This is why those who sell and offer online services such as web agencies and web marketing agencies give great importance to remarketing and retargeting strategies.
But before analyzing these two strategies specifically, let's start by defining the implementation methods and the proposed objectives.
Therefore, as we all know, marketing is defined as a set of activities aimed at marketing goods and services that are put on the market in order to maximize profits.
Remarketing and retargeting two strategies for the same objective but with some differences
With target, on the other hand, we refer to the target, or type of audience that the company intends to reach.
Choosing the target is essential for any company that intends to establish itself online. It must be made up of users who have interests and needs inherent to what is offered.
In summary, we can more easily identify the target with the consumer, who, consequently, generates profits with their purchases.
This explains why there is often confusion between the terms retargeting and remarketing: they are actions aimed at achieving the same objective.
Yes, because the ultimate goal of any remarketing or retargeting campaign is to reach a large group of users who have already shown interest in the products in some way through, for example, viewing a page or video (retargeting) or by purchasing products. previously or services offered by the company (remarketing).
Ultimately, in both cases the objective is to significantly improve the conversion rate.
Let's discuss the difference between retargeting and remarketing before getting into the details.
What is the difference between retargeting and remarketing? In retargeting we try to resume the user who has visited our site or Facebook page or video, or has put an item in the cart or stopped in the checkout process. For this, various retargeting techniques are used that we will see later.
In remarketing, on the other hand, we are going to stimulate one of our clients, for example through email marketing or inserting the email list into Facebook ads to build an audience. Oh yes, this is also remarketing.
Retargeting: how to filter your target
For retargeting, the use of cookies is essential.
Thanks to them, in fact, the actions of users who visit the site are recorded and constitute the starting point for building specific advertising messages, which will then be shown to the same visitors in subsequent navigations (also on other sites).
It is possible to filter your target, both by the type of product they have seen or focused on, and even by the route that users follow to access the site (search engines, social networks, etc.)
For example, for those who do affiliate marketing for some networks or the simpler Amazon affiliate program, this is essential. Being able to send ads to those who have already seen a landing page three times is undoubtedly a winning option that increases the conversion rate, since the potential customer is surely thinking about making the purchase.
But, in addition to the one that takes into account the actions carried out on a site, there is another type of retargeting, aimed at grouping potential clients who show interest in social networks. With Facebook ads it is possible to do targeted and really effective retargeting if done by professionals in the sector, and even later it will be possible to build a similar audience through lookalike, but be careful, the similar audience is not an attractive audience!
Therefore, in retargeting it will be essential to know the actions that users perform on the site or on a certain social page.
Remarketing: a direct message to the user
As we have already said, the way remarketing works is similar to that of retargeting. To understand the main differences between retargeting, let's start with two standard cases. The classic remarketing strategy, in the case, for example, of an e-commerce, consists of sending automatic emails after cart abandonment.
It is, therefore, a direct message to the user to re-involve them and convince them to put their intentions into practice.
Additionally, after sending the email reminding the customer that they have some items in the cart or wish list, it is possible to show them the products again and investigate the reasons why they did not purchase. To try to convince our buyer, we can highlight the benefits of the product or offer discounts and bonuses in exchange for the purchase.
Another basic form of remarketing is the possibility of using Google Ads display and showing ads to users who have visited our site, when they browse any other site that uses Google AdSense banners (that is, those that are part of the Google Display Network).
Remarketing and retargeting: the various strategies
Until now we have talked about the two strategies in a general way, but in reality, depending on your objectives, it is possible to take several paths.
In principle, we can divide the categories of users to participate into the following three groups:
- Users who have visited our website or social page
- Users who have taken actions on the site or interacted with the content of the social page
- Users who are already part of our contacts
Therefore, whether we decide to adopt remarketing or retargeting strategies, the total number of users does not change.
What changes is the information that we will have depending on which of the two paths we decide to take.
