It is often said that your average website visitor can take up to 7 or 8 associations with your business before they turn into a customer, which means that if you are not getting your company name, products or services back in front of them, you are losing new customers because you are not utilising the power of remarketing.
If you have never come across remarketing before, in the simplest sense, it lets you show your adverts to people that have previously visited or used your website. So, if they toddle off without making an enquiry or purchase, you can reel them back in by showing them targeted and relevant adverts, as they wander the web and browse other websites, apps or even search on Google once again. Although this form of marketing has been around for some time, it is only really in the past few years that more and more people are embracing this technology and really making the most of it.
According to Google Google Ads, 96% of people will leave your website on their first visit without buying from you or making an enquiry, which when you look at this in hard figures, 96 out of every 100 people will just have a look around and then move onwards, without even saying a small whisper of a hello. Although this is hard to compare to the offline world and high street shops, it would be really tough for any shop to keep running if only 4 out of 100 people purchased from them every day, but obviously, it is generally harder to convert online than offline, as people browse more so online than on the high street.
When we follow that online visitor further, it is quite typical that it will take between 2 – 4 visits to your website before they either purchase or make an enquiry with you, which is where remarketing is so critical to you and your business, because with just a few hours work you can get your PPC campaign back in front of the people that visited your site but did not convert, which means that lost visitor can become a customer if you use remarketing effectively. Although you are never going to convert 100% of your visitors, if you can start converting more of the people that already know you or have an association with your website, your sales figures have the potential to really grow.
So, why does remarketing work so well?
Cost Effective
Remarketing can be much cheaper than Search campaigns, mainly because you are utilising the Display network (although there is RSLA, remarketing for search), which often works out at a much lower cost per click. This means that your advert will often receive far more clicks for a much lower cost, because you target visitors, through placements, and not through search keywords on the traditional Google search, although as we mention, there is RSLA, which is remarketing for search but that is whole different article! Either way, remarketing does tend to work out cheaper when you compare the amount of clicks to the spend, so even if you have quite a low budget for your Google Ads campaign, you should spread the love a bit and spend some money on remarketing.
Adaptable And Specific
The reason I love remarketing is that I can be very specific with my targeting through the creation of lists in Google Ads. For example, I can show my SEO Consultancy adverts to ONLY the visitors that have visited either my SEO or Consultancy pages, because the work in terms of getting your segmented lists is so vital, but so rewarding as well. This means that not only are my adverts going to be totally tailored to the right visitors, but if I am also dealing with products, I can start to display either exact or similar products as well, and there are very few other forms of online marketing that allow you to get the right message, in front of the right audience, which is why although remarketing does need some time and expertise, if you get it right, it can be a huge conversion changer.
Visitors Further Down The Sales Path
If your site visitor has hit your site 3 or 4 times, they are much further down the sales path than you might think, as not only are they a returning visitor which means that they already have an association with your business, but it also means their signal of intent for buying is much stronger than a visitor that only hits your site once. For example, if you are selling TV’s, a person looking at your Samsung HD LCD 42” once might just be browsing and not really that interested, but if they look 3 or 4 times, they are much more serious, as even the best window shopper in the world is not going to keep viewing the same product unless they were at least semi interested in making that purchase. And, customers just sometimes need a bit of space, time and re-engagement to make that purchase, which is where remarketing can be a firm conversion increaser if you get it right.
Real Time Results
Within just a few hours, your campaign will be serving to your previous website visitors, as long as you have decent traffic in the first place. This means that you can start remarketing your business to people that have jumped ship in terms of your website almost immediately, allowing you to get them back onto your site quicker and not leave such long gaps as to when they might find you again. Even though it can take multiple visits to convert a visitor, this might happen much quicker if you get them back to your site in a short time frame than you previously might have been able to, and of course, if they have specifically searched for a product or service you offer, then they have the sales path already firmly mapped, you just need to get them to end of this path quicker.
Any Website Can Do It
If you have a website, you can remarket to your visitors, as long as you have an Adwords campaign and access to the site so you can update the code, it really is that simple. One piece of code on your website then allows you to make as many lists as you want, per page, section, previously converted – pretty much anything you could think of in terms of segmentation. The power of remarketing, as we discussed above, is about serving the right advert in front of the right visitor, so over time having campaigns specifically targeted towards specific products, services or niches your business offers will provide far more returns than just chucking your adverts in front of all of your visitors.
Not Just Your Visitors
An often untouched but potentially huge aspect of remarketing is the Similar Audiences within Adwords, which is where Google looks at your visitors and then promotes your remarketing campaign to people that are similar to your remarketing lists, meaning that even though they have never been to your website, the system recognises that they are pretty similar in terms of interests and other demographics and therefore, could benefit from your campaign. Although you do need to keep a firm grip on such a campaign, in my opinion, this is such an untouched and potentially powerful form of advertising, that any business that dips their toe into the remarketing pond really should look at and trial these lists, as they could prove so powerful and effective if you manage them correctly .