Anyone Use the Google AdWords Remarketing Feature?

by John Hocking

Posted: 14 years ago 16 replies

I just stumbled accross the remarketing feature in Google Adwords
How does remarketing work? - AdWords Help

Remarketing allows you to reach users who visit your website and show ads to them as they browse the Web. A remarketing list represents people you'd like to re-engage with a compelling message.

How does this work?

A small piece of code (remarketing tag) is embedded on your homepage, for example. This code tells AdWords to save visitors to your "Homepage List." As people visit your homepage, their cookie ID is added to the remarketing list. Then, you can create an AdWords campaign that targets messages only to people who are on this list as these people browse the Web. Your remarketing messages won't be shown to people who aren't on the "Homepage List."

Has anyone tried using this feature?

#adwords #feature #google #remarketing

CBMoneymachine 14 years ago

We have used the remarketing feature in work. It's pretty effective in some instances. Without explaining how to set it up, Google builds a list of visitors that have visited your site through certain ads and then follows them around the net placing ads from your remarketing campaign on the sites they visit. It's almost like chasing a pre-qualified group of people around the internet and showing them ads that you know they are interested in. We used an image ad with a caption saying "We know you looked at our **Product** on **site**... Worked with some people, pissed off some other people - our client actually got a written complaint from someone because they thought it was some kind of adware that the site had installed on their computer! I'd definitely recommend it - particularly if your products are high worth and might take a bit of convincing to buy.
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- John Hocking 14 years ago
  
  That does sound very interesting. I will have to give it a try.
  
  Thanks
  
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Fenster 14 years ago

Do you have any sense for how well it converted vis-a-vis your standard content network ads? I'd imagine the conversion rates are much higher but haven't any experience yet.
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- CBMoneymachine 14 years ago
  
  Hi Fenster Im in work now so I'll pull up the stats:
  
  Our content campaign last month had the following stats:
  
  Imps: 564708
  Clicks - 904
  CTR - 0.16%
  Cost - £525
  Conversions - 6
  Conv Rate - 0.66%
  
  Not very impressive but it's a pretty high worth product so it is still very profitable at this rate!
  
  The remarketing campaign
  
  Imps: 315117
  Clicks: 921
  CTR: 0.29%
  Cost: £456
  Conversions: 10
  Conv Rate: 1.09%
  
  I know the figures aren't that impressive but when you look at the statistical difference between the content & the remarketing campaign we can see that the CTR has increased by around 81% and the conversion rate has increased by roughly 65%.
  
  We are currently running remarketing on a couple of other accounts that have content campaigns that convert at a much better rate than this so it will be interesting to see if they increase at a similar rate. For instance if we have a campaign that converts on the content network at 5% will we find that it now converts at 9.05%? I hope so!! I will keep an eye on our current campaigns and let you know how they perform when we have gathered enough data.
  
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jcpryor 14 years ago

I've been noticing that some big time internet marketers have been using this strategy lately because their ads have been showing up on websites I go to that have nothing to do with their niche. I always wondered how/why they did that Lol. Thanks for bringing this up, John

I'm going to start doing some more research on this. CB, how long have you been using this strategy? Just for the last month?
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- CBMoneymachine 14 years ago
  
  Yeah it's a cool little advertising technique. I think we've been using it for about 2 months now, maybe a bit longer - not really enough time to draw any strong conclusions on it's effectiveness.
  
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Dreamsight 14 years ago

As a visitor it’s annoying and for an Adsense publisher it must be frustrating.
I couldn’t work out why I kept seeing booking com advert where ever I went. The strange thing was it showed holidays in Metz, which I had originally looked at from a link sent by a friend. When I’m looking at reviews on a new Android phone I’m thinking of upgrading to what’s the point showing me adverts on holidays France? The webmaster of the phone review site has lost my potential click through revenue because Google has served this irrelevant ad.

99% of the things I buy online I buy within the week I search for them. Bombarding me with adverts over the next month, year, rest-of-my-life is not only wasted, I’m starting to feel resentment towards booking com, almost like telesales pestering me with things I don’t want. I’m considering clicking the bookings ad every time I see it just to get even.
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Lucid 14 years ago

I've yet to use the remarketing feature. I have been "victim" of being remarketed to in places I did not expect, Youtube mainly, not only myself but my daughter too since we share the same computer.

I can see where this could help but it's not for every site. The ads would have to be different to be effective. For example, if you visited a site selling cell phones, the remarketing should be more like "Still looking for a phone? Check out our site again". Maybe have a discount code. But I can see where it could be annoying after a while.

