How Remarketing Ads Work & How To Set Them Up

How Remarketing Ads Work & How To Set Them Up

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See below, the transcript from this episode of Giant Wednesday if videos aren’t your preferred method to consume digital skills. See also the Giant Cheat Sheet from this episode.

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Ever heard of window shopping?

No, not that kind of window shopping…

I mean when someone visits a certain product page on your site, but they leave without making a purchase. What gives!?

Well, not to worry, using the powers of remarketing we can remind them of what they’re missing out on with some clever targeted marketing.

So let’s delve deeper into how we make this happen, and why you should use it in this week’s episode of GIANT Wednesday.

 

Hi, I’m Ant from Sleeping Giant Media and I’m here today to talk to you about remarketing! What it is, why you should use it, and how to get going.

If you like what I have to say in today’s video then make sure to subscribe to our channel where we release digital marketing skills-based videos every week! 

So, remarketing, I’ve already given a bit of a teaser of what it is, but let’s go into a little more detail…

What is remarketing and retargeting?

Remarketing, or retargeting, is a marketing technique that allows you to target adverts back at people who’ve already visited or taken specific actions on your website.

Remarketing campaigns can help you to move customers further down your marketing funnel, from awareness and consideration, down to conversion or whatever it is you’d like them to do.

So how does remarketing and retargeting work?

In whatever way a user finds your website, whether that’s through search engines, social media or paid advertising, they’ll be captured by a pixel. 

But wait, what’s a marketing pixel?

Well, this is the technical part, this is the part of the process that uses a javascript tag called a pixel that’s implemented across every page of your website.

This pixel places a cookie in the user’s browser when they click “allow cookies”, and this then feeds back important information about the users’ behaviour on your website, app or social media profile.

Pixels are nice and easy to set up, we’ll link a blog in the comments that help you explain the different ones, and setting them up can be done by yourself, or a developer.

This information collected from the pixel gives you and the tools you use, a better understanding of how your customers navigate your store or site, and what pages or products customers convert from the most.

The whole time the pixel is set up and running, it’ll track customer behaviour that you can then turn into audiences based on unique shopping or navigation habits or actions.

You can then use these audiences to get super smart with your adverts.

Depending on your audience, and where you want to advertise, you can set these ads up to run through Google and its Display Network – so your ads would appear on other websites and apps.

Or you could set them up on things like Facebook which would mean your audience see the ads when scrolling through their social media channels.

 

Ok cool, so now how do we set up retargeting ads?

After you (or your dev) have done all the legwork setting up your pixel, you need to build out customer audiences based on people, or groups of people, you’d like to target.

For example, you could build audiences of people who: 

  • Added items to their basket but didn’t checkout
  • People who looked at various items of the same colour
  • People who visited multiple pages relating to the same brand
  • People who visited your blogs and then looked at your service/product pages
  • And people who prefer the Star Wars prequels (okay I’m joking about that last one)

The possibilities are endless. Just make sure you’re setting up audiences you actually think would be useful to remarket to!

Your remarketing ads will only be served to users who engaged with, or searched for previous pages or products which means you can get really personal with the ad copy and imagery you use to drive them back to you.

So, with that in mind, make sure to tailor your message to appeal to people based on their previous actions that landed them in that audience group to begin with.

For example…

You are running an online candle store and the spiced pumpkin scented candle has started to sell really well during the build-up to Autumn because… well, it smells like spiced pumpkin 

Due to its success, you’ve chosen to retarget anyone who may have previously visited that page on your site, but didn’t convert, or maybe those who put the candle in the basket, but abandoned it. 

Remarketing to these people with a tailored ad means you can get super specific to the interests of that specific product.

You know they’re interested in that candle in particular in some way, so why not offer them a promotional code to discount their shop or delivery fees?

This will help an already engaged audience to convert. Now if only you could make the ads spiced pumpkin scented…

Setting these audiences up to start collecting data will be slightly different across the likes of social media platforms and search engines, but the general gist is the same, and if you have any questions then pop them in the comments. 

So, that’s the what and the how… now, the why? 

Why should you use remarketing ads?

Well, the biggest advantage that remarketing gives you, is the options and the opportunities!

You can create almost any custom audience you want for any page or action on your website.

In a physical world, it’s the equivalent of watching someone ‘umm’ and ‘arrrr’ about a product in the shop, pick it up a few times and then put it down because they’re not 100% ready to buy it yet.

But then giving you the opportunity to quickly flag them down in the high street and give them an offer, or remind them the next time they’re in town that you exist and you’ve got the goods.

And even better than that, is this isn’t just beneficial to those with an online store and easily purchasable product, it’s for every industry, all avenues of business.

You’ve just got to work out if you want to re-engage an already interested audience in your product and services. And why wouldn’t you?

So, that was the what, why and how of remarketing and retargeting, and hopefully has inspired you to consider some new ways to reach an already engaged audience of your own.

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