Is Remarketing Right For My Business?

The answer is mostly yes. The real question is how to remarket and on what channels to remarketing on. To save a little time for those who can’t, that’s the first topic I’ll cover. I’ll then move on to who shouldn’t do remarketing and what makes remarketing a fantastic tool for most businesses.

Who Can’t do Remarketing?

Can you image the problems it may cause if unbeknownst to you, your partner was looking at divorce websites and what tipped you off was when using the computer all you saw was divorce ads?

While there are some networks that allow for this sort of advertising (because they’ll take any ad revenue they can), the Google’s and Facebook’s of the world of remarketing guidelines.

The rule of thumb is that anything that would indicate personal hardships, identity & belief, or sexual interests.

That’s why you won’t see the divorce lawyer remarketing, the plastic surgeon or a solicitation for those that have bad credit. Of course, you can advertise those services, just not on Google and Facebook’s platforms (which are most common).

Who Shouldn’t do Remarketing?

If you offer the kind of service no one takes time to think about to make a decision or the kind of service people don’t want to think about, then remarketing may not be ideal for you.

A funeral home may not want to remarket because it can certainly be distasteful.

A plumber may not want to remarket because when things go wrong, people go to Google.

An appliance repair company may not want to remarketing because you’ll either want to fix your problem or you won’t.

A counter argument can be made that by remarketing is a top of the sales funnel marketing activity and that on-going advertising will lead to brand name recognition, business and referrals. It’s a tough case for a plumber to make unless they’re national. After all, when something goes wrong I’m likely to think Roto Rooter or Mr. Rooter because they’ve been around and advertising for so long. That said, I’ll still probably go to Google and look up my options along with their reviews.

Aside from this, remarketing is a fantastic tool!

Another word for remarketing that is fairly common is ‘retargeting’. The idea here is that your advertising has interacted with a website visitor once and the idea is to get in front of them again with a new offer, a new message or when the timing may be right for them.

The most common way we are familiar with remarketing is when we have been to a website and soon after we see their banners on other websites we visit. This happens when a cookie is placed on your browser and the advertising platform present on the site you visits recognizes you may have an affinity for those ads of websites you’ve already visited. In an ideal world this results in:

1. Better ads being served to you that are more relevant and as a result…
2. A better click through rate for the site that get advertising revenue…

Remarketing is a great tool for advertisers especially on different display networks when they are charged on a click basis because they get a ton of impressions and reminders that they don’t pay for, and if they do get the click, it’s likely the visitor has a great degree of interest the subsequent time around.

This works great for any business that sell a product or provide a service that can be pondered, compared and deliberated upon. For example, someone looking for a custom pool builder may want to take their time and do their research prior to reaching out for a quote. Of course, we can all become distracted and put things on the back-burner and the idea with remarketing is to ensure you’re consistently top of mind.

Remarketing serves as a reminder, but also as an opportunity to serve an alternate marketing message. For example the pool builder’s remarketing might highlight:

1. 1000 reviews and a 4.8 star rating
2. Free Consultations
3. Financing Options

All of these messages provide additional incentive to reach out and make contact. It is quite possible that these offers and options existed on the original website visited, but were missed, but now, thanks to remarketing the prospective customer now knows.

Another example, that also serves as a great online shopping tip is when advertisers offer promotional codes on the very product someone was looking at or left in their shopping cart. This typically comes in the form of a code to be used at check out for either free shipping or a discount. So before you buy, leave your cart full and come back a few days.

Remarketing gets you back in front of consumers that are already familiar with your brand, familiar with your website, or at the very least interested in what you offer.

1. Google Display Network

Google’s ad units are placed on websites for the sake of a shared advertising revenue between the website and Google. You probably see them everywhere, but may have learned to ignore them overtime. That’s why it’s important to come up with compelling creative and offer up a message that matters. Here’s an example below:

1. Facebook Ads

Like the display network, with Facebook you can target users that have been to your website properties with ads tailored to them. Facebook actually gives you two manners by which to target users:

1. Creating an audience based on off of those who have been to your website and have been cookied.
2. Advertising based on a customer list (email addresses or phone numbers) that you already have. Those email addresses can be uploaded right into facebook and you can start serving ads tailored to that set of users

Here is an example of what that looks like:
Right Sidebar:
In feed:

1. YouTube PreRoll

If you have a video asset that explains what you do and why you’re great at it, it needs to go on YouTube. If you don’t have video for your business, get it. Video provides you with an incredible way to deliver your message and best of all, you can do it cost effectively.

Your video can play on YouTube for people that visited your site. You can even play numerous different kind of videos. Our recommendation would be to utilize YouTube’s TrueView because advertisers only incur a charge when the video is watch to completion or passes 30 seconds. The reason for choosing this option when remarketing is two-fold.

1. Allowing visitors to skip your ads makes them not hate you because it gives them the choice is they want to listen to you, opposed to it being in their face as something to endure until they can access the content they want.
2. You’ll get more views. Most people are going to skip your ad before it reaches the 30 second mark and if your video can effectively communicate the nuts and bolts of your value proposition in the beginning, you’ll get to talk to your prospective customers without paying for it.

TrueView will stretch your marketing dollar and with remarketing you’ll be talking to exactly the right people you have already invested in.

Hopefully this blog helped you understand remarketing and if remarketing is right for you. Remember, that it’s important to think of where your customers are, why they’re looking and what will resonate with them.