What is ‘Remarketing’ In Google Adwords? And Other Questions…

When people think of Google Adwords, most people think about the ads you see on the right hand side of the page when you do a search in Google. However Google Adwords gives marketers a much larger range of ads than just search ads alone – chiefly through the ‘display network’.

The Display Network now includes over a million websites which will show Google Adwords ads, including some of the biggest and best known websites out there: YouTube, AOL, The Times, Gmail, and many more. They include major news websites, fashion websites, media sites, music websites, niche/special interest sites, blogs, forums, social sites and email services.

In the Display Network, you are also not restricted to text ads alone – they can be image, or even video ads. These types of ads allow you to be more creative, and communicate more about your offers – indeed in display advertising, image ads generally work far more effectively than the regular text ads you see in the search results.

So, What Is Remarketing?

‘Remarketing’ is a way of showing ads to people who visit sites in the Google Display Network. But here’s the twist: the ads are only shown to people who have recently been on to your website.

Have you ever visited a website, only to start seeing ads for that website everywhere? You might think, ‘oh look, it’s them again’. You might think ‘blimey, they must be big – they are advertising everywhere’, or you might think ‘that reminds me, I must buy that ______ (insert product here)’.

This is ‘remarketing’ – these ads appear to ‘follow’ you around the internet for days, weeks, even months after you’ve visited the original website.

What Are The Benefits?

How often have you stopped an online purchase that you (at the time) intended to go back and complete? The phone rang, or the computer crashed or you got distracted by an email or wondered if you should check a few other websites out first. So you didn’t complete the sale, or didn’t finish filling out the enquiry form. Mostly, rather than coming back later to finish, these transactions are simply forgotten about and never made.

So the benefit of this form of marketing is simple: CONVERSION.

Most websites are lucky if they convert at 2%. So what are the other 98% doing? Well some don’t enquire or buy because they just don’t feel your website is right for them. However some don’t enquire or buy simply because of distraction or procrastination – remarketing reminds them of you and gives you a second chance.

How Does It Work?

You need a Google Adwords account, and you need to select which websites you want your ads to show on – either one by one, or by theme (e.g. sports websites, travel websites etc.). You’ll then need to create your ads – either text, image or video. You will need to install some code on your site to track your visitors by the use of ‘cookies’ (you may want to update your cookie policy accordingly). Finally, you’ll need to set your budget – as with other forms of PPC you can choose a maximum cost per click and a maximum total daily budget.

How Do I Get It To Work Effectively?

Effective remarketing campaigns involve well targeted adverts with clear calls to action that send traffic to a high-converting landing page on your website. They also involve following the right people, and showing the ads on the right sites. This means:

• Creating and testing several different ads and offers
• Creating and testing different landing pages – for more information about what makes a great landing page read ‘How To Create A Killer Landing Page’
• Creating ‘lists’ of people in Google analytics to target
• On-going management of your website ‘placements’ (which websites your ads are shown on)

This can be done in-house, or outsourced – read more here about why to outsource your PPC management.

And What’s New With Remarketing?

Remarketing for search, that’s what. This is a new type of campaign, which allows you to show different ads to people who have been on certain pages of your website, or used certain keywords to find you.

What if someone searches Google for ‘Blue Widgets’ and finds your blue widgets page – but doesn’t convert?

Well now, you can ‘follow’ that person around the internet with ads specifically relating to blue widgets, with a special offer and a link to a landing page where they can take up that offer.

So in conclusion, remarketing is cost effective and it helps you convert more from almost every other type of traffic generation you are doing. Not everyone is aware of it, and it takes a little work to set it up and start it. As a result, it is hugely undersubscribed and the clicks are cheap – there is a great opportunity to take advantage of this type of marketing now, while the going is good!

Article by Will Williamson