by Ryan McMullen
Well more than five years ago, I was introduced to retargeting, also known as remarketing, and I thought it was absolute magic. At the time, I was buying a new car, and like any informed consumer, I was doing my research online. I was looking at a Nissan Pathfinder, so I went to nissanusa.com and built a virtual black vehicle with all of the bells and whistles I wanted.
No big deal, right? But then the strangest thing happened. I noticed that no matter where I went online, I kept seeing ads for a black Nissan Pathfinder. How in the world did the Internet know that was the exact vehicle I was considering? I assumed that the technology was so advanced that it was available only to giant companies like Nissan with ridiculous marketing budgets. However, I was still mesmerized and had to find out how it worked.
Turns out it’s actually very simple. It is a cookie-based technology that places on your website a tiny piece of code that tells visitors’ browsers (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.) that they have been on your site. Later, when those previous visitors to your website are searching around the web, that little piece of code tells the retargeting provider when to show your ads. In a nutshell, only people who have been on your website will see your ads.
Other than the fact that it’s really neat, why should you use retargeting?
1. According to Forbes, only 2% of shoppers convert on their first visit to your website. Retargeting is essentially doing the follow-up for you so that the remaining 98% don’t slip through the cracks. How many times in sales have you heard “The fortune is in the follow-up.”
2. You spend a lot of money not only building a website but also driving visitors to it. Retargeting is a very inexpensive way to stretch your marketing dollars because you are paying considerably less to reach the same consumer over and over versus constantly driving costly new visitors to your website. According to AdRoll, one of the largest retargeting platforms, on average, its customers earn $10 for every $1 spent on retargeting.
3. Branding, branding, branding. I think we all know the value of repeated exposure to your brand. You gain more recognition and credibility, which will increase your sales because your customers are much more likely to trust you.
The average sale takes five to seven touches with a customer. Those few lay-downs that happen on the first touch, or 2% of the time, are great, but that tiny population is not going to explode your business. The technology available to us is mind-boggling and we would be insane to not take advantage of it, so let technology make those initial touches for you and watch your closing rate skyrocket. n
Ryan McMullen (ryan@stlouismarketinglab.com) is the owner of St. Louis Marketing Lab.
Submitted 10 years 274 days ago