What is Remarketing and How Does it Work?

What is Remarketing

Imagine seeing a billboard advertising “Best Italian Shoes” as you drive by after picking your kids every day from school. One day, the thought of getting a new pair of Italian shoes might cross your mind. In fact, you’ll likely stop by one of those days to check out the price. But I'd like to think that you'll eventually make a purchase if you see that ad long enough. Yes, there's a good chance for that too.

Suppose you have an uncle who owns a Mercedes just like your dad. While there's a good chance that you'll select from any of the many brands you've already experienced, there's also a probability that you'll want to get yourself a Mercedes one day. Why? Because you've seen your dad and uncle enjoy the car. This is very passive marketing, but you'll agree that it's equally effective.

In today's world of marketing, the term for this is remarketing. Remarketing could take many forms. It's the same tactic that marketers use to advertise the same product over and over again to you. In the days of telemarketing. Once you call to make inquiries, you can bet that you'll get another call, and another one, until perhaps they're able to convince you to buy, or something.

That's also remarketing. With the advent of digital marketing, remarketing also takes an interesting turn, which is very important. It’s become a common digital marketing practice. In this article, you’ll get more clarity on this marketing buzzword and learn how to incorporate it into your marketing strategy.

So, what is remarketing?

Remarketing is a way to reach out and connect to people who have previously interacted with your brand, either online (website and app) or offline (e.g., billboards), by creating and sending personalized ad campaigns to them based on their activity on your website or app. You must have experienced a situation where you visited an online store and left without buying anything.

The owner tracks your activity and keeps records of your interactions on the site. The next thing you see is ads about the same product or varieties of it all over the places you visit on the internet. It is more like following people all around the internet until conversion happens. Google makes a very good attempt at helping business owners leverage the power of remarketing to convert more customers in today's digital marketing space.

But wait, is this not retargeting?

Well, retargeting employs the same approach of advertising to the same individual repeatedly as remarketing, but they practically mean different things. Retargeting is a form of remarketing that focuses mainly on PPC and display advertising, whereas remarketing is most commonly used in email marketing today.

Retargeting describes the use of cookies to track users’ activity on your website and target them with ads as they visit other sites. This is very effective for displaying ads to users who interact with your website, hence the word retargeting.

How does remarketing work?

Remarketing today finds extensive applications in shopping cart abandonment email campaigns and upselling/cross-selling emails (like the ones you get from Walmart and Amazon after buying a product). It is a way to keep your brand top-of-mind and get existing customers to come shopping again. It would interest you to know that out of 30% of people who add items to their carts on online stores, only 3% actually check out.

That tells you how important remarketing is to e-commerce owners and online stores. Their ability to get the other 27% back to buy at least one item is very much dependent on the effectiveness of their remarketing approach.

Marketers use the browsing history of visitors/users to send them highly targeted and personalized ads — in the form of emails. And guess what, people will always come back to buy, maybe not all, but a good number of them will likely return to purchase an item. This also clarifies how you could remarket with billboards. If you've ever wondered why the billboard for new Italian shoes stands for several weeks or months, it is because of the concept of retargeting.

You may not need the product now, but the day you do, you already have a mental impression of where to look for the best Italian shoes. Now, you understand why this strategy is growing in popularity. The same principle applies to social media. When you share important info or advertise on your pages, people will engage with your brand, and based on their comments and engagement, you can follow up with more exciting information or offers.

What about phone calls?

You may be surprised to realize that marketers still use phone calls and text messages as effectively as before the boom of digital marketing. Well, instead of cold calls, it works just as fine for remarketing. I remember signing up for a masterclass from an Instagram ad sometime during the lockdown last year but never went through with it. I didn't just get emails, but at least one phone call from the company, wanting to know why I haven't started and how they could help tailor their services to my preferences.

If well-executed, follow-up phone calls and SMS marketing are very effective remarketing channels. Remember that it is an excellent way to connect with visitors that leave their contact on your website. You can call them and schedule a free consultation or walk them through your offers and help them make the best choice.

Remarketing generates more leads and drives more conversions

The secret to this is reaching out to customers shortly after they leave your site without purchasing anything. Reports from a study conducted at MIT show a significant drop in the engagement rate for remarketing campaigns that take place within one hour after a visitor leaves a site.

The study also shows that the chances of re-engaging or converting a lead drops as much as ten times when you reach out more than an hour after the customer's first interaction with your site. This means that the recency of the customer's interaction with your brand is critical when sending out cart abandonment emails.

Our Recommendations

Remarketing is possible through video, social media, and affiliate marketing. You can even use Google ads for remarketing customers. If you haven't thought about remarketing, then you should give it a try. It could be the boost your digital marketing campaigns needs. Remarketing increases brand visibility and top-of-mind awareness for visitors after interacting with your website. It is not just email marketing. It is readvertising to people who already know what you’re offering.

Not sure how or where to begin? You can contact us at The Mission today for assistance with any grey areas regarding your remarketing strategy. We're always delighted to help you grow. As leading growth strategists, sales, and digital marketing experts, we are here to take through every step to creating smart digital marketing goals.

We provide you with help on how to implement them successfully. Also, as leading partners in the PEO, HR, payroll, and benefits outsourcing marketplace, we provide result-oriented services for small and medium-sized organizations and government contractors, serving as a trusted partner in integrated human resource compliance, risk management, employee benefits, employment practices liability insurance (EPLI), and payroll processing.