Have you ever visited a website and a few days later when you’re back browsing online, you’ve seen an ad for the same website you were previously looking at? That is remarketing. Google Ads remarketing is a great way to target users who have already visited your website and you want to drive them towards a conversion.
But what exactly is Google Ads remarketing and how does it work? Keep reading to learn just that, as well as the benefits remarketing can bring to your business.
What is remarketing?
Remarketing, which is also known as retargeting, is a very common and popular digital marketing tactic. Whether you want users to make a purchase or simply get in touch, remarketing is a great way to gently remind them to come back.
Many businesses choose remarketing because it’s an effective way to target people who have shown an interest in your brand, but haven’t completed a specific action. You can serve remarketing ads to people who have visited your website or a specific web page.
How does Google Ads remarketing work?
Once a user visits your website, they are added to a remarketing list, which monitors their activity on your website. If they leave without completing one of your chosen conversions (e.g. made a purchase, contacted you, signed up to a newsletter etc.), they are eligible for targeting.
There are many websites linked to the Google Display Network, which give space for adverts to appear on. These “intelligent” ad spaces will show remarketing ads, as well as other ads tailored to the individual user. If you have uploaded several types of ads to your campaign, these can show on any number of sites.
Once the user clicks on the ad in question, they are taken back through to your website to a landing page of your choice. If they then complete a conversion, they are taken off the list. If not, the process starts again.
What are the benefits of a remarketing campaign?
There are a huge amount of benefits of remarketing campaigns, the main one being increasing the number of conversions and sales, but here are a few more benefits:
Your ads are targeted
The biggest advantage of remarketing is that your ads are targeted to only be shown to people who have already visited your website. Unlike standard PPC ads, which are shown based on keywords, these ads are shown purely to visitors of your site. This means you can target users that are further along the customer journey. They’ve already done some research, and are more likely to generate a conversion.
It’s a great way to enhance brand awareness
Even if the user is not in a position where they are currently looking to purchase a product or contact your company for a service, a remarketing campaign is great for brand awareness. Showing multiple ads to a user that is currently only researching your industry makes them more likely to remember your company when they are ready to purchase further down the line. Also, your ads can be shown on websites for some big companies, including YouTube. This promotes an image of trust and reputability for your business, even if the conversions don’t come in straight away.
Remarketing campaigns are relatively low cost
If you’re already running an AdWords campaign, you might be surprised to find out that remarketing is actually cheaper than traditional paid ads, despite being so targeted. We find for our clients, many remarketing campaigns can typically cost up to a third less than the overall campaign, and generate a good percentage of conversions.
You can include image ads
Remarketing allows you to include image ads as well as text ads, meaning you can create visually striking, eye-catching ads for your business. This further increases the effectiveness of the campaign, and can link in with the brand awareness we talked about earlier.
It is important to note, if your ads are not designed well, or you are only using text-based ads, this could affect the number of clicks you receive. This consequently affects the number of possible conversions from your campaign, leading to a smaller ROI.
Things to consider with Google remarketing
Whilst remarketing can bring a huge amount of benefits, there are a few things to bear in mind when running your campaigns:
- Remarketing needs regular management – it isn’t the sort of tactic you can switch on and leave to its own devices.
- There are certain websites where remarketing will not be suitable, such as adult websites. You also need to make sure your account is set to omit these types of websites as unfortunately, they are part of the Google Display Network. It’s almost certain some of these sites will still slip through the filters, so you’ll need to manually exclude those on a regular basis.
- To achieve the best results, you’ll want to run multiple ads at once which you’ll need to analyse so you can optimise your campaigns appropriately.
Let us help with your Google Ads remarketing
Do you want to run Google Ads remarketing campaigns but don’t have the resource? Let us do all the hard work for you. We can create and manage your remarketing campaigns and analyse results for optimal efficiency. Get in touch with us today to see how else we can help with your PPC management.