Frequently asked
Questions
Remarketing, also known as retargeting, is a very common and popular form of digital marketing in which marketers serve ads to users who have visited their website or a specific web page and may or may not have taken a specific action. It’s an effective way to target people who have already shown some interest in your company or brand.
Since you are targeting previous visitors or existing customers, this is called “re-marketing.” Think of it as a second chance to convert, sell or retain customers with online ads or campaigns. You can remarket in different ways and with different ad platforms, such as Instagram, Google, or Facebook ads.
However you use it, remarketing is an absolute must in any marketer’s playbook.
How does remarketing work?
It’s not hard to set up a retargeting campaign for your website. When you create a campaign with a particular ad network, the network provides you with a small piece of code (called a pixel tag) that you can add to your website. Each time a new user visits your website, the code drops an anonymous browser cookie and the user is added to your retargeting list. When the same user visits another website that hosts display ads or native ads from your ad network provider, the system serves your ad to that particular user. This will happen as long as you have an active campaign running.
What are remarketing pixel tags?
Pixel tags are small pieces of code on a web page that allow websites to place cookies. Each visitor has a unique but anonymous ID so that their website activity can be tracked by the cookies they leave behind. In remarketing, the ad server can access the visitor’s ID and store it in the appropriate remarketing lists.
Pro tip: Every time you work with a new ad network, the first thing you should do is add its pixels and start populating audience lists.
- Capitalize on lost website traffic
- Target people who have already visited your website and shown interest in your offer
- Find and reach target groups that are more likely to convert
- Stay “top of mind” by strategically showing your ads to an interested audience
- Affordable marketing tactics available on a range of platforms and channels
- Suitable for any industry and vertical
Your website may be attracting a lot of traffic, but the fact is that the average conversion rate for first-time visitors is low. According to research on e-commerce websites, the conversion rate is only 1.6 percent. What does it mean? You get the traffic, but not the sales. Remarketing is your best option to capitalize on all that lost traffic.
Targeting people who have already shown interest in your business is one of the most effective ways to remind them to come back to your website. Retargeting can be used in all sectors and industries, although it is obviously an important tactic in e-commerce.
Pro tip: Use retargeting ads to offer special deals that weren’t available when the customer first visited your site, such as a discount coupon, “buy one – get one for free,” or other offer to entice the customer.
When is remarketing necessary? That’s a great question – and a tricky one. Some marketers use “always-on” tactics, meaning they constantly run a remarketing campaign for all users who visit their site but don’t convert (i.e., don’t make a purchase, fill out a form, or download an asset).
However, many marketers are opting for a more advanced and personalized approach to remarketing. You can target your remarketing campaigns according to predefined criteria. For example, you can run remarketing campaigns only for visitors who land on specific pages, such as a specific product page, or only for users who visit your site at a specific time of day or year (e.g., during a specific sales period). It depends on your overall strategy and what you plan to do at any given time.
Pro tip: When it comes to remarketing, it’s really important to avoid “overkill.” You don’t want to risk alienating potential customers by showing them too many ads. Set an upper limit on how many ads can be seen by each user – no more than two to three per day.