For the past year retargeting has been getting some serious attention. I've been fortunate enough to speak on it at a variety of shows, brainstorm over coffee with some cool companies and even blog about how to use it and how to leverage it for SEO. No matter who I am talking with or what the venue the number one question asked is "Who should I use for retargeting?"
Over the past two years some retargeting companies have really emerged as leaders. While we haven't used them all personally here at Moz, I thought it would be valuable to compare the companies in case any of our readers are considering retargeting. I really wanted to focus on what services each offer, what separates them from the pack and what they have planned for 2012. Luckily for us quite a few worked with us so we could really jump in with some great screenshots and specifics. For those that didn't reply to my tweet (ahem) or my email (double ahem) ... I tried to fill in best as I could based on my "research via the Web" skillz.
Okay let's get on with it. Below I compared the following companies;
- AdRoll
- Retargeter
- Fetchback
- Chango
If there is anyone you'd like to give feedback on that isn't on the list (or is for that matter) feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!
Who are they?
Adroll has been around since 2007 rocking the display advertising world and pushing the limits on targeting capabilities. They have a hot shot team with decades of experience in optimization and creative strategy. They are based out of San Francisco, and have been making some serious waves in the retargeting space.
What do they offer?
On their basic plan they offer site retargeting with both contextual and behavioral targeting built in. They have a complete self-service interface, transparent conversion tracking, and excellent customer service.
How much do they cost?
Their Starter package has no minimum spend, if you are going to go with Plus (which gets you a dedicated account manager) you have to spend around 10k, and if you are going Pro with them (you get creatives, an engineer, and product development help) you need to be spending around 20k.
What's their secret sauce?
They are best known for their dashboard offerings and experienced team. They are truly focused on providing complete transparency into your campaigns (which a lot of other vendors are missing the mark on) and coupling it with lots of controls and options. Last year and the year before when many companies were still trying to make their platforms easy to use, AdRoll raised the bar by launching a platform chock-full of metrics and top-notch reporting options. AdRoll gets a lot of buzz because they are founded by targeting junkies who are striving to bring complex, sequence targeting capabilities to the masses. Impressive to say the least.
What's the downfall?
For those that are looking to do search retargeting this isn't really their bag. They focus mainly on site retargeting and contextual targeting (which is targeting based on category of your site and similar sites rather than search query). I also think it's worth noting unless you are spending at least 5k a month in media spend you don't get a dedicated account manager, much creative guidance, or A/B testing capabilities. All of these are available at the Plus and PRO levels, but those come with higher spends. For those just starting out if you go with AdRoll you'll need to do a lot of those things yourself.
What's up for 2012?
When I asked AdRoll what they were working on they sent over a laundry list of specific action items they have set their sights on. I really appreciate the transparency. These include - focusing on making their UI even more friendly, making the dynamic creative opportunities easier to use, adding more reports to keep up their high bar of transparency, and continuing to grow the team so each advertiser has the attention they deserve.
Some screenshots for the curious cats out there...
Excellent visibility into each ad's performance, and the data you need to succeed.
Tons of options to help you intelligently build out audiences you can sequence.
You can tell from the screenshots that AdRoll has done a great job of making the data the heart of the platform. As they continue to add features it will be interesting to see how they keep the platform uncluttered and streamlined. I think it could prove challenging.
With that said, we currently use AdRoll and are loving the product and team. I think for the moderate to advanced paid marketer, AdRoll is a great option for retargeting. You have a robust product with an innovative team of minds behind it. Exciting to say the least.
Disclaimer: SEOmoz does currently use AdRoll for our site retargeting efforts.
Who are they?
ReTargeter was founded in 2009 by Arjun Dev Arora, and in three short years they have really made a name for themselves. While their roots are in site retargeting they spent the last year really branching out and now offer services around social retargeting and email marketing. They also have chosen to integrate closely with a number of other big-name products out there like KISSmetrics, and SlideShare. Also based in San Francisco, the ReTargeter team has big hopes for 2012.
What do they offer?
They have two main packages -- one for site retargeting and one that is mostly display focused for visitors that are targeted via demographics, location, or content verticals.
How much do they cost?
Both packages start at $500, and scale up from there based on the number of visitors you target and impressions you serve up.
What's their secret sauce?
Time and time again when you hear their name come up you hear they have amazing customer service. Arjun and his team are best known for being available and willing to help you out every step of the way. In fact, every client, regardless of their spend level, will have access to a dedicated Account Manager. They have taken leaps and bounds this past year in product, but their bread and butter is their dedication to account management. You can see this reflected in this awesome Thank You Letter their CEO issued at the end of 2011.
What's the downfall?
I've actually used ReTargeter in the past and enjoyed working with the team, however I did have pain points with the platform. They lacked transparency into the revenue model on their side which left me leery. I know they've worked hard over the past year to build transparency into the platform, but they still have a little ways to go here. I should also mention their pricing is a bit off-putting. While they only start at $500 (which is great) they scale up very aggressively. For a site that has 50k visits a month you are at the $2,500 range. For bigger sites, you better be ready to spend some serious coin to be working with ReTargeter.
What's up for 2012?
I asked ReTargeter what they will be focusing on and was happy to hear they are hoping to streamline their display and retargeting services into one platform, for targeting multiple devices. Companies have told them how exasperated they are working with multiple online partners, dashboards, etc. and they are planning to give that issue some serious time this year. I, for one, am super excited to hear this. I know we see this quite a bit internally and we are always look for ways to be more efficient in our channel management.
Okay here is some dashboard eye candy for you (please note this is there "soon-to-be" released dashboard):
This is a great summary view, I wish there was some more cost data in there though.
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It's nice to see the different reporting and view options.
Who are they?
The Fetchback guys have been around since 2007 under the direction of Chad Little. They've been growing the brand steadily with lots of great content and conference appearances ever since. One of my favorite things from their site is this little nugget of gold: "Let's be honest -- you don't put dogs all over your Website if you take yourself too seriously." I think that very much embodies their culture, and it's refreshing to see. They also pride themselves in working under seven pretty great core values, we of course can relate with out TAGFEE tenets here at Moz. *Highfive* FetchBack.
