Display Remarketing - The Essential Conversion Tool

Display Remarketing, the 'bread and butter' of the Google Display Network's targeting techniques. Read more here.

 

 

Whilst most Display Advertising is focussed on raising awareness amongst users in the early stages of the sales funnel, Display Remarketing is a little bit different in that it targets users who are already brand aware and have previously visited your website. It is the 'bread and butter' of the Google Display Network's targeting techniques and with good reason - research shows that 49% of users will visit a site 2-3 times before completing a purchase (Source: Google), making it essential to draw previous visitors back.

 

Whilst the concept is simple, the lazy, one size fits all' remarketing approach won't cut it.  It is extremely important to get your targeting just right with your Display Remarketing campaigns. In our experience, there are a few key elements required to ensure Display Remarketing are effective:

• Segmented audiences: The most basic form of Display Remarketing targets all users who have previously visited your website, typically within the past 30 days. However, we need to be much smarter about how we segment and retarget website visitors based on their on-site behaviours.

1.         Is it their first visit to the website?
2.         Was the user on the website long enough to indicate they are interested in your product/service?
3.         Which area of your website were they most engaged with?

All this analysis will inform how important that user is to your business; what ad messaging you should use to encourage them to return to site; and what landing page you use to drive conversion once they get there.

• Strong creative: Your creative must be relevant to the audience you are targeting. Creative should include strong branding with relevant imagery and a clear call-to-action for that specific user. The key is to consider what you want them to do - Enquire? Repeat purchase? Up-sell?

 

• Frequency and timing: Whilst you want your brand to remain front-of-mind, it is important not to annoy users with ads consistently following them whilst they browse online. Timing is also important - is there any point in remarketing to someone 2 minutes after they have left your website? We always utilise Google Analytics data to find the optimum frequency and timing - check out your time lag and path-to-conversion stats to determine what best suits your business.

 

An effectively implemented Display Remarketing campaign can give a fantastic ROI for your business. A recent Display Remarketing campaign we implemented for an energy services client was so relevant and refined it generated just 7 clicks which resulted in 3 direct conversions! This gave us an unheard of conversion rate of 42.86% at a minimal cost for the client.

Whilst Google have since creating many other innovative Display targeting methods, the basics are still an essential component of any Digital Advertising strategy. We implement Display Remarketing as standard for all of our clients, using audience segmentation and smarter strategies to drive results.