I've wanted to write this post for a couple weeks now, knowing that the topic of retargeting is hot, hot, hot. I noticed that as more marketers hear of retargeting there still seems to be quite a bit of confusion around what it actually is, and how it is different from regular display media buys. This post is meant to help with that confusion and hopefully leave everyone with a solid understanding of retargeting basics as well as some actionable ways you can utilize it. Let's start with some common questions...
So what is retargeting?
How is this different than regular display ad buys?
With retargeting you only target users that have visited your site and already had an experience with your brand. You can choose to target users that went to a specific part of your site, or open it up to your whole site, but either way you are guaranteeing that you only spend ad dollars on people who have previously visited your site. Normal display media buys tend to target users in the first stages of the buying funnel. With those ad buys you are tasked with introducing yourself, establishing trust, branding effectively, etc. all while going after an action.
How is it tracked?
You place a retargeting pixel on either (a) certain sections of your site or (b) across your entire site. As visitors visit the pages you have the pixel on they are added to what is called an "audience." This audience is cookied and as they visit other sites in the display networks you are running retargeting ads on, they are shown your ads. The size of your audience greatly affects the success of your retargeting campaigns. Even if you aren't ready to start testing retargeting, I highly suggest you start building your audience. The larger this qualified group of past visitors, the better!
If a person in your audience converts then a "burn pixel" will fire, which takes them out of the audience. You can also choose to add different pixels if you wish to show converting visitors different ads. You can get quite complex regarding the sequence of pixels you cookie these users with.
You can also control the sites that show your ads, just like on typical display network buys. You can decide that a site isn't cutting it, and cut them from the list. You have quite a bit of control around who sees your ad and who doesn't.
Whether you decide to start out with a smaller audience (maybe you decide to JUST cookie those users that made it a cart page but didn't complete a purchase) or whether you decide to put every possible visitor to your site into the audience, this tracking method is incredibly effective. At SEOmoz we have started passing back a unique conversion ID on our end, as to double and triple check conversions with the agency we are running our retargeting efforts through. This sort of granular tracking can be very powerful, and very robust, as we will explore in greater detail in a bit. Below is an image of the general process:
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* Please note you don't have to be named Casey for retargeting to be effective
How is it measured?
Unlike typical display advertising measurement, retargeting actually gives credit to both click-though, and view-through conversions. Often times if you work with an agency they will report both to you, as well as a total, and you will have to decide how you want to navigate the performance formula.
Click-through conversions are any conversions that happen as a direct result of someone clicking a retargeting ad they were served.
View-through conversions would be like assists. They are conversions that are attributed to another channel (on last click attribution tracking) but these conversions were at one point served a retargeting ad.
As you can imagine there is a lot to be learned about your ads and landing pages as these numbers change in ratio throughout your testing. We were very interested to find that our purely branded ads (just Roger and our logo) were incredibly effective for both buckets. This has helped us optimize our display strategy across the board.
Wait, so what is remarketing?
Google Adwords launched a form of retargeting in their display network about a year ago, and they call it "remarketing," which has caused nothing but confusion for most marketers. So Remarketing is specific to the Google Adwords display network, and Retargeting is the marketing approach behind Remarketing.
** Since Remarketing really is a beast all it's own, I have decided to focus this post on just retargeting. If you want me to write a post on how to set up Remarketing, and how to use it effectively, let me know in the comments below and I'll get on it!
So how can you use retargeting?
Now that you have the gist of how it works, let's talk about practical applications for this marketing channel. The simplest answer to this would be to say that remarketing gets previous visits back to your site. We all know there are lots of conversions that can happen when you get a previous visit to return. Remarketing can be effective at every step of the funnel. You know what? I hate that we always call it a funnel. So today I'm calling it the buying ice cream cone. Retargeting banners can be effective at each step of the buying ice cream cone (see below).
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This is just a taste, the ideas are literally limitless. The truth is retargeting is one of the most effective ways to target a user at a given time with a given message. You know how as a marketer we are always trying to gauge where a user is in the buying funnel so we can better understand if our buys are failing, or if our messages are? Well retargeting takes a lot of the guesswork and replaces it with data and quite a bit of control, its a win-win.