What do they offer?
They are all about site retargeting. They even have a patented technology named FIDO, which promises to analyze information on your visitors sent by smart pixels. Ohhh fancy.
How much do they cost?
You have to contact them to get a quote. I contacted them to get a ballpark range but they said they are so customized to the advertiser that would be a challenge. I have my doubts but they did say they have a variety of pricing models available, and they even work on rev-share if it makes sense. Sounds pretty flexible over there.
What's their secret sauce?
They are often praised for their full-funnel approach to campaign management. They take a pretty aggressive stance that retargeting works best when integrated with site behavior and full-picture strategy rather than just serving ads at the end of the sales cycle. They call this "1 to 1 creative," which I can only assume means each creative is tailored for that specific visitor based on their behavior, location, etc. FetchBack is hyper focused on this detailed approach to management, which for more experienced marketers is a really exciting selling point.
What's the downfall?
First off, no pricing on their site. <rant> Man that gets under my skin. If you are going to sell a solution on the Web, you should allow me to research you in my discovery phase, instead of force me to call you guys or fill out a form. </rant> Other than that the only thing worth noting is they really have positioned themselves as an enterprise solution. For those just getting started or for those that never plan to invest too heavily into retargeting, Fetchback probably isn't for you.
What's up for 2012?
I reached out to hear what was on their 2012 horizons. I was a bit surprised to hear they will be focusing on "As display grows from a direct response mechanism to include branding, we are focused on being able to provide solutions for not just conversion based campaigns, but also branding ones as well." Uhmm. Sounds a bit odd to me. In my experience display advertisers are too caught up in branding buys and maximizing impression share, while not focusing on conversions enough. It will be interesting to see how this strategy plays out in their services, and platforms. It could be useful for the ever growing social retargeting applications.
I couldn't get you a screenshot but you can click here to watch a live demo.
Who are they?
Chango is a media buying platform that speclializes in Search Retargeting (rather than Site Retargeting like the above vendors). Want to know more about Search Retargeting? Here you go. Basically rather than target those who have come to your site already you are targeting visitors that have performed recent searches on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. They are based out of Toronto (eh?) with offices in NYC and San Francisco.
What do they offer?
Full-service search retargeting options, with limited site retargeting and engagement retargeting capabilities as well.
How much do they cost?
Unfortunately, you have to contact them for a quote as well. I did find out they minimum IO (including media costs) is 10k, and they have some clients spending up to 500k a month. Wowzers.
What's their secret sauce?
Well they really are the only end to end solution for search retargeting available right now. So there is that. At least I had a hard time finding one out there, let me know in the comments if I missed someone. They collect data, optimize, and bid on media at the keyword level which could make a strong argument for some really awesome targeting options. They also claim to have a 90% renewal rate on clients, with over 30 of the top 500 retailers out there. I'm gonna go ahead and give them a high five for that...speaks volumes about their product and service. When you ask the Chango what makes them special they all say "the people working there." They've staffed the team with agency types with a passion for innovation.
What's the downfall?
Honestly for those considering search retargeting it sounds like Chango is one of the first places you should look. With that said, I often tell advertisers they should play in site retargeting before they jump into search retargeting. With site retargeting you get self-service platforms, data visibility, and the controls to test creatives and messages so much easier. Chango is a full-service option. There is no platform you log into, and you are putting a lot of trust in them. Before you commit your budget there I'd get more familiar with what works for audiences through site retargeting and walk into search retargeting with a better understanding of the landscape.
What's up for 2012?
While they do offer some site retargeting, Chango is committed to pushing the innovative limits on search retargeting options. They believe "Search Retargeting 3.0" is already here and their 2012 plans revolve around pushing targeting options, data reporting, and more. Also something cool they will be expanding is called "Instant Search" for Search Retargeting, which allows you to target individuals immediately after arriving from Google, Yahoo or Bing based on the search they just performed. Cool stuff huh? Me thinks so too.
Since I couldn't get you a screenshot I thought I would get you something just as fancy--Chango's infographic on the Seven Types of Retargeting. They have advertising options for all of them, but focus mainly on (1) Search.
How many of these are you trying? #getafterit
So Let's Wrap It Up
When it comes to picking the right retargeting solution for you there are a lot of great options out there. There are a number of questions you should be asking yourself. In fact there are so many, I have compiled a list of "Interview Questions You Should Ask When Picking a Retargeting Agency/Vendor." This list can be your nudge to really investigate who is best for you. I cover topics like reputation, services, set-up, pricing, innovation, and resources. Hope you find it useful!
Whatever your needs are around retargeting, there is an option out there for you. The industry has matured and its time to expect more from both the tools and the services. The four companies above are just a few of the companies out there, but they are great starts. If you have other questions about these companies feel free to leave them below. Also if I left out your favorite company, please add those too! I'm excited to hear what you are using and what is working for you.
* It's worth mentioning I didn't run through Google Remarketing because we just launched this internally for a test and we are going to be posting some juicy good stuff soon enough. So sit tight!
Joanna, thanks for an informative article. As others have done, allow me to add some additional info on the retargeting space (my company, Buysight, is one of the companies you missed).
You've selected a couple of companies (other than Chango which does something a bit different) that have similar capabilities and one (Fetchback) that is perhaps focused on larger clients than the other two. There are, of course, many other companies in the space (not even counting the DSPs and others who have some capabilities), and I dare say a few that would better fit the description "top" vendors. But that's for others to judge.
One critical distinction you didn't mention is product-level vs. site-level retargeting. In our experience there is a huge gap in performance between the two for sites that are looking to drive incremental sales. If you run a brand or service that doesn't have a product catalog, site level retargeting meets your needs. But if you have a product catalog, in nearly every case, product level retargeting is the way to go. When selecting a vendor, make sure they can not only target by product, but have a robust recommendation engine that selects additional products for the ad that will significantly boost conversion rates. Make sure the product selection algorithm is intelligent, not just throwing the last product viewed back at the user.
