Heard of ‘retargeting’ before, but not sure how it can benefit your business?

Retargeting levels the playing field for small business owners to be able to reach their target audience on a much larger scale than ever before. When used in conjunction with search engine optimization (SEO), retargeting can:

• Drive traffic to your website through increased brand recognition. 

• Maximize a company’s return on investment (ROI).

In a nutshell, retargeting is the process of targeting and serving ads to people who’ve previously visited your website, used your mobile app, or in some cases, visited and bought something from a physical retail location. 

You’ve seen it before: you search online for ‘shoe stores Mobile, AL.’ You visit the first website that pops out and you browse around for a while, but then something else needs your attention so you leave the site. The next time you go online, whether it’s watching a YouTube video or scrolling through Facebook, you see an ad for that same shoe store company showcasing the exact pair of shoes you were last looking at earlier. 

Many people have mixed feelings about this, and numerous blogs have been written about the overall ethics involved in this type of marketing. Needless to say, it’s here to stay, and over the years marketers have refined the practice to include better targeting and less intrusive messaging to avoid creeping people out. As a side note, web users always have a way of opting out from being marketed to through retargeting by regularly erasing what cookies have been enabled in their browser history.

Studies have shown that close to 98% of website visitors leave a website without completing some form of conversion (i.e. finishing a purchase, submitting a form, or downloading something being offered). 

Therefore, it is not uncommon for a web user to take numerous steps before being ready to seal the deal. If a company’s brand name is not well established, users won’t be searching specifically for a company’s brand name and associated branded keywords. That’s when companies often invest in SEO or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing to help drive traffic to their website or store. In time, they may see their website out rank their competitors on the search engines, and typically see a healthy influx of website clicks. However, if there is no brand recognition to go along with such prominent placement on search engines, users often forget what site they visited once they have left. 

Retargeting can successfully bridge that gap, especially when combined with SEO. Through building your brand’s familiarity with your target audience, you are increasing the opportunity for specific company branded terms to be entered into a Google search or an organic site visit. 

Comscore found that retargeting campaigns led to a 1046% increase in branded search and a 726% lift in site visitation after four weeks of retargeted ad exposure. 

By specifically marketing to people who are familiar with your business, retargeting ultimately will move them closer to a sale and improve your overall ROI. 

Learn how BIS Designs can increase your search engine ranking and drive traffic to your website here.

Sources: 
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Retargeting-Used-by-Marketers-Cost-Effective-Brand-Lift/1007948
http://searchengineland.com/3-surprising-benefits-of-retargeting-181164
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/retargeting-campaigns-beginner-guide#sm.00000t84uav30xes9rwre0rti1gb9