Odds are you probably have one really good pair of shoes that will work with almost anything in your wardrobe. Just like that versatile pair of shoes, retargeting is one type of marketing that pairs well with most other forms.
Certain types of marketing just work well together. For example, a number of case studies, including this one from Yahoo, have shown that image ads contribute to a lift in purchases from search traffic. Another great example would be the impact that social can have on a blog strategy. This Google Plus case study shows how one blog post made its way across 500 circles in just one weekend.
The Right Retargeting Mix
Retargeting, by its nature, integrates well into other marketing strategies. The main purpose of building display audiences from visitors to your site is to recapture lost prospects. They came. They left. They never took action. Retargeting allows you to use any one or a combination of ad types to get back in front of that lost prospect.
If you own an online shoe store, you may be using search engine optimization (SEO) or paid search (PPC) to drive traffic to your website. Retargeting would allow you to get back in front of anyone who left your online shoe store without buying a new pair of shoes, thus giving you more opportunities for branding and for sales.
A campaign for a mobile application could cookie the audience who took the time to check out their application landing page but did not download or purchase the app. It would make sense to focus on a mobile retargeting campaign for this audience and possibly even test a video ad campaign (product demo) at the same time.
Mix And Match Retargeting Audiences
Most retargeting campaigns will have an audience called something like “All Site” that cookies every person who comes to the website regardless of how they get there or which page they land on. The “All Site” cookie is great for several marketing strategies.
If the conversion cycle is short, a campaign with a short cookie duration could focus on incentives to get sales or encourage someone to fill out a lead generation form. The “All Site” audience could also be targeted for a general seasonal campaign later in the year. For example the “All Site” 540-day cookie could be used in an ad campaign for 20% off all Valentine’s Day items.
A PPC campaign will be sending searchers to specific categories or pages on your site. If you set up multiple audiences at the start of your PPC campaign, you will have the option to use those audiences in future marketing campaigns even if you are weeks or even months from being ready for them.
The “All Site” audience could be used for general promotions or branding, while a category-specific cookie could be used in category sales and promotions such as for all ski equipment. A product-specific audience is perfect for a micro-targeted ad campaign. You may be asking why you should even consider micro-targeted retargeting. Consider this — organic groceries are still groceries but an organic shopper will usually walk, uninterested, past all the other groceries to get to the organic isle. A micro-targeted ad campaign geared towards an organic audience will be much more successful when compared to a generic grocery ad campaign. The moral: find the exact product category that interested the user, and use that information for the retargeting campaign.
Try It On For Size
The best way to see if retargeting will work with your existing marketing strategies is to set up your audiences now and then test a few ad campaign variations based on your product, current marketing strategies and targeted audiences. You might decide that those shoes don’t work with every outfit but, then again, when you try them on with a few new things, you might find that they look good with more outfits than you originally thought.
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