Accompanying product retargeting is dynamic creative. The ads should feature the primary and recommended products, and be optimized for conversion, not clicking.
Make sure the vendor is focused on conversions, however the client defines them, not just driving traffic. For example, we have found that a significant number of consumers will look at a popular product but the vast majority of purchases in that category are for another product, and nobody buys the one that gets a lot of "first looks." Why hammer away at them with the product viewed? Show them the product they are more likely to buy.
As many above have pointed out, most retargeters can access all the major networks and have similarly broad reach. But make sure your retargeting company is an expert in real-time-bidding (RTB). When paying CPC or CPA, it may seem like the media buying is not your concern. But a good retargeting company will understand the likelihood that a user will ultimately convert to purchase, and be willing to pay more to show them an ad in an RTB auction. The better vendor will ultimately generate more incremental sales for you, while meeting your cost of marketing goals.
There are many more considerations, and if anyone is interested, we've got some good blog posts on specific aspects of retargeting on the blog on our website (buysight.com) along with more info about our services.
Jeff Weitzman
CMO, Buysight
Great article Joanna!!
I have used both Google Remarketing and Retargeter. Google Remarketing outperforms ReTarger any day (IMO) based on the visibility and control of the campaign. With Google Remarketing you can create different 'buckets' of customers based on the pages or products they view on your site and serve them different ads to increase relevancy/success.
Another neat retargeting company not mentioned here is Media Forge. I have used them in the past with a client - they work on a % of sales driven so they really show their value. I'm not sure what their criteria is for choosing clients to work this way vs straight pay, but it is phenomenal. They also have more advanced ads that are interactive so customers can 'shop' from whatever page they are on. They manage the campiagn as well so there is minimal resources you need to dedicate.
Jenny, we're so glad to know you had a good experience with mediaFORGE, and are happy to be recognized as a retargeting provider that was ommited from this article.
It's true that, at mediaFORGE, we work on a revenue-share business model and charge clients only for conversions that can be attributed to interactions with one of our campaign ads. We call this metric "Measured Engagement" and feel strongly it's the most effective optimization metric for delivering strong and verifiable campaign performance. In fact - we're so passionate about Measured Engagement that we wrote a whitepaper about it: https://www.mediaforge.com/resources.
To answer Jenny's question, we do offer alternate business models for some clients who won't benefit from a revenue share model. Our team of account experts work closely with clients to make sure we design campaigns to best meet each of their individual needs.
And Jenny is right - we do have advanced ads. In fact, we think they're the smartest ads in the industry! Our in-ad capabilities are as endless as our client's imaginations. We've featured everything from scrolling products to embeded video to in-ad search functionality. You can see some samples on our website: https://www.mediaforge.com/our-ads. We can also personalize ads based on user browser behavior, and can initiate retargeting campaigns from web sites, search engines, or email messages.
This is the missing part in you retargeting blog posts you wrote here at the SEOmoz blog before!
Looking forward to the next master piece about Google Remarketing.
Hi Joanna, thanks for the roundup. Have you, or anyone else here, used Criteo? It'd be good to find out a little more about them.
First of all, great article! I love paid media articles here on SEOmoz. Keep 'em coming!
From what I can tell Criteo is e-commerce oriented and their claim to fame are their dynamic ads based on the specific products the user browse through on your site.
From their site:
"Criteo provides the ultimate level of dynamic banner personalization. Criteo banners are created real-time for each viewer and feature up to 10 previously view products and relevant product recommendations – based on Criteo's proprietary purchase prediction technology. Criteo's personalized banners have proven to drive 6 times the click-through-rate (CTR)compared to other retargeted banners."
I also know criteo had partnered with several ppc mangement platforms like Marin and Kenshoo, so I too would be very interested to get the full scoop on them!
PS. I love how you formatted the review of each provider (secret sauce, downfall, etc.), very easy for us marketing manager types to understand!
Hey! Glad to hear you like the paid media articles! Justin Vanning (our Paid Media rockstar) and I are hoping to contribute more articles as the weeks tick on :)
If I am not mistaken, Criteo's pricing is almost exclusively on a PPC basis. Unlike the vast majority of retargeters, Criteo assumes a big chunk of the risk. I believe they are the largest retargeter in Europe and have something close to a 95% renewal rate.
Hi Joanna! Thanks for this post, which is actually an exceptional reference in order to choose the retargeting service provider your company may need.
As a freelance consultant, I don't offer to my clients this kind of service for the simple reason that I would not have the time to follow it with the attention it must deserve. But it is a marketing tool I find fascinating, especially because of how its mechanisms work.
Once you wrote a great post (and spoke at Mozcation Barcelona) about how to use retargeting to give a second chance of conversion to the traffic organically generated by an SEO campaign. But, whenever I would start using retargeting for a client (or dealing with a client using it), I would like to take advantage from the retargeting data also as a link building prospect tool.
That is not something new, in fact I do it already screening the data Adwords offers. When a site targeted by a retargeting campaign shows me good conversions (but also traffic) data, then that site could be a perfect candidate for an outreach action.
Hey Gianluca,
With AdRoll, advertisers can log in to a self-service dashboard and track where their retargeting impressions are being delivered. This report shows costs, cpc, cpm, clicks and ctr down to the site level and is a great way for brands to discover new lead gen / parnter opportunities.
While we provide a self service dashboard for all clients, we're also offer full account management, consultation and campaign optimization at no additional cost and regardless of spend :)
Aaron R
@AdRoll
P.S. Check out the ProMember Perk page for an extended AdRoll trial: seomoz.org/pro-perks
This is a nice piece Joanna but you have zero CPA retargeting companies in here. The marketplace seems to be going that direction & away from the CPM & CPC methods. For example we are working with Steelhouse Media out of LA and we are seeing better results.
