Most people spend 3-5 seconds evaluating a website and deciding whether or not they want to stay on a website. In addition, studies show that for most websites, only 2% of traffic converts to a customer on the first visit to the site, according to AdRoll. But what about those other 98% potential customers that don’t convert on the first visit? Retargeting can help.
What is Retargeting?
Retargeting is when a small and unrecognizable piece of code is placed on a website to track visitors as they browse the internet. For you techies out there, the code puts an anonymous cookie (not a delicious chocolate chip cookie but an HTTP cookie) on the visitor’s browser when they come to your site. Then, when the visitor browses the web, the cookie will let you know where and when to serve ads. ReTargeter explains it graphically for those visual learners out there:
Do people really use retargeting?
Yes! Have you ever searched for a very specific product and then noticed ads for that exact product popping up while you’re browsing for something else? Those ads for the fire alarm or NY Giants hat or refrigerator you were searching for didn’t just appear by accident. They were put there with retargeting. In fact, the 3rd edition of Chango’s Retargeting Barometer was recently released which points to some notable trends in retargeting use and growth. Most notable (and something to keep in mind for next year) is that more than half of all survey respondents say that they plan to spend more money on retargeting in 2014 and one in five marketers are now dedicating entire budgets to retargeting.
The most common place that retargeting is being used is in display media. However, when Chango looked at where agencies and brands themselves are spending money on retargeting, it showed that agencies are spending more on mobile and video retargeting than brands. Is this the future of retargeting?
Retargeting is not just for websites. It can also be used in search, Facebook Exchange (FBX), social, email, etc and these alternative uses are growing.
Can Retargeting Work For You?
Retargeting is a great tool to optimize your online advertising by allowing you to bring repeat visitors to your site and convert them into customers. It is particularly effective when it is paired with other marketing and advertising tactics such as inbound marketing, lead generation, content marketing, etc. We strongly believe in the utilization of an integrated approach as it is often very difficult to achieve all of your marketing goals with just one tactic. After all, the overall goal is to drive traffic to your site and convert leads. What better way to do that than with a multi-channel approach?
