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More (Google) Remarketing Tips

You'll know from my previous article about Google's Remarketing (or 'retargeting' as it can be known) service that it is a fairly recent addition to the marketer's toolbox.

I'm reminded that remarketing itself is nothing new, in fact 'behavioural advertising' has been around for a while, just that it sounds a bit more intimidating hence the fresh name and image!

I explained last time that you basically put tracking code on your site and effectively your ads 'follow people around' as they look on other people's websites, giving you a second "bite of the apple", whilst increasing retention, branding etc.

Given that remarketing is so powerful (at least until it's banned) I thought I'd offer some other useful tips I've come across.

Firstly, before you wait any longer, put your remarketing tracking code in your site now.

Since you have to have at least 500 (currently) people tagged before the campaign can go live it makes sense to get them tagged asap, whilst you figure out the finer points later. An email shot should ramp up your tagged visitors quickly enough, assuming you promote a decent, relevant offer.

Use image ads and try different sizes. To be honest, I'm still experimenting with all my remarketing stuff but I'm told a good converting banner size is 300 x 250. However, you should enable ALL banner image sizes, enabling as much reach as possible, given that they will be rendered on lots of different sites and consequently will require as many variations as you can muster.

Be aware that some people might whinge about being "followed".

Tough! This is marketing (i.e. to pay your bills) and you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. That said, if they do get snotty, you can do a couple of things :

1) Change the remarketing campaign settings in Google so that your ad doesn't appear on any inappropriate sites or categories. (Also, you might simply want to exclude some sites that don't convert well)

2) Tell them that they can opt out of remarketing themselves by visiting :
http://www.google.com/ads/preferences You can also see what categories you've been retargetted for... don't worry, they don't list dodgy (aka 'sensitive') ones...!

3) Change the length of time they are 'followed' for. 30 days is set by default but you can lengthen it to 540 days! Personally, I think 540 days is wayyyyyy too long (Try 90 days then play with it.) Obviously the longer, the more likely people will become upset.

Remember to make a DIFFERENT Offer. Don't forget, they didn't convert last time, so the offer must still be relevant, just worded differently or with a different spin.

Someone that looked at fishing tackle but didn't convert last time might still be converted with a different advert for fishing tackle but not necessarily an advert about golf clubs, which is a different product entirely.

Bid Higher.
Your visitors that drilled right down into your site and landed on a pre-goal page (e.g. a contact page or a checkout page) before abandoning the site can be 20 times more likely to convert via re-marketing than those that just landed on your homepage. Therefore, it's worth spending more money on those higher converting visitors...simple!

Personally, I think the way the wind is blowing with privacy and cookies et al, a lot of these toys might be taken away from us soon so play with them whilst you can!

Want me to show you how to setup Google Remarketing...or do it for you?

Visit http://www.mklink.com/getstarted now and get started today!

Speak soon,
Mike Knight - MKLINK.