What is Remarketing?

While the term “Remarketing” may currently be a buzzword in web marketing circles, it has been around a long time. In a traditional marketing sense, it refers to the rebranding of a product that has gone through a decline or has disappeared altogether. The goal is to jump-start demand and give it a fresh new vibe and energy. However, when someone mentions Remarketing now, they are most likely referring to Google’s new Adwords feature. So what is this new feature? Basically Remarketing or “ad retargeting” allows an AdWords user to connect with users based on past interactions with your website as they surf sites within the Google Content Network. Remarketing allows you to communicate with potential customers who’ve previously visited key pages on your website, providing another avenue to reconnect with people who showed interest in your products or services in the past. This feature – that can be accessed through the “Audiences” tab in AdWords – displays which products the user looked at as well as insights into behavior as to why a potential buyer failed to follow through with the purchase.

Example of Remarketing & Key Benefit

Say you have a company that sells baseball jerseys and you implement a new promotion as Spring Training is about to begin and there is a renewed sense excitement. Every team still has a chance and fans are eager to sport the jersey of their favorite player. Potential buyers may visit your website, browse the different products, and ponder which jersey they want to wear for the upcoming season. However, once they are about to break out their wallet and complete the purchase, they decide to try and find the product they selected for a lower price elsewhere and leave your site. Normally, the potential buyer would be gone forever, but with the Remarketing feature you will have the opportunity to reconnect with that individual. By utilizing cookies, you can remind them of your jersey when they are browsing sites on the Google Content Network. The main benefit for smaller business is that it allows you to target limited Adwords dollars towards users who have actually shown an interest in your product.

A Drawback of Remarketing

While Remarketing is great, it has a big drawback as well. Simply put, it can be annoying, as you’re surfing sites in the Google Content Network, you could potentially be bombarded with same ad over and over again because you visited a particular site. For example, I work in internet marketing and web design. Part of my job is to see what my competitors are doing, so I visit their sites on a regular basis to see what they are up too. Now, I also have a social life, and when I am outside of the office I sometimes use the same computer for personal use. So, when I am browsing different sites I see my competitor’s ads over and over and over again, and I find it a little aggravating. If I was considering using that company for my web design, I would seriously have to reconsider using them because of my heightened annoyance level. (Kind of like the State Farm guy, he is everywhere and I have grown to hate him, but that is for another time). All in all,Remarketing is a very useful practice for small to medium sized businesses. While it can be annoying to some, it’s provides an opportunity to keep your brand and products in front of an audience that has already showed interest in what you offer. Remarketing is a powerful feature allowing you get the most out of your AdWords account and internet marketing budget.

Tags: Digital Marketing