What is Remarketing?
When consumers visit a website or mobile app, third-party marketing tags or cookies can capture their visit and “Remarketing ads” allow businesses to strategically position ads in front of these audiences as they browse further. Through platforms like Facebook, Google or Bing ads, you can use remarketing ads to remind those audiences of their interest. Remarketing generally works on a pay-per-click (PPC) model.
This is a common practice for retail brands. For example, retailers can target people who added items to their shopping carts but perhaps got distracted and did not complete their purchase. Many consumers, however, don’t like the feeling of being stalked as they browse – only 25% of online viewers report enjoying seeing remarketing ads. So while technology allows us to easily automate remarketing ads, it’s important staff consider the role remarketing can have in their overall strategy.
Rethinking remarketing during the pandemic
The pandemic has changed what consumers are searching for online, their attitudes, and their shopping behaviours. Marketing teams are struggling to adapt to these changes and the constant changes to their marketing communications, often while also managing shrinking budgets. When remarketing advertising is done well, it can give firms another chance to meet a visitor’s specific need or highlight changes brought about by the pandemic. For example, if your team has had to cancel an event due to the pandemic, they will have reached out to ticket holders with this news, but then perhaps adapted their marketing to share content from past events and/or give attendees a place to connect online via social media. Remarketing ads can be used to find people who visited the event page in order to advertise to them on Facebook for example. But what about new visitors / potential attendees who visited the website afterwards? Teams likely put a lot of effort into the event marketing plans and it will be important to continue to keep in contact with both past and future attendees while everything is up in the air. They can engage attendees with a survey to gather additional input into future events, invite them to sign up for an e-newsletter or even invite them to an online auction of donated items to raise money for a local charity struggling due to the pandemic.
Remarketing ads are also key for helping engage customers in new interests or getting them to explore new content. Statistics show that the click-thru-rate of a remarketing ad is 10X higher than that of a typical paid search ad. As a result, organizations in other industries are now using this marketing strategy to increase brand awareness, drive traffic back to key websites or even to reach followers on social media platforms. So consider remarketing as part of your broader brand marketing strategy. How can you engage people who visit your website homepage? Interest them in your Facebook page (or vice versa)? Is it a great way to promote job postings if you are hiring? Highlight a wonderful customer review / rating? A customer/donor testimonial? A recent award or other industry recognition? Getting in front of brand influencers with content? To promote a new blog post, webinar or video? Trial a new service offering?
Remarketing ads can be automated in Google Ads, Facebook Ads etc. and help save teams valuable time. Remember, you don’t want your audience to see the same remarketing ad 5 – 6 times if it will annoy vs. engage so teams will need to set caps on the frequency or diversify the content audiences will see. And you can also use “negative lists” to block certain audiences from seeing these ads (e.g. avoid paying for staff who click on ads, audiences outside your geographic area or audiences younger than 18 yrs. of age for example, who may not fit your target audience profile).
Why websites have annoying messages about cookies
– and why you may need to update your privacy policy before remarketing
Changes to privacy laws, such as the EU’s GDPR or Canada’s CASL, mean companies have to obtain explicit consent to collect consumer data. If a cookie can identify you via your device, then companies need consent. With changes to privacy best-practices, many predict cookies will be phased out by 2022 so experimenting and automating some targeted remarketing efforts can greatly help a pandemic marketing plan while the technology enables. Browsers like Chrome and Safari have already begun blocking cookies that are not HTTPS secure websites. It’s key that all websites have a clear privacy policy that outlines what and how information is collected.
First party cookies = created by a website’s owner or publisher and privacy policies generally note they are used for analytics and to ensure the website offers the best possible experience to visitors.
Secure logins = when consumers log into a platform with a unique user ID and password. These IDs can track users across several devices (e.g. desktop, mobile phone, etc.) and across connected platforms (e.g. you use your Google or Facebook ID to login to other sites).
Third-party cookies = cookies created by domains other than the one the visitor is using at the time and are mainly related to tracking and/or advertising purposes. They can also be related to plug-ins such as live chat services or social media buttons / plug ins.