Remarketing ads can be an essential part of an advertisers marketing strategy and it’s a great way to win businesses that might have previously been lost. However, it’s something that is often overlooked or mismanaged.
We have all been remarketed to in the past through advertisement that pops up several times. Some say the remarketing ads has to be viewed three times, while others suggest it’s seven times before they have any impact. Remarketing ads can sometimes be annoying, and other times a great advert can grab your attention and lead you to make a decision.
So how do we ensure that we win businesses from remarketing ads? We’ve split this into three key areas that you need to consider when building a remarketing ad campaign.
Strategy & Approach
The first thing to consider is who to retarget? This is generally led by what you want a visitor to complete when they go on your website. An example of this could be the act of buying something or filling out a contact form.
A common mistake that we have seen from remarketing ad campaigns is retargeting anyone who has visited the website. The problem here is that just because someone has visited a website, it doesn’t mean they are necessarily interested in the product or service.
To understand customers better, build lists based on different onsite behaviour. This can be created from the time spent on the website, how many people visited the top pages, or who got to the checkout and didn’t complete a purchase.
Secondly, set a duration for visitors on the list based on your product service. For example, buying stationery is a quick purchase, so you might only want to remarket for a short time to customers, whereas a car purchase requires more time and research before purchasing, so the list duration can be set for longer.
Lastly, think about the product and service you are selling. How likely will someone buy or contact you on their first visit, or the second or even the third visit? You can use remarketing to nurture a visitor across various touchpoints to eventually convert by guiding visitors back to key areas of your site. This can help them decide whether you are the right company for them, before driving them to a conversion-focused page.
Ads
Once you have built you lists and planned out your strategy, the next step is to create ads. The strategy and lists will help you to build the correct messaging – always remember to match the message in the based-on list you are using.
Use company logos so the brand resonates with people seeing the ads. Also, have a clear call-to-action in the advert of what you want that visitor to do when they go back to the website.
Outside of the messaging, try to make the ads as engaging as possible. These days people are used to seeing ads, so a static display banner doesn’t always cut it. If you have access to a great designer, think about using HTML5 banners, they can look almost video-like or you can look at using high format ads where users can engage with the advert by watching a video or even playing a game.
We appreciate that some of the high formats and HTML5 might not be possible, so if you create static banners, just focus on the messaging and imagery to grab attention.
Brand Protection
There’s nothing worse than being followed around by an advert, seeing it several times each day. It’s possible to over-remarket to users, to the point where some people just won’t go back to your site as the ads could come across intrusive.
To combat this, set up frequency capping in your campaign settings. This will serve fewer impressions and drive less clicks but it will help deliver better quality visitors.
Apply a list of sites that you don’t want your ads to appear on. This will help protect your brand from being associated with sites or content that show harmful content. In Google’s remarketing campaigns, you can exclude from different content groups that are inappropriate and sensitive.
Key Takeaways
No matter what industry you’re in, careful planning and having a strategy in place are key when it comes to remarketing your ad campaigns. Create engaging ads with messaging that will relate to past visitors’ onsite behaviour and don’t serve you ads too many times to people – they will get fed up!
If you want to know more about how we manage remarketing or any other PPC activity at Passion Digital, get in touch with us.