98{06e29518e582b1cc2da09f8f2ea316dadc41c520023bcca83a4deb5e6ad0a3c6} of website visitors leave without conversion – without making a sale or purchase. Retargeting allows you to re-engage with potential customers based on previous activity, increasing the chances of a revived interest in the website and ultimately, a higher conversion rate.
There are a number of ways in which this method can be used to track and re-market to web surfers – from search engine retargeting to website activity retargeting. It is possible to follow the activity of visitors to your website and, based on this activity, deliver PPC advertisements catered to that behaviour. In this way, visitors can be targeted according to their activity, customising advertisements that ‘follow’ the visitor during subsequent web-surfing. The use of PPC marketing software allows users to tag a webpage, and therefore follow the visitor across the web with advertisements that are relevant to the individual. This is unlike regular demographic marketing, in which a typical demographic is targeted with little in the way of tailored messages based on individual previous activity.
The PPC ad on the right could have been retargeted from a previous visit to the website, or a similar keyword search (via Gumtree)
Search
Search retargeting, one of the most common and lucrative ways of retargeting, looks at the terms used in search engines to target consumers using keywords related to the business.
SEM/SEO
SEM or SEO retargeting looks at the search words used to reach your site. It is therefore possible to see which aspect of the business the visitor was most interested in, and what intention actually drew them to the website.
Contextual
Contextual retargeting involves targeting individuals based on the exact context of their chosen content. Businesses strongly related to each other are capable of targeting each others’ visitors in a way that is beneficial to both.
E-mail
E-mail can also be used for retargeting, and activity on e-mails can be assessed. In this way, it is possible to differentiate between people who regard the e-mail as spam and who do not read it through, to those who pursue a hyperlink or forward the e-mail on, for instance. From this, bespoke marketing messages can be delivered.
Social
The rise of social networks has presented another tool for marketers to take advantage of – and placing pixels related to activity on social-media sites such as Facebook. In this way, it can be seen whether visitors to your Facebook page also click on the links to your website, and retargeting can be tailored specifically to the requirements of the casual social networker. Similarly, social retargeting allows the targeting of individuals with similar social activities – groups and friends, as existing converters.
A successful remarketing campaign utilises all of these forms of remarketing to fully understand the behaviour of a potential consumer, bringing them back to your website, with a more tailored message, increasing the likelihood of a conversion.