Is this all too good to be true?
Well the short answer is yes. There are quite a few things to keep in mind when testing out retargeting as part of your digital marketing strategy. Here are just a few bigger challenges to keep in mind:
#1 Retargeting is a channel all its own
It is tempting to apply past display ad truths to your retargeting efforts, but this isn't your best decision Retargeting demands unique banner ads, custom landing pages, and ongoing optimization. So unless you have the time to truly research, learn, build-out, and measure another channel, you might want to hold off on retargeting. Like every other marketing opportunity out there, you can lose money if you don't put the time in.
#2 Banners can be more creative, less official
Not sure if "official" is the right word, but banner ads that are a bit more out there have huge potential on retargeting. These ads can be more personal, quirky or humorous. They need to catch a person's eye and trigger a memory of their last visit. Logos and brand names are still important, but retargeting ads are an opportunity to push your creative messaging. This is a chance to tell a story to a user that will continue to see you and interact with your site.
#3 Too much retargeting can work against you
Retargeting specialists believe that having a user see 7 to 12 of your ads in the course of a 30-day period is ideal, but seeing the same ad every time, or seeing more than that can have a negative effect. We learned this the hard way at SEOmoz. I was so excited when we first started running tests that I increased my budget to get some serious volume data, and quickly our help team as well as our Twitter stream was bombarded with users complaining that they were being followed by SEOmoz ads. It was clear that many of them wanted to see less of us on their favorite sites. There is a fine balance between targeting users, and bombarding them, so tread lightly.
#4 Retargeting is a commitment
I already mentioned that it requires a great deal of attention, but retargeting is also most effective after it is up and running for some time. First off, your audience grows larger, which only works to your benefit. Secondly, retargeting specialists agree that three months of seeing about a dozen ad impressions is more effective than just one month. There is a lot of power in staying front of mind. So for those of you all excited about retargeting possibilities, just remember it could take a few months to find your retargeting groove.
Those are the biggest challenges we have faced here at SEOmoz. When we first started testing retargeting we were starry eyed with the initial results, and since then we have continued to be impressed by its performance. However, we have also made a whole lot of mistakes along the way. Our latest mistake was actually firing the conversion pixel on the wrong page (resulting in about 8x more conversions being recorded)-- yeah that really happened. So just keep in mind, this channel isn't a "set it and forget it" answer to your marketing prayers.
Retargeting takeaways
I don't want to scare you off. Retargeting can be incredibly effective for advertisers that put the time in to manage and optimize spend effectively. I should mention that last month alone we saw 4X the number of free trial signups from retargeting than we did from a similar stand-alone site sponsorship. We actually ran identical banner ads for those two buys as well. The differences came in having a prequalified audience, and staying in front of our target audience.
So take it or leave it, but the marketing team over at SEOmoz is definitely excited to play around with retargeting and see how creative we can get with the sequences of our ad buys and landing pages (I hope to get some follow-up posts with case studies for all of you soon enough). The results make it worth the time, and in my opinion, it's like the Wild West in there right now. You don't have to worry about competition like with many other channels, you control every piece of this channel, and you have unlimited options on how to utilize it.
I would love to hear if any of you have been using it, and if so, what are you seeing?
As an added bonus, I thought I'd share my PubCon South Presentation on Retargeting & Remarketing. Here you go friends!
Wow that "Casey" guy sure was excited to find SEOmoz! Great post Joanna it filled with good info for those who are interested in Retargeting... PS. Expect some payback for this! =)
OMG that is just crazy! You look so much like the picture I used for the example ;) wierd...
The photos depicted in this post are fictitious. Any similarity to any person living or abnormally tall is merely coincidental.
And this guy also shares that guy ^ up there's name!
I'm sure I can't be the only person who reacts negatively to such obvious displays of being openly tracked? I find it unplesant, it actually puts me OFF the site that's doing it...
I agree, I remember quickly shopping on a site and then having banner ads from that site coming up all over. It really turned me off the brand and felt intrusive. So, I think all remarketing efforts should be a) minimal and b) like is said in the post, carrying the message further.