Pricing model is more of a contractual detail and not really a technology feature. At the end of the day, any marketing campaign needs to achieve an ROI goal, and the vendor providing it needs to make a margin on top of the cost of the media. Pricing models that are geared more towards arbitrage (CPA, CPC, CP whatever) encourage less transparency and less alignment between the advertiser and vendor. The vendor is buying the media on a CPM, if they translate it back to a CPA, they are less inclined to share how much margin they’re making on the advertiser’s data, or the inventory sources that are delivering the best results (their secret sauce.) Arbitrage models can also cause other forms of conflict:
I agree that CPA often feels more risk free, but in reality it can lead to conflicts of interest with your vendor and encourage less transparency and flexibility with your campaign. In general, vendors will make more margin on CPA so will be happy to offer one, but this does not usually end up working out favorably for the advertiser.
Here here Adam, totally agree! CPA certainly is attractive to the marketer, but if done right, and with transparent pricing, a CPM deal should always yield a better CPA for the marketer.
Joanna,
Thank you very much excellent report. It's a big help
I am a customer of adroll.
There is another company multiview have you heard about it?
How is it? Do you know?
Thank you
Nat
Hi Joanna,
Good question! Would you mind saying a bit more about what services you're looking for? Here at ReTargeter we actually offer a suite of solutions beyond site retargeting, and I'm interested in whether we might have the right solution for you. :)
Best,
Kathleen
Joanna is the author of this post from 2.5 years ago, not the name of the commenter.
Kathleen, I'd also love to know what monitoring tool you use. This is an impressive response time to a comment on such an old post!
Just lovely post! Thank you Joanna...
love your <rants></rants>
We are using both Steel House Media and Google Remarketing, both working very well so far. I will try to check our the other four you recommend and see if they'll further improve our conversion rates :)
One word of caution is to make sure that if you are using multiple vendors for site retargeting that you are de-duping their results - both can show you a report saying they are doing well, but they might be retargeting the same pool of people and that would lead to you wasting media dollars.
Insightful article Joanna. As user Alfredo pointed out, SteelHouse is another retargeting solution, but with layers. I see AdRoll all up in this forum, so I’ll provide full disclosure as well. I work for SteelHouse, but I am not in sales.
In a nutshell, SteelHouse’s Retargeting solution brings offers to visitors anywhere they go online and on any device. Our retargeting ads are powered by our Behavioral Commerce Platform, which allow users to leverage real-time data to target visitors by product, category, site activity, interests and much more based on their buying behaviors and shopping personalities. Our retargeting capabilities include:
The world of retargeting is about to undergo a massive shift that will force advertisers to rethink two of the core components of their retargeting strategy:
a) Inventory sources. Today most retargeting is done on AdX, OpenX, Pubmatic, Y!, AdMeld, AdBrite, etc, but tomorrow will see virtually all of those inventory sources become irrelevant by comparison.
b) Tracking & dynamic creative solution requirements; the way most retargeting firms today track users and render dynamic creative will soon be obsolete;
I don't mean to be cryptic, but this thread is too big for advertisers not to be hearing the very real rumblings of big changes in this channel. Stay tuned...
I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if retargeting can emanate from aggregate sites like ThomasNet and/or Globalspec. It's one stop along the way that has the "weight" we would need to get value from this kind of approach.
I understand these sites may be too arcane to matter to anyone in the SEO world but I don't want to assume that as fact.
Your thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!
I am interested in how the dreaded EU cookie law will affect retargeting for the advertiser from may 2012 onwards when the law comes into effect. How do vendors advise how to proceed here for site owners who wary of popup saturation advising users how to opt out?
I'll second Paul's comment here, too, as it has the potential of blowing so much out of the water if it's fully implimented. Any comments guys?
Paul, that's a really good question. The EU cookie law (mandating that websites let users opt in to being cookied) was implemented in May of 2011, although there is a year-long grace period and the law will be enforced beginning May of this year. According to the guidelines released by the Information Commissioner, third party cookies need not necessarily be treated any differently than first party cookies and changing the terms of service should be enough to count as an opt-in so long as your TOS clearly and thoroughly describe the cookies employed by your site. The law could make it more challenging to build large cookie pools, but I hardly think it dooms retargeting in Europe.
The EU is attempting to implement a much more intensive online privacy law in 2016, that would purport to give people more control over their online data while harmonizing privacy laws across Europe. As it stands there is still significant variance in online privacy laws between EU nations. The debate is still in its early stages, so there isn't yet much to say regarding how it will affect online marketers. But we're definitely keeping an eye on its progress here at ReTargeter.
Here's an article about the debate over the 2016 law that could be helpful: https://www.economist.com/node/21543489
Great article! Thanks Joanna!
We're just getting started with retargeting (btw, loved your presentation "Maximizing the Power of Retargeting"), and are about to start an engagement with FetchBack. They do offer several pricing models, after a review of your site/product. I would say that, so far, I've enjoyed my interactions with them, and am excited/curious to see how much better an outsourced solution can perform over Google's remarketing solution.
I am in luuurvvve with this post! Thank you, Joanna! FWIW, I investigated Chango a few months ago. They said that my keywords were too limited and they had a bare minimum that they needed for us to sign up on. Knowing how we convert on specific keywords, we couldn't justify the budget at the time.
I remain skeptical on if you need one of the other three companies (Site Remarketing/Retargeting) if you are already using Google Analytics. I finally have my Remarketing Campaigns set through Google Analytics and I love them. The initial impression frequency freaked me out a bit but I now have 8+ campaigns set up so as the users pass through time, they pass through my campaigns which change banners and frequency. I'm pretty happy with it even if it took forever to set up. :) Of course the tweaking never ends.
Thanks for this great blog post though!
Hi Kristi,
One of the key advantages of using a dedicated provider over Google alone is that you get much more reach across which to optimize. If you just run on Google, you have to take their bad inventory along with the good. However, dedicated providers cherry pick just the best performing ad units from across dozens of inventory sources. More inventory means more optimization which means better performance.
Hope that helps.