These are some cases of remarketing and retargeting applications to adopt based on pre-established objectives.
Targeted retargeting to reach site visitors
It is perhaps the most generic objective, but not the simplest for that reason. In this case, if two thousand users visit the site, our goal will be equal to the total number of visitors, that is, exactly two thousand users.
Since these also include those who have already taken actions on the site, or even purchased, it would be better to exclude someone and opt for targeted ad hoc campaigns, through channels such as social networks (in particular, Facebook Ads and Instagram) or ads in Google Ads
Retargeting to reach those who have not yet purchased
This type of campaign allows you to narrow down the target audience, including only users who have visited the store, perhaps even added something to the cart, but then did not complete the purchase.
With more appropriate communication it will be possible to make them return to the site again through Google Ads or Facebook Ads, using dynamic ads that directly show customers the products they previously viewed.
Remarketing to reach customers
As anticipated, the implementation of a remarketing campaign requires extensive knowledge of our clients. The concept of user disappears because, by having their contacts, they are no longer perceived as mere buyers, but as people.
The real objective of a remarketing campaign is loyalty and today it is possible to take advantage of newsletters with targeted campaigns (Direct Email Marketing).
Remarketing with Google Ads and Analytics
Building a remarketing audience in Google Ads is essentially based on visiting a specific URL, excluding or including those paths that, on our site, describe a specific context.
However, the game becomes much more interesting when we connect Google Ads with Google Analytics. Doing so is very simple, just indicate to Analytics the Google account with which we are working, through the "Google Ads Link" option. Once the connection is complete, thanks to the “Audiences” option, it will be possible to send Google Ads a first list of remarketing users, in this case obviously based on the site visitors collected by Analytics.
It is precisely based on the segments that Analytics cuts new sets of visitors from the starting list. There are some predefined segments on the platform, but it is possible to create new ones working on metrics and dimensions managed by the platform itself.
Retargeting and remarketing: pros and cons
Which way to prefer and why. These are the disadvantages faced by those who do not take the following elements into consideration.
We have seen that retargeting has indisputable advantages. In particular, it is possible to know: how many times the user sees the ad, for how long and after what actions they have taken (previous purchases, social networks, product viewing).
That said, it is also true that retargeting is a somewhat risky technique, especially if it is aimed at users over 30 years of age, to whom continuous exposure to the same product usually generates distrust and annoyance, which is why it is always necessary to Manage the frequency of ads by not splashing them over values that don't make sense.
On the contrary, for users under 30 years old, retargeting is almost always perceived positively.
Remarketing, on the other hand, can be effective due to the limited duration. Additionally, sending an alert to users when the offer is about to end can convince them to finally make the purchase. An SEO optimized landing page
and in accordance with the contents of the offer, it is logically necessary, given that, as is well known, the patience of Internet users is very low. Another important point is to pay attention to the management of email addresses, so as not to run the risk of sending emails with purchase invitations to users who have already purchased the product.
Conclusions for retargeting campaigns and remarketing campaigns
In short, there is no preferable path to one another, precisely because remarketing and retargeting are technically different from each other.
It all depends on what the initial objectives are and the mastery of the subject. First of all, it is necessary to know that retargeting is based on the behaviors assumed by a certain user, therefore not a contact, but someone who has performed an action within the website.
Furthermore, with retargeting, it allows you to carry out Brand awareness operations, which act on the memorization of the brand by visitors.
Remarketing, on the other hand, is aimed at those who have converted and who, in the example of an e-commerce, are already part of the customer database. It is an action with which we try to facilitate the choice and encourage the purchase, taking advantage of the advantage of being able to accompany the different phases of the marketing life cycle.
In conclusion, both strategies require maximum attention in the selection of the target and its preparation, in addition to the correct dosage of use.
The use of retargeting instead of remarketing, or vice versa, basically depends on the stage of the purchasing funnel in which the target audience is positioned and what is preferable to show customers at that time.
