Google Remarketing: Understanding the Basics
Sometimes referred to as retargeting, remarketing is an excellent way of increasing conversion rates and your return on investment (ROI). The reason for this is that previous visitors to your site who already have some experience of your brand are far more likely to carry out a transaction by returning to your site.
The methods behind Google remarketing
If you’re already carrying out Google advertising, all that’s required is adding some Google remarketing code to your website. This code is often referred to as a ‘tag’ or ‘pixel’. This means that anyone visiting your site will be included in your remarketing audience by means of browser cookies. Moreover, this code is customisable for different pages to suit more specific categories on your site.
Imagine, for example, that you have an e-commerce business where you sell pet products. You can then create a remarketing audience based on ‘dog harnesses’ targeting those who’ve visited your site or page that features dog harnesses. This is how you can show specific visitors highly relevant display ads to successfully market your dog harnesses. It’s already clear that these customers are interested in your products and, by remarketing, you’re using the opportunity to re-engage with them, possibly involving an offer such as ‘free delivery’ to capture their attention.
Precision targeting of customers
Google’s recommendation is that, when launching your first remarketing campaign, you should start by targeting all visitors to your homepage. It’s important to remember that this will increase the costs of your Google remarketing campaign because your ads are being retargeted to a wider audience. In this way, you won’t be able to create ads that target specific individuals. Targeting with higher precision means that you can increase the relevancy of your advertising and reduce your cost per click.
Then, you can go on to build different Google remarketing lists to ‘super-target’ your remarketing campaigns. So, for example, show customers who’ve already made a purchase from your store different ads to those shown to visitors who haven’t yet made a purchase. You could offer existing customers the chance to get 30% off their second purchase, for example.
Why is remarketing useful? The benefits of Google ad retargeting
Google ad retargeting is a highly effective marketing method, allowing you to stay in touch with your targeted audience, even when they’ve already left your site.
Showing visitors your display remarketing banner ads while they’re browsing other websites and pages gives your brand valuable exposure, raising your profile in terms of your targeted audience. This builds trust and encourages users to make a purchase from your store or engage with your site in a way that brings you value.
Remarketing ads benefit from far higher click-through rates. This leads to better conversion rates compared to the usual display ads. In fact, evidence points to previous site visitors clicking on ads 2-3 times more than new visitors.
Also, Google remarketing ads become more effective with a higher number of impressions, and what’s known as ‘ad fatigue’ (when customers start to ignore ads they see too often and these ads are then ineffective) is far reduced in comparison to typical display ads.
Your conversion rates will be even better if you implement remarketing campaigns alongside additional methods of targeting customers, for example, targeting according to demographics.
However, it’s important to remember that users can opt out at any time if they don’t want to see your retargeting ads. All they need to do is simply adjust their settings according to terms and conditions of AdChoices.
The costs of Google remarketing
The costs for running Google remarketing campaigns will depend on the way in which your campaigns are integrated within your overall online marketing strategy. On the whole, Google remarketing ads are among the most cost-efficient ad campaigns at the fingertips of online advertisers.
Remarketing clicks compared to search clicks
Based on a per-click cost, remarketing ads cost very little. In highly competitive fields, search ads can cost several GBP per click. Indeed, some keywords can work out to be very expensive. By contrast, display and social remarketing ad clicks can be significantly less, with the range anywhere from 2-100 times less expensive.
In order to keep costs to a minimum, you can implement a Google remarketing campaign along with contextual targeting, conversion filtering, frequency caps and wider strategies to save on costs. Doing so will mean your advertising will be highly targeted, with increased relevancy for your ads. Therefore, users who are more likely to click and convert will be see your ads.
Banner ads as part of Google AdWords remarketing
When remarketing on the Google Display Network, you have the opportunity to create display ads with text, videos, images, or rich media. If you need assistance in creating custom Google remarketing banner ads, the Google Display Ad Builder is free for you to use. This offers various ready-made templates, which you can customise to suit your brand, choosing from different sizes and formats of banner ads.
In summary, remarketing allows you to show Google ads to users who’ve visited your site previously at the time they’re browsing the many Google partner sites throughout the Google Display Network. Remarketing is a powerful method of targeting customers, allowing you to tailor your ads and the price you pay to a very specific audience and leading to a rewarding ROI.