Adam
Thanks Adam, but if all we are doing is Retargeting visitors who have been to our website, it really wouldn't be bad inventory would it? I understand the thought process that they would have different reach but I think it would be an either/or situation.
Edit: I just noticed from a comment below that you are from AdRoll! Thank you for chiming in!
We actually see drastic differences in performance among ad units across inventory sources. All of the platforms covered have access to Google inventory as well as dozens of other sources. If you only have a few chances to reach your users, and a limited budget, do you want to spend that money on a below the fold unit with Google AdWords, or right in the sidebar of their Hotmail account? Google has some great inventory too, but there is certainly value in being selective with ad placement. It benefits you to have options, and not only be confined to Google.
Thanks for pointing out that each provider has access to Google inventory as well as more curated sources. Definitely good to know.
It's actually not exactly an either/or situation. I work for ReTargeter, and like some of the other retargeting providers here, we have access to Google's display inventory in addition to many other display networks. With a dedicated retargeting provider you have access not only to Google's display network (which is large, but not all-encompassing), but also to Yahoo's network and many, many others. This way, you get to reach your users virtually anywhere there is display inventory. Like Adam said, this means you have a better chance of securing prime ad spots (e.g. sidebar of a hotmail account vs. below the fold on AdWords)
Thanks to both of you! I'm sure I will be calling you in the next few months to explore more options. :)
This is a great exchange of comments. Someone on Twitter suggested I add some comparison around inventory size and network reach for each of the companies above, and I am going to work on getting that up either on this post or as a separate post. Thanks for bring that up Kristi!
Thanks for the write-up Joanna, this comes at a good time for me as I'm experimenting with search retargeting.
One thing I might add that would be a benefit of seeking out one platform for all your retargeting needs is the ability to keep your campaigns from overlapping. Site visitors are almost always more qualified than a search retargeted audience that is unfamiliar with your brand. Keeping audiences with similar value grouped together is just good practice for any marketing channel. Control the message, properly measure the ROI, and really know which campaigns are delivering results.
I'd be very interested in seeing Rich Media & Video ad inventories added to this comparison. I know adwords integrates with youtube to serve instream & trueview videos, but I'm unfamiliar with what the 3rd party solutions have to offer here. Especially in search retargeting :)
Joanna - Interesting thought re network size. Its never a direct answer given the number of exchanges we all hook in to, which means it can be measured in queries per second, % population reach etc. We have every major exchange available for instance, but calculating realistic reach, taking into account overlap, is tricky.
Agree with these comments. The Google inventory is large, and the perception is that it is often the largest because of their overall size, but for most of us it actually represents low double-digt % of our total pool. As others point out, Chango (us) and the folks from Retargeter, Adroll etc below will also have exchange connections that give us / them access to most online properites that sell advertising. And bthe more reach, the more chances there are to bid therefore the better the performance, the lower the CPM and the more contextually relevent the placement.
Always be sure to insist on brand safe inventory though, there is a lot of garbage on the exchanges! Make sure whoever you work with has something like AdSafe Media or DoubleVerify in place at the time of the bid, not just a report afterwards. The difference is that if its at the time of the bid, the technology will stop a bad placement, but if its a report after the bid then you just get told when it wasnt so favorable.
I am looking into retargeting now. Can you tell us more about AdSafe Media and DoubleVerify? What do they do?
Hi,
I find this link today about Adroll and honestly for me it was a great disappointment.
I don't know any other retarget company just Adwords, but I don't find that great options on the Adroll interface that was mentioned in this article above, also the interface looks different.
You can't exclude countries by your own, you can't exclude domains by your own, you have to write to your account manager to do so... is this really a ' AdRoll raised the bar by launching a platform chock-full of metrics and top-notch reporting options' or am I using another Adroll???
But for me the biggest problem was the following:
On the interface I see we get 2737 clicks on our campaign, BUT if I export the campaign datas I get only 1119 clicks with domain names. So that I can't see the remaining part of the clicks where they are coming from.... and as I can't see where they are coming from I can't make any exclude on domain names where I don't want to be there.
But so far this is only one part of the problem, the biggest part of the problem I get when I sum up the numbers in the export with an Excel SUM function. We paid $75 for those 1119 clicks (I know it's a very good price, but...), AND what a surprise for the remaining clicks we paid $1570... so that the clicks I can't see where the visitors are really come from cost us 16 times higher CPC. Wow!
So I can't make any improvements on more than 90% of our spent...
This is really the transparency in 2012? Do you get the same numbers guys, or we just only the 'lucky' ones who can't see any valuable data form our campaign?
Regards,Erno
Hi Erno,
You are correct in saying that the screenshots featured do not reflect what you're currently seeing. This past year, we've been developing and testing a new dashboard. The screenshots in this post are from a sneak-peak given to SEOMoz earlier this year. We will definitely notify all of our valued customers when we're ready for full launch.
To address your second concern, we are very committed to transparency and provide site-level data when made available by our partner networks. Some publishers don't allow their URL's to be shown to avoid channel conflict with their sales teams. However, this usually only occurs with premium publishers, and even they can be excluded if that's desired.
If you have any questions or concerns, our Customer Delight team ([email protected]) would be more than happy to chat!
All the Best,
Aaron
Hi Aaron,
I understand the user dashboard was changed, so no problem here, just as I see the old one has more features.
About the transparency, your answer is exactly the same that was your colleague said... I understand that there are networks which not allow this, but the problem here is I'm feeling totally blind. I like online advertising because I have a chance to optimise it, I see SiteA provides us 1000 visitors and 10 conversions and SiteB provides us 250 visitors but 25 conversions... so that I have a chance to decide, what is important for us what is important for the company. The current situation with Adroll is I have a very limited chance to optimise the campaigns.
Maybe 90% of the users just get confused seeing 100 domains, and so many buttons/settings, the situation is me not...
I hope you spent our money well and on great and quality networks, but without having the option to optimise our campaigns I decide not to use your network. Eg. in Adwords I have a chance to see at least the domain... I can't see which domain it is, but I see google-network-434324321432.com, so that without knowing the domain I can see this exact domain performing well or bad.
