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by Courtney Bogolin on 10.28.2010 in Advertising, Interactive Marketing 0

Do you ever feel like you’re being stalked by online retailers? If so, then you’re not paranoid. You probably are being followed, or rather, remarketed to.

Remarketing is the ability to serve an ad to a consumer who previously visited the advertiser’s website. Reaching out to this audience is very effective; previous visitors have already expressed interest and are more likely to convert into a sale.

Not only does remarketing increase conversion, but it also augments visits. In fact, according to Daniel Yomtobian, founder and CEO of Advertise.com, remarketing has proven to boost ad click-throughs between 300 and 400 percent.

How It Works

Advertisers use cookies to track the pages visited and actions taken by a user. For example, advertisers know if you performed a download, made a purchase or filled out a form. Don’t be alarmed by cookies, though; they don’t pull any personal information from a visitor.

Zappos.com, eBags.com and Diapers.com are just a few large retailers who’ve implemented remarketing via third-party vendors, such as Criteo. According to Aaron Magness, the senior director for brand marketing and business development at Zappos, “The overwhelming response has been positive.”

Yes, It’s Affordable

Remarketing isn’t just for companies with deep pockets anymore. Last March, Google launched Remarketing in Google AdWords, which allows for small budgets unlike the large enterprise ad-serving platforms. Not only is Google Remarketing affordable, but it also uses the Google Display Network, which consists of more than one million sites.

Google’s Remarketing might have a wide reach, but you can cast your net as far or as wide as you’d like. Targeting by geography or by website genre is possible; therefore, you can reach users in specific regions and websites you select. For example, if you have an e-commerce site that sells dog leashes, then you can choose to serve ads on sites such as Petfinder.com, Dailypuppy.com and Upsidedowndogs.com.

Privacy Concerns

If you’re still creeped out, or maybe you’re just tired of being reminded about shoes you can’t afford to buy, there are ways to stop the ads.

• Opt out of behavioral advertising programs
• Set your cookies to expire when you close a browser
• Block cookies on your browser

Don’t be so quick to stop the ads, though.  First, check out the Internet Advertising Bureau, IAB, “Privacy Matters” campaign. This campaign hopes to quell the privacy fears associated with remarketing.

The IAB and advertisers hope that consumers will think remarketing is helpful.  Can serving the right message to the right people at the right time really be a bad thing?

* At Brighton, we have proven experience with Google AdWords & Google Remarketing. For more information, or to help jumpstart an online advertising campaign, feel free to contact us!

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