What is Google AdWords Remarketing?

January 9, 2023

What is Google AdWords Remarketing? | AIA Book in a free 30 minute strategy session

The efforts that go into running successful ad campaigns can sometimes take a lot of marketers and business owners, and there are some instances where the results are nowhere near what you’d want. You pay for the ad to get users to see your pages for products and services with the hope they’d then act and convert. But in reality, conversion rates show that doesn’t always happen.

But, there is a strategy that could increase your conversions, and help seal the deal: remarketing campaigns.

Google AdWords remarketing is a marketing effort in which you run Google ads campaigns with the purpose of reaching an established audience of some kind, such as people who’ve already visited your website, viewed a particular product, or abandoned their cart mid-transaction.


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How Remarketing Works and What Are Its Benefits

Let’s assume you’re running a Google ad to get people to buy a new product you have to offer. You set up the ad to run on the Search Network so that it will appear every time a user types in the query that interests you. The ad does its job just great – people click on it and view your landing page. But, a lot of them don’t go through with the transaction.

If you leave the process like this, it’s easy to become rather frustrated with Google ads. After all, you’re paying Google for nothing, aren’t you? The conversion rates stay low and the products go unsold, and you may wonder if Google ads is really the best platform to reach your target.

But, there are a lot of different reasons why people don’t purchase a product right after landing on its page, and it’s not always about the ad or product itself. Sure, you need to make sure that:

  • The landing page
  • Ad copy
  • CTA
  • Offer itself

Are all working together to help you score a sale, but even when you do everything by the book, some people might still not go through with the process. And there are a bunch of different reasons for why this might happen:

  • They get distracted or sometimes else comes up and they can’t finish the transaction;
  • They need more time to research your product or brand;
  • They’re unsure if they really need the product;
  • They want to compare prices with competitors, etc.

The problem is, all these reasons likely mean the user leaves the landing page, and your conversion rates stay the same. Sure, they could go back another time, when they can give the product their full attention, but that may be expecting too much from your average potential customer.

But when you set up a remarketing campaign, you get the unique opportunity to go back to those missed opportunities and remind people of your product or service, through what’s known as retargeting ads. Potential customers can see these types of ads across all of the Google Network, such as the search engine results page, Display Network, or Youtube, depending on how you set up the retargeting ads.

The Benefits of Retargeting

Retargeting ads can be set up to achieve a variety of different goals, from driving up sales to boost registrations, mobile app installs, and more.

Here are some major benefits of remarketing campaigns on Google Ads:

  • Timely targeting – you can find people who have visited your site or a particular landing page at just the right time, and get them to go back and convert. Ads can appear in Google search right when they are searching for a similar product or service, and remind them they’ve viewed your page before;
  • More precise audience targeting – Google ads allows you to create special remarketing lists even based on a particular action a user has done on your site, such as people who’ve added products to your cart;
  • Wider, interconnected campaigns – you can reach audience members through different mediums, such as Youtube video ads, or display ads that can run on around 2 million sites part of the Display Network. These can all be included in the same Google ads campaign, which allows for an easy campaign and budget management and maximum reach potential;
  • Advanced data tracking – even if you technically know who your audience is when you remarket, such campaigns could potentially show you a bit more information about them, what they like, and what they respond to most. You can use that information to optimise future campaigns and marketing efforts.

Types of Google Ads Remarketing

Google Ads allows different ways to retarget potential customers:

  • Standard remarketing: done by installing the remarketing tag on your website, similar to how the Facebook Pixel works. This allows Google to track the people who visited your site and trigger the ads based on the type of action or event you want (such as adding to cart, but no payment);
  • Dynamic remarketing: similar to standard remarketing, except your remarketing audience will see ads with products or services they’ve viewed on your site, with messages tailored to the audience;
  • Video remarketing: targeting audiences who’ve interacted with your videos or Youtube channel;
  • Customer list remarketing: using the contact list you already have of existing customers, and showing them ads across the Google network.

Each type of remarketing ad could potentially help you reach your goals, but the key is to know how to set them up for maximum results. Below, let’s look over some of our best tips for Google Ads remarketing optimisation.

Optimising Retargeting 101

Before you create ads to remarket, it’s worth setting up your Google Analytics in case you don’t already have one. While you can run remarketing campaigns without it, and generate a remarketing tag in Google Ads, combining ads with Google Analytics gives you better targeting options.

Specifically, you can create remarketing lists based on goals, and not just the pages visited by your target audience. Instead, you can target based on audience behaviour, such as targeting people who’ve visited multiple, specific pages, or those who’ve spent a specific amount of time on your site.

Then, keep in mind the following tips to optimise your remarketing ads and maximise success:

1. Think of the Consumer Journey

The ad copy is often what seals the deal in remarketing. The messages you send can convince a user to go back to your site, and it’s important not to treat this copy just like you would any other ad.

The users have already an established bond with you, so the ad copy should reflect that in some way, and be indicative of what you want them to do. If, for instance, you’re targeting users that have abandoned their carts, the ad copy could specifically state that, which can help users remember their previous interactions with you.

Of course, remarketing copy can be tricky, so it’s best to test a few different messages and see which works best. But the golden rule is to calibrate the message to the specific audience section you’re retargeting.

2. Leverage Frequency Capping

Frequency capping is an option in which you limit the number of times your ads show to the same user in the Display Network or Youtube. There is a fine line between gently trying to convince users to go back to your site, and spamming them with your ads.

Sometimes, users just aren’t interested, so keep that in mind when running remarketing campaigns.

3. Switch the Landing Page

In some cases, it’s the landing page that makes users disengage with your site. While you want that level of familiarity, a good way to test landing page success is by using a different version in the marketing effort.

The product or service stays the same, of course, but everything from the page copy to the layout could be different. This way, you can discover what your target audience responds to more, and what they really don’t like to see on a landing page.

4. Leverage the Contacts You Already Have

If you have the email address of a good portion of your existing customers, there are two amazing ways to leverage them in retargeting:

  • Create ads especially for them, with unique offers they are likely to respond to;
  • Create similar audiences based on the characteristics of the one you have, and create campaigns for them.

Both these options could result in some amazing conversion rates.

Over to You

Remarketing is an amazing way to make the most out of your Google Ads experience, but we can help you run better, highly targeted campaigns.

Australian Internet Advertising is happy to help your business by creating an effective marketing campaign design for maximum results. If you want to work with us, we encourage you to get in touch online or call our office at 1300 304 640.

 

 

 

Billy P.

About The Author

William Polson founded Australian Internet Advertising in 2013 and has over 12 years of experience immersed in Digital Marketing.

With an in-depth level of digital marketing knowledge, William has been sort after by and worked for, many large national brands including Subaru, Blooms The Chemist, and Nova 96.9.

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