You folks are spot on. Over saturating your audience is a risk for sure. One thing to keep in mind is that contextual marketing truly is the direction we are going. As more times are spent on these experience/social sites, more ad placements will pop up, and brands need to find a way to evolve their digital strategies past paid search text ads, and boring display banners wandering the internet on remnant buys. While you might be sensitive as a user to the ads, just remember as an advertiser it could be dangerous to ignore a powerful marketing play that your competitors are surely working in. There will always be pros and cons to buying ads on the internet. If we stay classy, it can certainly work to our benefit and our users.
Yeah - I agree that if the figures show it helps, it shouldn't be ignored. I was mostly surprised to see no one else had mentioned the creepyness
Cookies have been around since the beginning of the internet.
True, but this is just a constant reminder of the fact that you are being tracked and information is being stored about you.
Awesome post, Joanna! I've done retargeting for a few of my clients with great results. My main takeaways:
I'd love to see a second post on retargeting from you Miss Lord - maybe a case study on how you guys are beating the "stalker" objections voiced above? :-)
Aww Yaa! Retargeting/Remarketing has been bringing me plenty of smiles these last few weeks. I'm just getting started, but the results really are impressive. It's a perfect PPC partner with SEO in my opinion.
Quick note: if there's anyone else out there who's thinking about trying Google Remarketing, but has relatively low traffic landing pages or websites, Google does require your remarketing list/audience (# of cookied visitors) to be at least at 500. You may want to go ahead and start building your lists by embedding the tracking code right away while you think about ad creative and landing pages and what not. I was so excited when I built my first "abandoned cart" list, but then I had to wait a couple weeks before that reached 500. heh
Great post Joanna!
You are so right. SEO & Retargeting are a perfect pair. Driving quality traffic to your site organically adds them to your audience, and makes that SEO work even more valuable down the road!
Wow! This opens up an entirely new world for a lot of marketers out there. But what is the life span of a targeted market? In other words, how long do you do your campaign before you get diminishing returns (or even adverse reactions)? Does it depend on the industry, the time of year, the kinds of sites you display the ads?
A simple guide to retargeting might be the best. But this is not exactly the case as people think that this is all that there is for retargeting. And then they miss 90% of the things that they can do (and leaves a great opportunity to the rest of us :D ).
Retargeting / Remarketing is a powerful marketing tool, when used delicately.
I was wondering why I'd started to see SEOmoz display ads...
All makes sense now.
Did you ever write a follow-up post on just remarketing? I'd be interested.
Thanks!
This explains why I thought Roger was following me recently.
I must admit that when I get Ads displayed due to retargeting it is annoying as I have often already purchased the product or service and still see the ads for weeks.
I agree. I'm being followed round by 2 companies at the moment. One being SEOmoz - been a Pro member for months, so please stop following me! The other I am already a customer of too. It's just really annoying and slightly intrusive. I think there should be a way to opt out without dsiabling cookies.
Heather Robinson,
I am new, and this is an old blog. So apologies if this is old hat to you.
Please tell me if I am wrong, but if you look into your cookie folder, then under SEOMOZ you will find they have between four and six cookies - one of these will be the offending one, the tracking cookie.
The other option is to delete the SEOMOZ cookie altogether. Then the next time you log in, let them put a cookie in your browser, but this will only be the cookie to remember your details. It won't be the one that follows you around.
Have a nice weekend! Gem
Yeah I agree that they need to filter out people who have purchased from those who haven't, as much as I love to see Roger following me around! Plus I have seen good old Roger on some slightly dubious sites, like serials.ws which of course I was only on for research purposes...
Hey there! Yeah thanks for letting us know. This is definitely a work in progress for us. We are currently doing an audit of the sites we are showing the most on. It might take a little while before I can get down to those sites we only show a bit on, and get little CTR. Just like display its an ongoing optimization step that will hopefully produce affective results in the end. No one wants to be on any dubious sites though, so thanks for the heads up ;)
AdWords Display allows frequency capping whereby advertisers may limit the number of times a person sees an advert.
I love the SEOmoz fanboy who is thumbsdowning each of the comments that are asking for the ability to opt out of ads if they've already purchased the service. Maturity in its finest form.
