It is also quite time-consuming since it is your job to upload and maintain the list.
Some of the Goals You Should Have for Retargeting
The main campaigns that you should run during retargeting are those based on conversion and those based on awareness.
• Awareness
An awareness campaign is useful when you are seeking to re-engage visitors and inform them about the features, products or any announcements you may have. These types of ads are served to a pixel-based list.
The main drawback here is that you are serving less targeted ads to people who are not heavily engaged with the brand. The reason for this is that they are not in your contacts and thus have a lower click through rate than other campaigns.
Since the main goal is to raise awareness, engagement and impressions are an accepted metric. In most cases, they are a precursor to a conversion campaign.
• Conversion
Conversion campaigns have the goal of getting people to click on an ad and take an extra step. They are used to align a list with a clear step in the funnel. They can be measured with metrics such as form submissions and web clicks.
The best part about a conversion campaign is that it can be used for multiple parts of the funnel. You can use pixel-based ads to direct people to a landing page where they can provide their information. You can then use a list-based ad to qualify those leads better. For instance, those who gave limited information can be redirected to longer forms that have more fields.
Irrespective of the goal you have, you must ensure that next-step, creative, and positioning are perfectly aligned in your funnel. Retargeting tends to have low match rates; it is thus important to ensure that you use top-of-the-funnel inbound activities to fuel your campaign.
The Choice of Retargeting Tool or Platform
There are numerous options for implementing retargeting. For instance, you can use platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and many others. While the retargeting platforms are different, using social media has its advantages and disadvantages. Retargeting is great since it allows you ad to follow your potential clients throughout the web and not a few sites.
It All Starts in AdWords
No matter how you decide to use Google for retargeting, it all starts in AdWords. You should ensure that you are well-versed in AdWords. Take your time to educate yourself as much as possible on how it works. AdWords has evolved quite a lot in the recent past. Do not assume you know it well; make an effort to understand all the features that it has to offer.