How Does Remarketing Work? Sit Down, Have a Cookie

A whopping 96% of people will leave your site without purchasing. But with remarketing, you can reconnect with them, remind them of your products, and encourage them to come back to your site to buy. Want to know more about how remarketing works and what it can do for you?

Keep reading or give our remarketing agency a call at 888-601-5359.

What is remarketing?

Remarking, also called retargeting, is a marketing strategy that uses personalized ad campaigns targeted to consumers who have shown previous interest in your brand. This typically means that they have visited your site at some point, but it can also include other actions, such as interacting with one of your ads. Check out this hypothetical example for an insider look at what remarketing is, how remarketing works, and why your business should use it. The other day, you broke your laptop screen.

Cracked it right in half when you accidentally stepped on it. You start researching new laptops — and then you see laptop ads everywhere! On Facebook, on Google, on that matching game you play on your phone.

Is someone stalking you? No, no one’s stalking you, but those laptop sites you looked at remember you — and they want you to come back to purchase. It’s all part of a remarketing strategy, and it’s incredibly useful for businesses in any industry.

With ads generated specifically for people who have previously browsed products or services, your company’s marketing team can expand your reach and increase conversions and sales.

SEE RETARGETING EXAMPLES IN ACTION!

How does remarketing work?

Remarketing works like this:

1. A visitor clicks to your website, browses, then leaves
2. They browse other sites
3. On those sites, they see ads from your retargeting campaign
4. They’re reminded of your site
5. They go back to your site to complete a purchase

  Crazy idea, I know. But you’ve been to sites with popups like this, right?     This little popup is, of course, asking to set cookies on users’ browsers.

What are cookies? They’re little snippets of code that track where the user goes and what they do online. And if you add the snippets of code to your site, you can remarket to anyone who visits your pages.

The way to begin your remarketing or retargeting campaign is simple.

1. Create a Google Ads account
2. Generate a Google remarketing code (also called a tag or pixel) and add it to your page’s code
3. Create a segmented remarketing list (including your current customers)
4. Launch a new remarketing campaign with tailored ads for your segmented list

Why use remarketing?

Come to the retargeting side. We have cookies. All jokes aside, though, the benefits of remarketing are much more tempting than a plate of cookies.

Retargeting lets you stay connected and build relationships with your audience — even after they leave your site. More brand exposure generates more trust in the brand because if you’re seeing something everywhere, it must be important, prominent, and credible as well. Of course, there are other factors such as reviews that are needed to truly build credibility, but every time they see one of your ads, your audience will start to naturally gain trust in your brand.

That’s how the human mind works, after all.     More importantly, remarketing gives your audience a second chance — or third or fourth or however many chances — to convert. Remarketing allows you to target everyone in the sales funnel, slowly leading them down to convert.

It brings them back to your sales funnel every time they leave it, which is why remarketing has such a high return on investment (ROI). In summary, remarketing increases brand awareness which increases trust which increases conversion and revenue, and your loyalty, which is what makes remarketing worth every penny.

Types of remarketing

There are several types of remarketing, depending on the type of format and platform of ads that you show to people who have been to your site.

• Display remarketing: Shows display ads on the more than 2 million sites that are a part of Google’s Display Network.
• Dynamic remarketing: Shows ads of the products or services that users last viewed on your site or app.
• Mobile app remarketing: Shows ads only on mobile apps and mobile websites.
• Search remarketing: Shows text ads at the top of the search pages to people looking for relevant information on search engines.
• Video remarketing: Shows video ads on YouTube or other sites to people who have interacted with your videos or YouTube or channel.
• Social media remarketing: Shows ads on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
• Distribution list remarketing: Shows ads to emails on a specific list, such as those who sign up for an email newsletter.
• Customer list remarketing: Shows ads to previous customers on lists that can be uploaded to Google Ads or social media marketing platforms.

How do you test remarketing ads?

Testing the ads in your retargeting campaign is what lets you know if the campaign working. By testing your ads, you can figure out what’s working well and what’s not.

What remarketing elements can you test?

Here are some common ad elements you can test to drive better-remarketing results.

• Ad platforms: Are your users on Facebook, Instagram, or some other platform?
• Ad timing: When are target customers most likely to see your ads?
• Ad types and sizes: Do display ads or video ads work better for your business?

It’s a lengthy process, but well worth it because testing is how you optimize your ads for your remarketing audience’s likes and preferences. You’ll know precisely what they want to see, as well as when, where, how, and why they want to see it. If ad cost for a platform is higher than the conversions justify, stop, and re-evaluate.

Testing allows you to find exactly where your target market lives online, where they browse, and when they browse.

How A/B testing works for remarketing ads

The most common method of testing is A/B testing. Here’s how it works.

1. Create two identical ads: A and B
2. Add one measurable difference to ad B (maybe the size of the ad or what time it is shown)
3. Evaluate the performance of both ads to determine a winner

You didn’t think you’d be a scientist in remarketing, did you? Well, there are plenty of benefits to turning into a scientist for your remarketing campaign. This process of showing duplicating ads with measurable differences to your remarketing audience allows you to fine-tune each ad in your ad campaign directly to the needs and preferences of your remarketing audience.

Because you tested your remarketing ads, you’ll know what works for your audience inside and out. Once you know what makes them tick, what makes them buy, you’ll better understand the needs of your customers so that you can create personalized ads that drive conversions.

Ready to get started on a remarketing campaign?

Want to try your hand at remarketing, but wondering how much remarketing should cost you? Check out our Google remarketing price guide.

Want some help managing your remarketing campaign or not sure how to go about it? With over 650 paid ad campaigns managed and over 500dedicated PPC strategists, WebFX is a great choice to partner with as you start remarketing strategy!     Contact us online or call us at 888-601-5359 to boost conversions with remarketing!