Hate to rain on the parade here. Anyone thinking of spending any time looking into remarketing via cookies should really first check out the European Directive on the matter that apparently came into force 25th May 2011. Be careful out there ;)
I've become fasinated with re-targeting for a bit now. I've actually started to pick-up on when a company is using re-targeting on me. As a consumer it is starting to turn me off even though the ads that I keep seeing are for companies that I like. It'll be interesting to see how the balance of "online stalking" plays out. Thanks for the post.
I would love to see a post on Google remarketing!
I would love to see a post on Google remarketing!
Excellent post Joanna! I have known what retargeting is but you provided a lot of relevant info that helps out in my understanding! Thanks for taking the time to write this and including some graphics that make it easy to understand.
I'd love it if the folks at Groupon listened to your third point above, Joanna:
#3 Too much retargeting can work against you
Maybe i'm a psycho web-nut, but I actually don't buy from Groupon for that reason alone.
I actually do believe retargeting makes web advertisements better, in general. If I had to choose between seeing an irrelevant ad or one for a product i'm interested in...well that's an easy decision. But Groupon's ads just feel dirty considering how much they follow me around.
I've also seen blatant re-marketing, and I found it distinctly creepy. Perhaps that's because I spotted it as such, but I think that even the "normal" (non-web savvy) consumer does not want to be chased round by ads for something they might have already dismissed. Stalking like this is possibly going to set a negative brand association rather than a positive one.
Great article Joanna,
Everyone's picking up on the creepy aspect of this which just goes to show how retargeting could become bad marketing and damaging to brands.
With this in mind I'd be interested to know is it generally charged on a Pay Per Click or Cost Per Impression model?
If CPM it will quickly get expensive for those brands that are over doing it, deter them and hopefully improve the web for all, I'm guessing though (due to three retargeting campaigns that have been following relentlessly - not SEOmoz interestingly maybe because I'm in the UK) that it is mostly Pay Per Click.
I would expect that seeing an ad maybe every couple of days isn't going to annoy most people - also is it possible to use a series of ads, maybe in a humourus way so the audience doesn't get the same ad time after time?
Like so many things (everything!) on the internet, this is a new marketing chanel which no one is really expert on yet - it will be interesting to see how it evolves and how clever campaign managers are able to use it to engage their audience not irritate them.
As a sort of visual helper, we actually made an infographic on retargeting: https://www.retargeter.com/infographic/use-retargeting-to-sell-upsell-and-keep-your-brand-top-of-mind
It's more of a high-level explanation on its benefits, as opposed to an in depth analysis of the pros and cons, but it's a fun way to look at it.
Excellent post Joanna! It's really interesting to hear fellow marketers say this is "creepy". It's just cookies.
I personally find direct mail, unwanted phonebooks, and f**king airplanes that fly banners around forcing us to look at advertising much creepier. Targeted, relevant banner ads are just that...targeted and relevant.
And yes, I too have been stalked by Roger. But it's Roger, a benevolent robot.
Hi,
Until seeing your post, I had no idea what does "Retargeting" or "Remarketing" means. Thank you for the great sharing.
What I don't get is that "pixel", what is this actually? You are talking about the banner pixels?
Hi, Does anyone know the difference between "Positive Pixel Tracker" and "Negative Pixel Tracker",
Thanks,
Yes, Joanna, did you ever do a write up on GDN Remarketing? This was useful. I bookmarked it to refer back to it later.
This is a great article. I have found that when you segment using remarketing - the ROI is ridiculous! Awhile ago I did one where if a certain person looked at a product on a page they were basically followed around and "haunted" by that product. Keep up the good work
Thanks for the great post, Joanna.
You mentioned that you would write a post on re-marketing, if there was enough interest. I would be interested in learning about that too.
Nice article Joanna Lord. I am agree on your views about retargeting.
love to read an article about re-marketing!
Great recap of what retargeting is all about. Thanks guys!
Hey excellent post and something we are definately going to try in the future
Nice job with this post. I added the remarketing tags to my site, but wasn't sure what to do next. Great insights. Thanks!
