Without a doubt, remarketing is one of the most powerful tools available to advertisers who use Google AdWords to promote their products or services. In simple words, remarketing via AdWords provides the ability to show specific ads to users who have already visited and interacted with your website, across the Google Display and Search networks. These users, who are familiar with your website and brand, are more likely to convert than users who are not.
I get asked all the time if remarketing works. The answer is always a resounding yes, remarketing does work, and I argue that if you’re not using it, you’re missing out on valuable traffic. – However, I still see most advertisers setting up remarketing campaigns that are nothing more than a copy of their display campaigns with different targeting (their remarketing list). This is not the best way to leverage such a powerful advertising medium.
The first step I always recommend is to segment your remarketing list (e.g. buyers, shopping cart abandoners, etc.), and tailor your ad message accordingly. Then, after your “regular” remarketing campaigns are optimized, I suggest expanding your remarketing efforts with the three strategies outlined below. If well implemented, they have the potential to take your digital campaigns to the next level.
1) Remarketing List for Search Ads
Remarketing lists for search ads, also known as RLSA for short, lets you customize your keywords bids and ad text for people who have visited your website in the past, right at the time when they're searching on Google for what you sell. While with standard search campaigns your bids, ads, and keywords are the same for every searcher, with Remarketing lists for search ads (which are, in a nutshell, search campaigns served to your remarketing list only) you can bid higher, show on broader keywords or present different ads to users who are more likely to convert.
2) Dynamic Remarketing
Taking into account that every customer is unique, dynamic remarketing leverages “product feeds” to allow advertisers to show previous visitors ads that contain specific products and services they viewed on your site, with the ultimate goal to bring them back to your site so they can complete what they started. Up to a few weeks ago, this type of campaign was available only to e-commerce retailers who use Google Merchant Center to manage their feeds. Dynamic remarketing is now available to all verticals including hotels, flights, real estate, classifieds, jobs, auto, finance and education. This means that you can create and manage a feed of all your products or services directly within the AdWords interface, and use it to serve remarketing ads to users who have previously visited specific products or services within your website.
3) Remarketing to Your YouTube Viewers
If you have a YouTube channel and link it to your AdWords account, you can effectively add your video remarketing list to an ad group with text ads or display ads. Your video remarketing list includes viewers who have viewed or interacted with your YouTube videos, subscribed to, or unsubscribed from your channel, viewed your YouTube ads (if you run campaigns through this channel), and visited your channel. I like to think of this strategy as a little-known yet powerful way to showcase your products or services to users across multiple channels (search, display, and video).
To learn more about how we can help to take your remarketing efforts to the next level, email or call us and one of our Interactive Advertising experts will be available to assist.