And just one thing, to why I left Adroll is: the ratio between obfuscated domains and valid domains, 90% of the money goes to obfuscated ones. Eg. In Adwords it's about 10%, not 90%...
I'll try again Adroll if you solve these problems.
Regards,Erno Horvath
Erno,
Just wanted to let you know that our new dashboard is currently in beta. We'd love to have you take it for a test drive and let us know what you think!
All the Best,Jonathan
According to my point of view adroll is really best and fabulous.
[link removed]
Hello,
I really liked your article, it was very concise and articulated at the same time, congratulations.
I represent a large ad agency who is trying to build its own ad network and I would like to know if you know of any company that offers ad servers for retargeting,
Thank you
Great article and great top notch sites you listed here.
Funny thing is I always find myself on the other end of the fence. I run many of these retargeting ads on clients’ publishing sites and I can say from experience that these sites do use some of the biggest networks out there to saturate the market for maximum coverage. They run through so many different networks, and then run through other networks. It is almost impossible sometimes to see where the original ad was severed unless you use Firebug.
I could be wrong on this (so don’t kill me or quote me), but I do believe many of the other ad networks also offer retargeting options and might suit some people better or at least give them extended coverage. I know for a fact that they run retargeting campaigns and RON campaigns too. I’m just not sure what the pricing or availability is. I believe you might also want to check out ValueClick, Burst Media, 247 Real Media, Zedo, InterClick, Tribal Fusion, Advertising.com, and Specific Media to name a few of the biggies.
Yes, many networks offer it, but one of the values of dedicated platforms is that they coordinate your retargeting across ALL of these sources. Trying to run a campaign with all of this networks individually would be a nightmare, and result In over saturation. Dedicated platforms manage your budget across all available inventory, control global frequency caps, and cherry pick just the best performing ad units from all available networks.
Adam
President - AdRoll
Hi Adam,
Well said and understood!
I do understand that many of these dedicated platforms run their client’s campaigns through many of these networks that I mentioned and more. Adroll apparently uses AdBrite, Google, OpenX Market, RightMedia, and Appnexus. You must use other networks as well for disseminating your client’s campaigns because this article says that SEOMoz uses AdRoll for their campaigns, “we currently use AdRoll and are loving the product and team” and I see SEOMoz retargeting ads all over many of the publisher sites I work on after I have visited SEOMoz. So the SEOMoz ads I see couldn’t be coming from the Networks your website says you work with because I don’t work with any of them. From a publisher’s monetization point of view the Networks your sites lists as partners “normally” perform poorly.
That being said, the reason I mentioned the other networks was not to devalue your platform, your service has a great value, rather as a suggestion for people that might like an alternative. If you are using these networks to run the campaigns through (essentially buying quality traffic), then wouldn’t it stand to reason that someone might be able to run the campaign for less going directly to the network you are buying from rather than through a 3rd party?
Yes, you are absolutely correct; it would or could be a nightmare and a lot of work. But isn’t it conceivable that someone would be able to go direct to these networks, potentially save some money and still get quality retargeted ads? After all, someone can cherry pick for themselves by using these networks and see what performs the best for them. Then just stick with that network.
And as far as over saturation is concerned, all I know is that everyone buys traffic from everyone else. Then they buy traffic from someone else and so on. I’m not even going to try and get into all the convoluted strings I see when I look at an ad’s source code through Firebug.
Cap
Hi Cap,
Great insights, you clearly know your stuff.
Yes, those are some of the networks we use. There is a variety of ways to sync user segments with different networks. One is through pixel piggy backing which I gather you’re seeing with Firebug (very savvy) but you can also cookie match, where dropping the network’s pixel isn’t necessary. But that’s all pretty nuanced back end stuff that we could geek out on over a beer.
Totally understand your points about going direct, but I'm not sure if going direct really is a good or even feasible alternative with some of the networks you mentioned. Going direct to those networks won’t necessarily get you better pricing, and even if it did, it wouldn’t be useful. Here’s why.
Anyway, your insights are awesome, and you clearly know your stuff.
Hi Adam,
Likewise, I like your insights as well. And like I said in my prior post, your service has a great value and you just explained why. Keep up the great work, clients need good White Hat companies.
Adam is spot on. I think the biggest challenge we have is that as we grow the channel we want to make sure we stay as efficient as possible, and that our data stays connected and valuable. Running on individual networks would be virtually impossible for us given our lofty goals here at Moz. I think many other advertisers would have the same challenges.
Point well taken. Also, just so you guys know at SEOMoz, the AdRoll system definitely works well. Regardless of how they are bringing the vistors to you, the retargetting works like a champ because whenever I go to a site running their code after being here, I see your ads come up. So you are definitely getting your moneys worth :-)
Outstanding post, thank you Joanna! I'm reponding to your request for comments regarding any competitors to Chango.
I've run across a couple of other search retargeting companies; specifically:
1. Magnetic https://magnetic.is
2. Simplifi https://simpli.fi
Along with Chango, these seem to be the heavy hitters in search retargeting with staying power, Hope this helps!
-Mike Shollenberger | @webjock
Thanks Mike! We are actually chatting with someone from Simplifi this week so we can hear more about what they do. I love seeing more and more companies emerge in the space, it gives validity to the value and the future of the channel. Thanks for the other suggestions!
Awesome info found here! Kudos!
@Adam: I'd be interested in talking more with you about using your network for my business goals.
Cheers,
Chip
Sure thing. Just sent you a private message, but feel free to email me at adam at adroll.
This article was published right on time, I was actively starting to look for solutions to do this.
I was especially looking into Google Remarketing so I'm anxious to read your article about it!
I had a meeting with Steelhouse and am talking to Adroll now as well. I am not sure really about everything. It 'sounds' good, but I am a results guy. Seems like these are kind of middle man companies that just provide some tracking and analytic data from passing the advertising up the chain to bigger networks?
Does this sound about right, or am I completely wrong here?
