Did you know that around 70% of online shopping carts get abandoned? People bouncing off your site after only viewing one page may be as high as 80%. That can make a lot of your online marketing efforts seem wasteful. While the Internet is a great place to reach potential customers in 2019, it’s also a busy and distracting place. Remarketing helps you recapture these “almost” customers in an efficient and strategic way. On top of that, customers actually like it. And it builds brand affinity. It plugs the holes in that leaky sales funnel so you make more sales. You get more opportunities to show customers why they should choose you over those other guys. Let’s explore this very effective marketing method and learn how Google remarketing works for you.
What Is Remarketing?
What is it, you ask? Remarketing is probably the best thing to happen to marketing since Facebook. It’s a marketing method that leverages the power of the psychological phenomenon of recognition (to know something again).
That means if you’ve seen something before, you’re more likely to see it again and less likely to tune it out. You never noticed that hot new design before, but now you’re seeing it everywhere. Now that you know it exists, you can’t unsee it. Do you see the connection between this and how Google remarketing works?
Google remarketing allows you to automatically show a targeted advertisement online to someone who already visited your website. They may have been a casual visitor or even added items to their cart before conveniently disappearing into the great abyss that is the Internet.
But even if they left without buying anything, that doesn’t mean they’re not still interested. Because they already know about you, they’re more likely to see your ad and more likely to turn into a customer.
These ads may appear in searches or on any of the thousands of news and content site that Google partners with as part of their Google Display Network.
In this article, we’re focusing on how Google remarketing works. But you can also do remarketing on social media to reach people who already know who you are in more places they hang out online. More on that in a future article.
Let’s take a look at some numbers that prove just how effective remarketing can be for increasing furniture and home goods sales.
Why Google Remarketing Works So Effectively
Okay, time for the harsh truth. Showing your ad to a complete stranger and expecting to make a quick sale would be like trying to take a 4-cylinder car from a dead stop to 60MPH in 3 seconds. It’s probably not going to happen. We’re not saying it’s impossible. But you need a great strategy and big budget to “go fishing” for these leads.
Remarketing is like reaching 60MPH when you’re already going 50. Get where you want to go faster, with less effort.
Did you know that it takes approximately 7-13 touch points with a brand before someone becomes a paying customer? You may only notice a person toward the end of this journey. But they’ve likely been scoping you out for weeks or sometimes months before they buy. Remarketing helps increase the number of touch points in a shorter period.
The Internet is a distracting place. Those who assume that they have a person’s captive attention assume wrong. An email, a social media alert, a call–anything can pull people away. On top of this, double screening is on the rise. That’s using more than one device at a time (e.g., TV and smartphone, Laptop and tablet). A ClickZ study found that 80% of people in the UK think double screening in now normal. We’re pretty sure the US can probably top that. Now they’re twice as likely to get distracted while buying.
Remarketing lets you seamlessly redirect their attention hours, days, and sometimes weeks later with a targeted ad that they’re sure to see.
The Proof Is in the Numbers
But do they work? Here are the numbers that prove how Google remarketing works. These studies have been replicated again, all showing the power of remarketing.
- 3 out of 4 people notice remarketing ads.
- The average click-through for a regular ad is 0.07%. For remarketing it’s 0.7. They’re 10X more likely to click.
- People who receive remarketing ads are 70% more likely to convert.
- Today around 26% of eCommerce repeat visits happen because of remarketing.
What percentage of your website traffic is a repeated visit? If that number is low, remarketing can help you change that. Now that we’re clear on what it is, let’s see how Google remarketing works.
Types of Google Remarketing
Google remarketing isn’t just one way of marketing. You have many ad options to reach your customers. Analytics and testing help you reach the most customers with the right type of remarketing which may be:
- Standard Remarketing – This is where to start. It’s the most basic form. You’re showing the same ad to everyone.
- Dynamic Remarketing – Show more relevant ads based on the key products and pages that someone visited. You can do this at a category level to avoid having to add every page.
- Remarketing List for Search Ads (RLSA) – Show ads in searches with a custom list of categories relevant to the visitor. If they were searching for coffee tables, this might include sofas, end tables, and coffee tables.
- Video Remarketing – Remarketing ads that appear before videos on YouTube and other video sites
- Email List Remarketing – You upload your customer email list onto Google. Google shows ads based on their behavior on your site while logged into Google.
How Google Remarketing Works
Here it is step by step.
1. Start Collecting Cookies
We’ve all seen the little banners. They’re on almost every site now. Because websites use cookies to anonymously track visitor behavior. Once you add a string of code called a pixel or tag to your site, this code will place what is called a “cookie” onto the device that visited your site.