Is there a risk that tactics such as remarketing could prove to be the devil in disguise for Internet Marketing? Are we getting too greedy in our desire to track and manipulate behaviour online? Is it possible that too many more initiatives like remarketing, or controversies such as Google Buzz - developments that stretch users' tolerance around the issue of privacy - could yet have a detrimental impact upon our industry? What would the impact upon web analytics be if multiple users started embracing plug-ins like Google's new privacy plug-in for Chrome? Whilst here in the UK we have yet to discover what the imminent EU e-Privacy Directive will mean for cookie usage. I'm really not sure of the wisdom of using remarketing, even whilst I can see the benefit purely in terms of paid advertising. Disregarding privacy could yet be a controversy that we in the Internet Marketing sector come to regret.
Is it possible to disguise the retargeting pixel? I have been tasked to find a way to make that happen, so that the pixel doesn't show a retargeting company in it, but instead shows one of our domains.
It is a longshot to ask here, but perhaps someone will have figured out how to do that!
Thanks!
--Yosa
https://www.yosa.com
Wow man.. this is extremely helpful... 1 year experience in using adwords, never ever stumbled upon the word "remarketing" and what it is for untill now... thanks man :D
What a great article, I have noticed this becoming much more popular. Most places I have seen use it have run into the #3 challenge of being everywhere and it becomes a nuisance. If you can find the perfect balance, it seems to be a fantastic tool!
I am probably taking a different line with this than others. Certainly with a lot of the privacy concerns over here in Europe, I am using the technique - but incredibly softly.
My aim is to gently reinforce brand identity in the user's mind, as opposed to force products at them. Then again, my site is not monetized. If I reinforce the brand and it has offline benefits, happy days. I'm actually not overly-concerned if it drives traffic to the site.
Well that explains why Roger has been following me around the Internet too! It's an interesting concept and I suspect no matter how annoying it is websites will use it as long as it works - and it seems to work - but I also find it kind of annoying. It's not so bad for us techie types who aren't as ignorant about the ways our Internet activity can be recorded, but it may be more unsettling for the regular folks as it "gives away" some of the secret, powerful stuff we can do! There's still a vague unhealthy "fear of cookies" out there in some corners of the Web, and now there's a growing support for so-called "Do Not Track" mechanisms that, if taken too far, could in some ways limit the ability of websites to reach and interact with customers. There's some uneasy stew brewing these days and I don't see "retargeting" doing anything to cool it down!
Great post.
I do think putting a frequency cap on your retargeting campaigns is essential.
I'm being stalked by Fuze Meeting because I used the service. I mean really stalked. Hundreds of impressions.
All are wasted because I'm already a Fuze customer.
But even more annoying: they retarget everyone who attends one of our Fuze meetings. So our clients are being stalked just because they attend a Velocity meeting using Fuze.
Done badly, retargeting will create a backlash. It might even lead to legislation that makes cookies opt-in only. That would kill the gollden goose of onine advertising. So please: use but don't abuse retargeting!
Great post, Joanna. I'm just getting into PPC/SEM (other than SEO), so it'll be a while until I get to this, but it's great info to know, AND now I know why Roger, Backcountry.com, and others are stalking me around the Interwebs.
Also, thanks for explaining the levels of targeting. I see it gets complex, but could also be very effective! Do you have any information about costs? Ie, if you want to start retargeting visitors, but the boss wants to know what the ROI could be, what should we tell them?
This is an interesting topic and something I would like to try in the future.
I would like to find out what proportion of users see this as virtual stalking and who convert after being reminded of a site or service they have visited previously
Hi Joanna, great post from you - thanks! I´ve been doing remarketing for some of my clients as well and find, that it also has a great branding effect, especially in niches, where people don´t "know", that they are being retargeted, but think, that the brand actually advertises on big websites.
And YES - please do write another post on remarketing - I would really like to hear more from you about this subject!
Thanks & Greets from Berlin, Christian
So THIS is the solution! The last weeks I saw that SEOmoz banner several times. If I surfed on US websites it was not "suspect" to me - but if I even saw the banner on some German/Austrian websites I was astonished.
You definetifely learnt me something!
Now I just have to find a way of taking this to market with my very small audience. But yeah, this would work in a lot of industries, including home improvement.
We've used remarketing/targeting and found it to be very successful. It's definitely something people are getting excited about these days and it's great to see a post on SEOmoz about it. - Jenni
I think retargeting is an amazing way to reach back to advertisers in order to increase conversions and click throughs but if you are a brand that is not that big I think it might freak some of the traffic out?