Can anyone recommend me a broad channel way to advertise besides the PPC methods with Adwords and Microsoft Adcenter? Like an affordable 'one soltion' that will really provide return on investment?
Adwords etc has been great and profitable, but feel like we are missing out on so much more....
Thanks Joanna,
The marketing team here has just listened to presentations from both AdRoll and Fetchback and your post was very helpful in guiding us to ask some good questions. We also want to check out the other two companies you discussed because the company hasn't done any retargeting at all for the main site and it's a new concept for some of the folks on our team. I appreciate your unbiased approach. It was very helpful.
Dana
It's good to keep an eye on this comparison, so that marketers know what to expect from these retargeting companies. I would recommend a retargeting software that you have to pay for only if it generates you extra sales, otherwise you don't pay at all.
Great Article! Now you should update it for 2016 :)
Hi guys, would love to see a 2017 update for this! :)
Adtomatik has been my predetermined ad network for a long time. Never tried anything better. Higher fill rates and the best ecpm.
really helpful article - any chance of an update?
everyone likes to put adroll at the top but one has to look at their terms and conditions beforehand.. If you sell doll houses maybe they will let you in but if you a financial service, affiliate, lead gen, or anything like this then there will be no way you will be approved.
I'd be curious to see a followup to this article comparing some of the other players that have emerged, especially considering recent developments regarding Mozilla defaulting their cookies to opt-in. Search Retargeting is even more exciting these days, particularly because we're able to track search behavior through IP address, which naturally helps allay the damage done by the deletion or non-tracking of cookies. For what it may be worth, my personal connection with search retargeting is through my company (Zenya) which has partnered with Simpli.fi, a search retargeting company that uses unstructured data rather than pre-packaged segments.
What are the considerations around data ownership and platform lock-in? As appealing as these solutions seem, I'd hate to build up a big list with one provider only to flush it when switching vendors. Is there any way to keep the base level data owned in house?
I'd marry you just for the Giants comment...
Really enjoyed the post.
I just signed on to Criteo as a publisher. They pay very high CPM's but have a low fill rate.
Do any of the Retargetting Agency mentioned here looking for new publishers? What are your criteria and terms? who are your publishers? Thanks
We buy directly from the largest exchanges, ad networks, and SSPs, so if you use almost any inventory aggregator, we're already buying from you! This model makes more sense for us than only filling a few impressions an many individual publishers. The auction format is also better for you because you know you're getting the highest CPM for every individual impression. If Criteo bids the highest, they'll get the impression, if they don't want that impression, someone else will get it. That's a more efficient system since you don't have to worry about prioritization and fill rates, the highest bidder always wins!
I would agree with Adam, companies like us (Chango in my case) need large reach and so using RTB (Real Time Bidding) on the exchanges makes most sense. You might want to shop around such companies to see what is out there, all dependent on your monthly uniques typically.
Good luck
Who would be the best retargeting company to use if you only capture about 100 emails per month and the average sale is about $15,000?
Good question edwin111. You note how many emails you capture (which is only relevant for remail remarketing), but I'll assume you also have relatively light traffic to your website. Some things to consider:
Talk to potential vendors about these factors (or listen for them to bring them up with you) and discuss what success looks like for your business. I think you'll know the right vendor when you talk to them.
Jeff Weitzman
CMO, Buysight
I appreciate the insight into retargeting. It's a hard market to naigate without spending large sums. I've already begun setting up a campaign for our Agency.
Another great post on retargeting and its benefits! Thanks for knowledge Joanna, Justin and fellow Mozzers :-)
Just to clarify for everyone (as our pricing page is a little misleading), AdRoll does not require minimums or contracts. Every account, regardless of spend, is assigned a dedicated Account Rep who can advise on strategy, budgets, A/B control testing, ad creative, and the set up process. We also offer a free trial which is nice for brands that would like to test the waters before investing significant time and money in a retargeting platform. All advertisers also have access to a easy to use, self service dashboard.
And if you're looking for banner samples, you should check out Moat.com. They're a great resource!
Aaron R.
@AdRoll
With Adroll do they have a minimum group size you can retarget?
With Google the 500 limit is a little limiting... you might have 10K people entereing at the top of a funnel per month, but only 1k get to the next stage.
That might seem ok for retargetting but that is only 30 people per day. If you need them to see that second creative a certain time after entering the funnel, it is as far as I know impossible with Google.
Google also had really poor communications so I abandonned a project 18 months ago that relied upon it.
Certainly looks like I might be spending some money with Adroll this month
Hey Andy,
Aaron @AdRoll here. Some of our networks require the 500 user minimum, others don't have that floor. Since we don't charge to cookie traffic, advertisers are welcome to create an account and place our pixel accross high and low funnel pages to start building these lists.
We also don't require minimums or contracts so we can work with any budget.
Aaron R.
@AdRoll
Just geting back to this as various campaigns are kicking off - will be signing up a few accounts today for various projects.
Google's limit is 100 as of last fall, not 500.
https://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=tltp&answer=171246
If you want to target people a certain time into a funnel you create 2 audiences on the same tag with different durations, for example 15 and 30 days.
Now if you create a combination, call it Recent15, of those in 15 and not in 30 you have a list of people that have only been tagged in the last 15 days. Then create another combination of 30 days and not in Recent15 and you have those people who are 16-30 days from being cookied the first time. Note that if you just did the set math on 30-15 you would remove anyone that visited 16-30 days ago AND in the last 15 days. The set method you choose just depends on what you really wish to do and if its worth it to add the complexity. Clear as mud, right?
Far from being a perfect implementation of time based retargeting, but its a way to get by using Google until they improve their offering.
Good news on the reduced limit
I am well aware of how all the segmentation rules work but as soon as you add a negative segment because the audience has actually taken a specific action, you can end up with your target group droping below the threshold, and not being able to target those that took action until they reach a critical mass.
e.g.
You can target 150 people (with new limits) but as soon as 51 take action (and get tagged as a negative for the first group) you can't target either group.