Each device is given a unique cookie ID, which is then added to a list of your visitors. You may choose to retarget all visitors in the same way. That’s mildly effective. Or you can create several remarketing groups that show more personalized ads that are specifically based on the visitor’s actions like:
- Starting but not completing a video
- Searching for sofas
- Visiting a specific product page
- Showing interest in a specific brand, style or feature
- Abandoning a cart. Offer them 10% off, free shipping on an add-on to get them to come back and complete their purchase.
- Already bought something. Invite them back after a period. Or show them something they may like because of a past purchase.
You might have a list for each of these and as the cookies get sorted into the various folders, you can show the right ad to the right person automatically.
2. Get Relevant
In order for Google remarketing to work, the ads should be highly relevant and clearly branded. If a person sees different ads, it should always be clear at a glance that they’re your ads. When developing your remarketing strategy, consider how you can organize your lists and build ads to optimize relevance.
For example, you might show an ad for dining sets to someone who was looking at various dining sets on your site. Or if they showed particular interest in one set, you could show an ad that showcases that set, designer or complementing pieces.
Now let’s look at how Google remarketing works with your ad design.
3. How to Create a Banner Ad for Google Remarketing
Marketing can be hard. Don’t make it harder than it has to be. The easiest way to create a remarketing ad is through the free Google Display Ad Builder. They know exactly what they want and make it simple to deliver that experience with straightforward templates that let you add:
- Text
- Images
- Videos
- Rich media
Browse templates, banner size and formats. Then go. Creating your ad can be the easiest part of learning how Google remarketing works as long as you apply those above principles of relevance and branding consistency.
Once you have an ad, you’re ready to go. Let’s look at how to manage your remarketing ads.
4. Manage Your Remarketing Ad Options
You’ll manage and analyze your ads through Google AdWords. You’re probably already familiar with basic AdWords. We’ll focus on some management options that are very important to remarketing.
You can control things like how many times you want someone to see your ad over what period. You can limit the number of times that someone sees your ad in a day.
These controls aren’t to be taken lightly.
Adjusting the frequency and duration of an ad can make a huge difference in your ability to meet your goals for a given remarketing campaign.
Seeing an ad too frequently can cause ad fatigue and even resentment. And as of 2018, Google allows a consumer to block your ad for 90 days if the ad feels intrusive. Not only is this a bad sign for customer relationship. Google may use this data to determine how much you pay for ads or whether it shows your ads at all.
Not seeing an ad enough may leave the ad unnoticed. Or seeing an ad occasionally over a longer period time may prove effective.
There’s no one perfect way. It depends on what you want to achieve. One strategy may work well for brand awareness. People may not click your ad directly. But as they are reminded of your site, they may revisit it directly. Other strategies may be more effective for quick sales or upsells of lower priced items.
It’s import to adapt, test and listen to what the data is telling you.
5. Measure Remarketing Success
Increased revenues and profits may be your final indicator of success. But along the way you’ll need to explore other micro-measures to know you’re on the right track. These include:
- Lead Conversion (CPL) – the number of leads you can attribute directly to the ad.
- Nurture touches – These are ad engagements from people who are in the end stages of the buyer’s journey and ready to buy.
- View Through Conversions – When someone sees your ad, doesn’t click but goes to your site. Yes, you can track this with the right tools. Isn’t modern marketing technology phenomenal!
- Page Visits – Number of people who land on a given remarketing landing page. Remarketing ads never go to your home page or another less relevant page on your site. Each landing page is directly aligned to the ad that leads to it.
- Conversions – What you consider a conversion depends on your remarketing goals. It may be a sale or signing up for your newsletter, for example.
- Customer Value – People are spending more and buying more frequently.
You may choose other measures depending on your goals and how Google remarketing works for you.
How Much Do Remarketing Ads Cost?
You might think that given the effectiveness of remarketing, it would cost a fortune. But Google search and display network ads are surprisingly affordable for the ad itself.
Like regular Google ads, your cost per click (CPC) depends on how competitive your industry is, keywords, and other factors. When it comes to furniture and home goods, eCommerce advertising is relatively unsaturated. While someone advertising technology might have to pay over $1.00 for a click, on average someone in furniture may pay $0.70-$0.80.
To keep costs low, it’s important to track your performance and optimize it. Ads that perform poorly get hit with poor Quality Scores. An ad account with a poor Quality Score pays as much as 400% more for the same ad space.
Good quality scores lower your per click costs. Running ads on AdWords is never a fix it and forget it task. It’s important to closely manage your account. Review your data. And adapt to keep your ad costs low, which brings us to our next point.
Get the Most Out of Your Remarketing Efforts
Remarketing is a great way to get a second chance with people who left your website without buying. It can also help you increase repeat visits and customer value. It’s easy to create an ad and get started with standard Google remarketing. But diving into the more complex elements that help you make the ad super relevant can take some time to master.
Are you trying to figure out how Google remarketing works? We can help you increase brand awareness, revenues and get more happy repeat customers with remarketing. Contact us for a remarketing consultation.
