In the previous blog posts about Remarketing, we talked about „What is Remarketing“ or “How to implement remarketing” successfully in Google AdWords. This blog post will take it a step forward and will provide five tips for successful remarketing in Google AdWords.
To set up and run successful remarketing campaigns every marketer should develop a sense of what remarketing exactly means and which position remarketing takes in the marketing-mix
What exactly is Remarketing?
In previous blog posts the definition of remarketing has already been set. However, a short summary of the definition can always be useful: Remarketing is an example of targeting and was developed in 2008 for e-commerce. The idea of remarketing is that advertising is successful if there is an option to personalize it. The approach here is as followed: If a user enters a website or online shop and does not finish for example the shopping process, the user will see display ads in a specific display network containing the same product or service or a similar product/service he just left. So, the marketer gets a chance to again get in touch with the potential user.
The aim of remarketing is that due to user behavior, it is possible to get feedback of the client’s needs and therewith to create a user profile. This is possible because of cookies. With every page visit a user leaves cookies. This cookie allows recognition of the user and enables the play out of personalized display ads.
Where Stands Remarketing in the Marketing Mix?
In general, a marketing mix contains a lot of different types of media like TV and print as well as digital media as websites, social media, video and mobile applications.
If you have a closer look into the media market you will recognize that the big winner, when it comes to media budget allocation, still is the field of online marketing. And that there is still a decrease or stagnation of ad spending’s in the traditional media market. A current research study done by AdRoll1, shows that 42% of the marketers indicate to spend the biggest part of their online marketing budget for remarketing. The most popular KPIs in remarketing campaigns are: brand awareness (57%) , lead generation (48%), social interaction (42%), increase in sales (40%) and costumer loyalty (38%).
The great popularity of remarketing within the marketing mix can be traced back to the high success ratio and high return on investment of these campaigns. For successful remarketing campaigns you might want to have a closer look at the following five tips for remarketing campaigns within the Google Display Network.
Five Tips for Successful Remarketing Campaigns within the Google Display Network
1) Variation of Creatives
While running remarketing campaigns you should make sure that you use different banner formats. For example, if the user now sees a skyscraper instead of a before seen medium rectangle, the banner appears new to her. So, remarketing campaigns should always be a mixture of different banner formats as well as usual text ads. You can choose different formats and variation in your Google AdWords campaign. To secure different banner formats and to make sure that your banner can be displayed on every device, you should make use of the Google AdWords Responsive Ads. Responsive Ads are adapting automatically to different screen sizes and devices. But still always keep in mind to test and optimize your ads.
2) Personalized and Specific Approach
The content structure of a remarketing campaign should consider the buying process. In the first phase of the buying cycle, the interest and information phase (usually the search in Google), the banner design and content should be unobtrusive and relatively neutral. The further the user progresses in the buying process the more detailed the banner content should be. Therefore, in the phase of the wish and the purchase intension (adding articles to the shopping cart) the banner should contain content, which triggers the purchase intention. Besides that, the marketer should keep in mind, that the banner just contains current offers or products, which are available and in stock. It is important that your ad symbolizes an additional value to the customer.
3) Frequency Capping
The amount of ad impressions should be limited by a well-chosen frequency capping because a user can easily feel tracked by advertisement and that would lead to never returning customer.
So, the conclusion in the setting of frequency capping is that marketers should also always keep the target group in mind. For example, the so called “silver surfers” are afraid to turn into a vitreous client, who can be managed from the outside. In contrast to the silver surfer a younger target audience does not feel tracked by ads. Therefore, the frequency capping for an older target group like the silver surfer should be much higher than for a younger target group.
But as a marketer you should also bear in mind that with a limited advertising pressure it will come to a decrease in impressions and clicks, but also to an increase in conversion rates.
4) Selection of Placements
To avoid that your placements are shown in an inappropriate context, it is necessary to exclude specific topics in Google AdWords, for example violent and pornographic content. Also here never lose your target group out of focus, rather try to ask the question: In which surroundings the ads would look inapposite or strange. A wrong placement can influence a brand in a negative way and lead to a never returning
5) Increase Visibility
An ad just gets attention if its visible. An AdWords setting allows to exclude below-the-fold placements immediately. However, every marketer should be aware of the decrease in impressions and clicks if below-the-fold options are excluded. But there are some tips and tricks how to secure above-the-fold placements.
First of all, a higher CPC than suggested by Google should be chosen. Secondly a big variation of banner formats helps to make sure that at least one format will fit in an above-the-fold placement. This trick should be solved with the use of responsive display ads.
Therefore, excluding below-the-fold placements should never directly be used in AdWords, rather try to use a good CPC strategy and secure a variety of banner formats.
I hope I could show in this post that remarketing is a highly important online marketing instrument especially in the field of e-commerce. But it is also proven that successful remarketing can still be limited by several limits and restrictions. If a marketer has overcome these restrictions the economic success will be predominate.
If you have questions regarding any of these tips or their explanation, please send me an email.
1 AdRoll Stand des Performance Marketings Europa & Nordamerika
