As a PPC account manager, I like remarketing. I like having the opportunity to recapture that audience. I like breaking it down further to ensure we are following the user with the right genre of product that initially caught their attention.
Remarketing is great for brand awareness and promotions and I love seeing the conversions come in for our clients. Remarketing does definitely work, but it really needs to be done correctly.
As an internet user, I don’t, if I’m honest really care for it. I realise the irony here and in fairness to my previous point I always cap the frequency of my impressions, normally using image over text ads and update them when needed. I also always block them from Gmail and YouTube so they are not associated with intrusive advertising – personally, I find it annoying having AdWords text ads appearing on you tube videos.
Sometimes though, if you leave a website because you found it too expensive or too hard to navigate, you don’t want it following you around the internet like a little lost puppy. My parents recently went to stay with a chain of hotels, they had a very poor experience. They showed me the site and the image of the promised room, then their photos of said room. Nothing like each other.
Through remarketing, the associated PPC ads are now stalking them and reinforcing their bad feeling about that brand as they do not have the technical knowledge to clear their cookies. I should probably do that for them at some point….. Their indignant feeling of being ripped off is ignited and further engrained every time they read those adverts promising great prices and a great holiday – things they did not get.
If it’s a home computer that you share with someone, you may also not want them to know what you have been looking at. Say you are organising a surprise trip or ordering a present for a loved one, remarketing campaigns could somewhat dampen that surprise especially if the site is rather exclusive in what it sells. I realise not everyone will be able to distinguish between placement targeted and remarketing ads but it can still give the game away but creating the idea or awareness in the mind of the person to be surprised.
Remarketing needs to be broken down into audiences. Once you have enough visits to a coded page, then break it down. Don’t track the site with one remarketing code if you can help it. People who have just brought a product from you probably don’t want to see adverts promising ‘10% off for all new customers!’ but something product specific or an advert to reward loyalty.
Target your purrrr-chasing customers with a different campaign. If they abandoned their basket at the checkout – offer them a discount. Limit the frequency of the impressions. Don’t leave it as uncapped for if they haven’t clicked after 30 you probably seem a bit desperate. The data is all there so be intelligent with it.
It’s a game of courtship. Try not to look too desperate.
Good Post Rachel, I agree on the on the irony, I am getting increasingly annoyed seeing these ads yet I am continously setting them up for clients. I have started using private browsing more and more to stop these being re-targeted at me. It’s a good idea when setting up a re-targeting campaign to use custom targeting options to ensure you don’t target people who have seen your checkout confirmation page therefore you’re not hounding customers who’ve already purchased, which can save on reputation and costs.