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Effective Retargeting Tactics

I’ve been doing online marketing for over a decade. The changes that have been made in targeting over that period of time has been amazing. The costs associated with demographic bidding tactics has gone from being expensive to nearly free (Google AdWords) in the past few years. Ad networks are offering more and more targeting abilities. It seems as if a new company comes up with a new idea on a daily basis.

The recent hot topic in marketing has been retargeting. Google recently pulled their retargeting offering out of beta and available in all accounts. While retargeting is an effective advertising method, there are a few things you can do to make it even more effective.

Add cookies to different pages on your website and target those visitors in a unique manner. A person who hits an informational page should be retargeted differently than a visitor who was in your checkout process and left your website. There shouldn’t be just one banner ad for all retargeted users. The creatives should be unique for each tactic.

The NHL does an AMAZING job reatargeting visitors to their ecommerce section. I visited the site and was looking around at some items I was interested in. I left the website without buying and a few clicks later I saw this ad.

retargeting banners

The item shown was the exact item I was looking at. The NHL attempts to grab visitors who were looking at specific products and send them back to the site by showing an item the visitor was looking at as well as offering a discount. I spoke with a few people involved in the retargeting process at the NHL and they indicated that the tactic was amazingly successful.

Retargeting is a great tactic, and if the time is taken to implement properly, can increase sales and even provide a better ROI on paid search, or other online marketing tactics. For example, if a visitor came to the site via a paid search ad, then left, the retargeting could entice that user to return a few days later. This allows that paid search click to have even more value even if the sale didn’t occur to much later.

Think of your retargeting as a key element of your online marketing and not as an add-on.

  • http://twitter.com/KarlSakas Karl Sakas

    I agree that segmented retargeting can really help sales (or other business goals). But it needs to be nuanced — like the targeted NHL banner ad you saw, rather than, say, “Hey Dan, you didn't buy that such-and-such. If you reconsider, we'll even give you 20% off if you buy it right now.”

    A key part of execution — whether it's retargeting for paid search, email marketing, or shopping cart abandonment — is to avoid coming across as creepy or Big Brother-ish. Non-marketers may be less open to poorly-executed retargeting followups.

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    The more targeted an ad is, the better chance of success. The NHL does it right due to 1. the ad features a product I actually looked at & 2. it has an incentive for me to come back.

    Email remarketing is great, but the frequency of emails is an art.Too much and hello spam folder.

  • http://twitter.com/wineaccguy Joshua S. Sweeney

    This is a concept that, in my infant stages of marketing, I hadn't even thought to address yet. I'd be interested to see how I can eventually incorporate this strategy into my campaigns… once I actually, you know, get into hardcore advertising. Very cool the way the NHL is addressing bouncing customers, though. Seems like they're starting to figure out this whole 21st century thing, eh?

  • samirsoriano

    Great article — ReTargeting definitely increases the value of the traffic that you're already driving to your site. Companies like ReTargeter can show ads on effectively 98% of ad inventory out there, keeping your brand in front of your audience as they visit other websites.

    Want to know another creative way to use the technology?

    Pixeling people from emails allows you to serve ads only to people who have opened your emails — great for email marketing.

    I wrote a pretty comprehensive article that explains the technology, check it out here: http://www.retargeter.com/what-is-retargeting-a...

    Great article again – the NHL's use of ReTargeting is definitely very smart, and seems like an awesome way to combat shopping cart abandonment.

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Thanks for the comment. I'll overlook the blog spam this time.

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Thanks for the comment! Definitely try it, as it can be very successful!

  • samirsoriano

    Sorry Dan, I figured that email pixeling would be of interest to you.
    Best.

  • http://twitter.com/KarlSakas Karl Sakas

    LOL. It's sort of… “relevant comment spam.”

  • http://www.jefftippett.com Jeff Tippett

    Dan,

    Thanks for the post. Just began my quest to use Retargeting. Expect some DMs with tons of questions. You are truly the online marketing guru. Thanks again.

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Thanks for the kind words!

  • http://www.jefftippett.com Jeff Tippett

    Dan, nnThanks for the post. Just began my quest to use Retargeting. Expect some DMs with tons of questions. You are truly the online marketing guru. Thanks again.

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Thanks for the kind words!

  • http://twitter.com/jbreinlinger jbreinlinger

    @Karl – totally agree about avoiding being creepy. It's a fine line. There's no question that segmented ads (based on what a user looked at) work way better than just general ads. And custom landing pages that say things like “welcome back, we missed you” also work well. I think it gets creepy when you:

    a) Set a ridiculously high frequency cap and show ads to every previous visitor 20 times per day.

    b) Show the exact product and only the exact product. Product recommendation engines are really good, and you could show a few recommended products.

    c) Have ads showing up immediately after the user leaves the website (give them a day to think it over first)

  • http://twitter.com/jbreinlinger jbreinlinger

    @Karl – totally agree about avoiding being creepy. It’s a fine line. There’s no question that segmented ads (based on what a user looked at) work way better than just general ads. And custom landing pages that say things like “welcome back, we missed you” also work well. I think it gets creepy when you: nna) Set a ridiculously high frequency cap and show ads to every previous visitor 20 times per day. nnb) Show the exact product and only the exact product. Product recommendation engines are really good, and you could show a few recommended products.nnc) Have ads showing up immediately after the user leaves the website (give them a day to think it over first)

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Great comments.

    The frequency cap is a must for a proper campaign. Anything more than 2-3 is a waste.

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Great comments. nnThe frequency cap is a must for a proper campaign. Anything more than 2-3 is a waste.n

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Great comments. nnThe frequency cap is a must for a proper campaign. Anything more than 2-3 is a waste.n

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Great comments. nnThe frequency cap is a must for a proper campaign. Anything more than 2-3 is a waste.n

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Great comments. nnThe frequency cap is a must for a proper campaign. Anything more than 2-3 is a waste.n

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Great comments. nnThe frequency cap is a must for a proper campaign. Anything more than 2-3 is a waste.n

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Great comments. nnThe frequency cap is a must for a proper campaign. Anything more than 2-3 is a waste.n

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Great comments. nnThe frequency cap is a must for a proper campaign. Anything more than 2-3 is a waste.n

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Great comments. nnThe frequency cap is a must for a proper campaign. Anything more than 2-3 is a waste.n

  • http://www.dan-london.com Dan London

    Great comments. nnThe frequency cap is a must for a proper campaign. Anything more than 2-3 is a waste.n

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