Online Marketing | Search Engine Advertising

Five Tips for Successful Remarketing in Google Ads

In previous blog posts on remarketing, we mainly discussed the functions of remarketing and successful campaign implementation in Google Ads. This blog post will go one step further and provide five tips for successful remarketing campaigns in Google Ads.

1) Variety of Creatives

When setting up remarketing campaigns, we recommend setting up a wide variety of ads. Since responsive display ads are now used as the standard ad type for the display network you are guaranteed ad variety and ensured that a banner can be played out on all end devices and websites. This is because countless combinations are possible with the help of up to five titles, five descriptions, 15 images, five logos, and videos. When creating these ads, we recommend uploading as many high-quality assets (images, ad titles, logos, videos and lines of text) as possible. This will allow Google and machine learning to determine the optimal combination of assets for each ad space. But don’t forget to still test and optimize your ads.

2) Precise and personalized targeting

The structure of a remarketing campaign should take into account the buying cycle. In the first phase of the buying cycle, the awareness phase, the banners should be kept unobtrusive and relatively neutral. The further the user progresses in the buying cycle, the more detailed the content of the banners should be. Thus, in the phase of desire and purchase intention (filling the shopping cart), content with products of the shopping cart as well as complementary products should be displayed, which trigger the purchase intention in the potential customer. In addition, every advertiser should make sure that only products or offers are communicated that are also in stock or current. Promotions and discounts should also be included. It is important that the ads are structured in such a way that they create a visible added value for the user.

3) Frequency Capping

It is essential to limit the number of times your remarketing ads appear to the same person by frequency capping. This is because constant exposure can quickly alienate customers and make them feel persecuted. Marketers should not lose sight of the target group when setting frequency capping. For example, so-called “silver surfers” are afraid of becoming a transparent customer and being controlled from the outside. For this reason, a lower frequency capping should be selected for this target group than for a younger target group. When using frequency capping, it should also be noted that limiting how often an ad appears, reduces performance values such as clicks and conversions, but at the same time also improves the click and conversion rate.

4) Placements

To ensure that the ads are not played out in the wrong context, make sure to exclude certain topics such as violence and pornography. When doing so, keep your target audience in mind and consider their behavior and expecations. This way it’s easier for you to determine in which context your ad could be seen as funny, misplaced, or distateful. After all, the wrong placement can negatively affect the brand presentation and alienate potential customers in the long run.

5) Visbility

Google Ads offers the possibility to exclude your ads showing in specific content and placements, such as below-the-fold or in-video.

However, you should be aware, that excluding placement categories will result in fewer impressions.

Content Exclusion

To counter this effect, you can increase bids for audiences, topics, or keywords, based on historical performance. Using this strategy lets you boost your gains from top performers and cut your losses from poor performers.

In addition, it helps to create different banner formats, as this can ensure that at least one format of the ad fits into above-the-fold ad spaces. With the help of responsive display ads, you will have taken care of it already.

What will happen without cookies?

Remarketing is currently undergoing a major change because browsers are increasingly blocking third-party cookies.

To continue remarketing successfully, it is, therefore, more important than ever to collect first-party cookies. This includes Google Analytics, for example. But email addresses, chat, and calls all belong to first-party cookies as well.

These can then be used to create and use your own remarketing lists in Google Ads.

Remarketing Listen Dropdown

Google is currently working on another solution to run remarketing without third-party cookies, with the help of TURTLEDOVE, FLEDGE, and FLoC. These new approaches allow first-party data to be used to drive ads a user might see.

Finally, it should be noted that the removal of third-party cookies and the focus on first-party cookies can also have a positive side: Using data from users who have shown interest in contacting you (e.g., by signing up for a newsletter) is generally considered less problematic than buying and selling user data.

Regardless of what the future holds for remarketing, it is and currently remains a very important tool in online marketing. Besides the many limitations and dangers that the use of remarketing can bring, the economic successes that can be achieved with remarketing campaigns outweigh them. How and whether these successes will continue in a future without third-party cookies remains to be seen for the time being.

Do you have any questions or do you need support in setting up your remarketing campaigns? Then please feel free to contact us.