Google Remarketing is a love/hate channel. As an advertiser, the functionality is brilliant. If people land on my site, I can show them ads after they leave?? Awesome. As a user, ads that follow me everywhere can be bloody annoying and disconcerting. Does anyone remember the anonymity of the internet? However, if done right, in a ‘treat people the way they want to be treated’ way, remarketing across Google (and Facebook) is a powerful way to re-engage visitors who have seen your brand before.
Strengths
- Because you’re targeting people on the Google Display and Search network after they’ve visited your website, you know they’re already familiar with your company, and are more likely to convert.
- By integrating Google Ads with Google Analytics, you can be flexible in setting up your audience segments, e.g. show ad “A” to people who saw this page AND then almost bought something.
- Because you can segment audiences, you can also tailor ads and test ads more effectively.
- You can create ‘lookalike’ or ‘similar to’ audiences (people who’re likely to be interested in your business) to expand your ad reach.
Weaknesses
- Sometimes audience numbers can be too low for effective reach due to low website traffic or your audience selection being too specific.
- If you overdo the frequency, people can find ads annoying (especially if you’re obviously following them around).
- Your remarketing audience needs time to build up numbers and you’ll need at least 100 people in your list before you can target them on the Display Network.
Tips
- Try using remarketing audiences in Search campaigns that target your competitors’ brand names, and for keywords that would otherwise be too expensive.
- Instead of only showing ‘hard sell’ ads to people, try offering some sort of value like an intriguing or helpful piece of content or a discount.
- Remarketing can work well if you work closely with your agency to try a different or unique angle on the ad creative. As always, creative is a huge differentiator.
- To avoid creeping people out, restrict how many times a week you show your ad to each person. You can do this by capping your impressions to around 10 views a week in your campaign settings.
- Struggling to think up ad copy? Review your best performing search ads for inspiration
What you need to get started
- Marketing Funnel: Conversion/Engagement
- Assets & Setup: Google Ads account, Credit Card, Ad Creative
- Minimum Investment: $500/month
