Retargeting on Google: Avoid these costly mistakes
This pandemic has created a great many challenges, and after gaining a few pounds (actually more than a few), I decided to get back on track and start a workout regimen. And I was in the market to try whey protein. So I went to one of the UK brands suggested by a friend (thanks Adi). I went to their website and then I noticed their ads across a few publisher sites. After deciding to isolate whey protein, I purchased the whey protein from their mobile app. Even after purchasing, I kept seeing their ad on different websites again and again which irked me as a customer.
Retargeting gives a brand the means to reach customers across the web on thousands of publisher websites. However, brands need to take care not to ruin the customer experience. As such, we recommend to do the following:
Segment purchasers list
It is always a good practice to make a separate list of customers. By making a separate list of customers, you can separate them from retargeting audiences by adding them in exclusions and save some cost as you don’t have to retarget customers with a product that they have already purchased.
You can segment and exclude in Google Adwords by going to Tools & Setting>Shared Library>Audience Manager. There are multiple ways to make a list of customers:
If you have a conversion tracking tag set up, Adwords makes an automated list usually under the name of “All converters”. However, the membership duration may not work for you.
Create a new audience based on visitors to a page and match URL to the transaction page (usually thank you or receipt page). In case the value of receipt changes, you can set the URL “starts with” option.
You can upload a customer list. However, this may need regular updates and may not serve to be the best option.
Once you have segmented the customer list, add the audience in exclusions of your respective retargeting campaigns.
Reduce impression frequency to avoid banner blindness
If a person sees an ad again and again, eventually he becomes impervious to ads, and as such the ads do not serve any purpose except increasing cost for the advertiser. Most advertising software do run an algorithm so that ad deliveries are optimized. However one can also cap the display of ads manually.
In Google Adwords, just head to display campaign settings and find Frequency management (under additional settings). Set the frequency cap as required.
Creatives or Banners
Not everyone loves the same flavor of ice cream!
If you are just using single creative with different sizes, that creative loses its effectiveness after a while and becomes redundant. It is better to have multiple creatives with a few popular sizes. You can also take advantage of responsive banners in Google Adwords which typically will cover most publisher ad size inventory.
Cross-sell products
Do not miss out on the opportunity to cross-sell products to people who have already made purchases on your website. We mentioned earlier on making a list of customers which can be easily used to cross-sell. If a customer has purchased an item from your website, trust factors are already developed. Leverage these signals to cross-sell related products to customers’ purchases. For eg- if a customer has purchased a drone, why not cross-sell VR goggles to improve the flying experience?
Many brands miss the opportunity to cross-sell a product after a customer has made a purchase. It is likely that the customer may be interested in products but just needs a nudge to do another purchase.