I first heard of this a few years back, but I couldn't find any examples of it in-use at the time.
Lately, I've seen it everywhere.
And it works! I recently joined the rest of the world in falling in love with Zappos, for example. Display ads with shoes/sneakers specifically selected for me actually break through banner blindness. For the first time in 10+ years I find myself actually clicking banner ads.
Of course, just a matter of time before we ignore these too. But for now, nifty and useful.
Great post Joanna.
I like many other posters have reacted negatively to seeing these 'retargeted' ads. Personally I think it could be a great tool, if used effectively and in moderation. Part of this is, I believe, waiting some time before displaying the ads. I don't appreciate navigating away from a site only to have it staring me in the face again minutes later - but if the ad reminded me of something I hadn't looked at in a while my reaction would likely be more positive.
Hi!
I would love to read your post on "how to set up Remarketing" ...
;-)
Nic0711
Never knew the concept of retargeting, the article explained it really well. The image of Ice-cream, was the perfect example that I associate with the concept of retargeting.
Great post Joanna! We have been using Google's Remarketing for a few months now and the results are slowly becoming fantastic!
You're dead-on about giving the campaigns some time. When we first started it was costly and slow and I was getting frustrated with the whole ordeal, but now it is one of our better performing campaigns...my biggest advice is to constantly test and as you said, definitely find out where you are getting your traffic from and how those pages are performing.
That being said I would love to see a post on Remarketing. I think for most readers it is the easiest and most cost-effective way to get into the field.
Does anyone have any small business case studies to share? I appreciate the earlier comment about needing a list of 500 before one starts with Google remarketing. Are there vendors who are interested in working with small businesses on retargeting campaigns?
And me that I was thinking that Roger was so loving me to follow me everywhere! :)
Jokes apart, thank you Joanna for this post. Retargeting surely isn't one of the online marketing tactics I know so well, and your post helped me clear many doubts I had about it.
You made me want to experiment retargeting with my site. I think this is the best compliment I can tell you... Ah, and the usual hugs :)
I love the constant reminder that everything I do on the internet is tracked.
Having said that, this *is* a great tool from a marketing perspective.
Great article. I just wrote an article about retargeting as well just last week. Yours was much more indepth, however, I did include a write up on the 'search retargeting' as i'm seeing that solution being used more by marketers.
For those interested, the link is below.
https://theinternetvision.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51049:what-is-search-retargeting-&catid=27:display-advertising&Itemid=11
I've noticed "retargeting" being used quite aggressively on some sites I've only visited once or twice. Shopify have raped me with banners on practically every banner-displaying site I use regularly. Worse, SEOmoz... you guys *know* I'm a PRO member. You *know* I visit the land of Moz everyday to read y'all blog, and use your tools find reference materials - whatever! Please, stop stalking me :(
We hear ya. I actually went in about two weeks ago and pulled back on the spend and added some constraints to "truly" burn PRO members. The hard part for us is we are working hard on getting Roger front of mind (as many of our PRO members still think of us as the starburst logo) and we want to make sure PRO members are experiementing will all PRO has to offer.
We are thinking in the future of having a retargeting campaign just for PRO members that introduces new features and new resources in banner ads, it will be interesting to see how PRO members react to that ;)
Last night I was introduced to Marin Software for PPC campaigns.
It has a section about retargeting, is it the same you are talking about?
Then they would be offering something like https://www.retargeter.com/ as part of their software.
Regards
Gustavo
Hey Gustavo!
You are correct, they are the same thing. We actually work through Retargeter as well. They are very well known in the retargeting space. You will see more and more PPC dashboards building in the ability to manage retargeting in their platform as this makes intuitive sense. I'm excited to see this happen for sure :)
I have read a few articles on retargeting but I believe your article explains the concept better. Thanks for posting it ;)
Joanna -
This is awesome! You go into great depth within the technology and seem to have covered most of the talking points.
- Samir
This is a great follow up for me. I just read an article in AdAge about this.
Good post I agree re targeting is super hot at the moment and has been for a while, I have seen a few google presentations on it ;) I like your post better =)