What Google (and others) need to do is come up with a way of having a limit based on a complete funnel of logic and ad delivery.
Thanks for the kind words about FetchBack Joanna! Sorry I couldn't give you exact pricing, but we truely are a custom enterprise retargeting solution and we actually do have pricing that's all over the board.
That's also what sets us a part from the pack. We take every customer and their business seriously, getting to understand their goals and situation to price appropriately (no cookie-cutter stuff, that era is over). We also do work with smaller businesses as well, it really just depends on their strategy. Due to our unique approach, creativity, and custom attention, we tend to work with clients who are very serious about a full-sevice retargeting solution rather than something more plug-n-play, but which lacks very important features.
We're definetly doing some amazing things behind the scenes here so definitely keep in touch!
Thanks!
@ryancharleston @fetchback
Joanna,Thanks for the great article. As Mike noted in an earlier comment, Simpli.fi is also in this space. Here is a quick rundown on our capabilities:
Hey Simplifi - thanks for jumping in here and throwing out some reasons to check you guys out. Its great to see you have so many options for management and reporting. Hope to hear more about you in 2012!
Interesting post. I tried retargeting back in 2009 based on users not completing actions. The campaign didn't work as I had hoped. Since that time, we have developed a blog and SM strategy. Am now really interested in trying retargeting to people interested in the blog content to see if the initial brand touch point via SM and the retargeting increase our conversions via SM channels (presently 5% below site average).
Hey Geoff,
Interested in an extended free trial with AdRoll? Check out seomoz.org/pro-perks.
Cheers,
Aaron R.
@AdRoll
Hi Joanna!
Good review. It certainly saves people a lot of time. However, I have few remarks about retargeting market and companies that operates within this market.
In your post “Leveraging your SEO for Search Retargeting” (back in 2011) you asked “what the hell is search retargeting?” and answered “a form of marketing in which you target users who have previously visited your website with banner ads on display networks across the web”. But, this not retargeting, because target (target user-visitor) remains the same. This is just aggressive pursuing target user-visitor across the web to make him “surrender” :) Well, as Confucius said, if names are not right, words are misused. Having said that, I just want to underline the core business of “retargeting” companies, because I suspect that not all SEMs on the field “got it”.
Interesting comment.
The confusion comes from how the term retargeting has come to be understood - not what its original intention was. It is commonly thought of as 'site retargeting' the act of retargeting an indiivual based on their site visit.
Search retargeting is a form of retargeting, but within its broader scope of retargeting an indidivuals intent, in this case the intent expressed through the search.
Excellent post. I've recently brought some clients on board to one of the above companies and it's working out pretty well. I've been interested in trying Chango, but the minimum has kept interest pretty low.
Great exchange below, by the way. I didn't realize these companies had access to Google's inventory as well. That really makes them stand out next to Google's retargeting platform. Thanks for the info!
A great round up of retargetting companies and very much app. at this moment in time.
Great supplier s review. Love the all sides angle and writing style. Actually I love most of what Joanna L. writes, usually very useful stuff.
Is there a company that offers self serve, search (keyword based) retargeting with no minimum spend (or min. monthly spend not higher than $1000/month)?
Hi
This is really useful stuff, We have had some great results in using Remarketing in Google but have seen the CPC of this and our other display networks go up in the last year due to competiton for the space (mainly as more agencies become aware of the success of remarketing).
Has anyone done a similar assessment of the retargeting networks/platforms available in the UK?
cheers Ann
Hi Ann,
Great question! Even though ReTargeter is based in San Francisco, we can (and do!) launch retargeting campaigns in the UK. It doesn't matter where in the world you are, we can still reach your users.
Yours, Caroline
Hey Ann! I don't have much experience doing internationally targeted retargeting buys. We do have friends over at Distilled though (a search marketing agency in London), I'll ping them and see if they can get a post up on how the networks/platforms compare. Great idea!
Hi Ann,
Full disclosure -- I work at AdRoll :)
Google's a great network and we're happy hear you've had success with remarketing. One of the advantages our clients see remarketing across all the major ad networks (Google, AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Microsoft, Adbrite etc) is that they're able to cherry pick the best performing sites from every major inventory source. This reach provides advertisers with more optimization chocies and ultimately helps us lower costs.
With specialized retargeting platforms, you can also experiment with things like time cohort testing, A/B testing, CPC capping, landing page testing, cross-platform frequency capping, time of day targeting and personalized ad creative to really hone your message and be efficient with your budget. The nice thing about AdRoll is we offer a self service interface, we don't require minimums or contracts, the set up is cake (all segmentation is done through one pixel) and every advertiser, regardless of spend, is assigned a dedicated account rep.
In regards to reach, we've intergreated with inventory sources all over the world and have a strong presense in the UK.
Aaron R.
@AdRoll
So which companiesn meet th following criteria?
- Offer Search Retargeting in addition to Site Retargeting & Contextual Targeting
- Charge on a CPC basis
- No minimum spend
- Preferable: Include the Google Network in their inventory
Great article & great information. It's crazy to see how expensive these companies are. Definately not for small budgets. Does anyone have any experience with Goole Remarketing?
To clarify, AdRoll accomodates any size budget. There is no minimum.
We are running an internal test right now with one of our properties on Google Remarketing. Our Paid Search Strategist is planning to post on it, hopefully it won't be too far out!
Curious how this turned out?
I've been working with both Adroll and Google as well.
Merchenta can provide retargeting solutions in the UK on CPA (cost per sale basis) criteria: website must have at least 70k UV's
get in contact if interested.
Thanks
Great article. One of my clients recently went from a $15MM a year company to a $100MM company and I've been considering all the best options for streamlining the retargetting process. This definitely helps. Thanks!
100MM dollars! Whoa. :)
Thanks for the great article and reviews. I didn't know much about retargeting but now I do!
Any other Fetchback clients out here? How's the support? My company has been a client for almost 2 years now and I'm really disappointed.
Not enough transparency for the campaigns and their reporting dashboard has some inconsistencies.