I have a new client selling pet supplies where this could work. But he's too new, not enough traffic yet and not yet convinced about using Adwords. His remarketing ads could be along the lines of "Don't forget to get Fido new flea collars".
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InternetMarketingIQ 14 years ago

Interesting to read both sides of the story. But you can't look at the "victim" perspective as an internet marketer. How many people in the General Public will really figure it out?

Google will keep pushing it as long as it works. It's always about the money not about the experience. If the Internet were about the experience then most people would have left by now. People will put up with so much.
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Dreamsight 14 years ago

"victim"

nice one Lucid, nail on the head...
As a publisher I'd like the option to turn this feature off in Adsense. A lot of time and money goes into producing a site and attracting a visitor and they are on the page for one reason only. They are interested in the subject and have gone out of their way to search for information on that subject. I want ads relevant to that specific subject and not random topics.

I can see how it could work for social network sites, as their pages are not subject specific and random themselves.
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- nailrogers 14 years ago
  
  It definitely looks interesting. Will give it a try.
  "And u wonder u knew it all"
  
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- Lucid 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Dreamsight
  
  nice one Lucid, nail on the head...
  
  Maybe victim was the wrong word. I do lots of research for clients and visit lots of sites for which I have no personal interest in.
  
  Most people will have two or three interests. Let's say a doctor who likes dogs and baseball. I don't see too much problem when he visits a site about dog care being shown an ad about tickets to the next game. He might say "yeah, the big bad Yankees are in town, I'll go see the game" and click the ad.
  
  That's a win for the buyer. A win for the site selling the product. A win for the site getting a share of the click cost where they may not have gotten anything before, even if the ad had nothing to do with the site.
  
  >> As a publisher I'd like the option to turn this feature off in Adsense.
  
  I don't use Adsense but I agree. Maybe you do have the option. However, thing about your visitors. They surely have more interests than the subject of your site. If they click on an unrelated ad, that's a plus.
  
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DLNeuenschwander 13 years ago

Hi All,

I'm curious if anyone has any recommended "best practices" for remarketing with Google.

For instance, obviously you'd want different ads for visitors and subscribers. Should those be two different campaigns or just different ad groups within the same campaign? Please also include a "why" in your answer. Thanks so much for your help!
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- NovaPublications 13 years ago
  
  Remarketing or Retargeting was beta tested by Google last year. The technique is not new but it has only been performed by companies on sites. Google saw the potential and went for it. Now it is combined with an AdWord account.
  
  As some of the previous posters here have, we also set up our own Remarketing programmes but Google's instructions are less than clear, and not always easy to follow or find! Bless them, good innovators but not text book writers!
  
  So yes, as we are text book writers, we wrote an E-Manual on it which explains step by step how to set up the programme.
  
  Brilliant technique if used correctly, but can be a deterrent if used in 'stalker' or 'creepy' mode. However you can choose specifically which part of Google's network you want to show the ad, you can be very specific with selecting your audience, and it may be prudent to use it sparingly, so that you do not get the 'pissed' off approach. There is a way too of turning off the ad and cookie availability.
  
  But Top Internet marketers are using it and as usual keeping it quiet Can't blame them really because it really is effective at retargeting that 98% of visitors who look at your site and leave without doing anything.
  
  Remarketing
  
  We have created our own banners ads and it is proving effective. As with everything else on the Internet it is 'crest of the wave' time and when everyone starts using it, two things will happen, it will become expensive and less effective!
  
  Please look at our site, we offer a free preview and oh joy! you can affiliate with this product and earn 50%! Every little helps as someone once said
  
  http://www.remarketinginfo.com
  
  Best wishes
  Nova Publications
  
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  furic 13 years ago
  
  I'm not sure if you got what you were looking for but if not, I just published a WSO that not only explains retargeting/remarketing but also gives you step-by-step instructions on exactly how to implement it using Google AdWords.
  
  Here's the link.
  
  /joseph
  
  The price is extremely inexpensive and it gives you everything need to know on this topic.
  
  Thanks
  
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  effectivesite 13 years ago
  
  Remarketing has worked pretty well for me with e-commerce sites.
  The ad copy I use doesn't acknowledge the fact that they've visited my sites before but offer some blowout offer or discount code that isn't mentioned on the site to try and get the people sitting on the fence to act.
  
  It's funny but I've actually had some irate people contacting me saying they're disgusted with my sites and would never buy from them again since they were reading an article with content that they didn't agree with (usually political or celebrity gossip) and they saw one of my remarketing ads on the page.
  
  For the low ticket items it's not worth the time to block sites to avoid loosing a couple potential customers because of disagreeable content but if it's big ticket items I'd be a bit more weary of where your ads are showing up on the network.
  
  Thanks
  
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