An Introduction to Retargeting: What Is It?

Posted on Jun 12, 2012 in Digital Visibility | 0 comments

Retargeting is a form of online advertising in which a user that has been to your website can be displayed ads from your media campaign on publishers and ad networks across the Internet.

This form of PPC campaign is very effective, since you are only showing ads to users that have been to your site (i.e. showing an interest in your product or service), instead of relying on demographic or other types of targeting to find users. Retargeting can communicate with the user after they have left your site and be the extra interaction that drives the user to come back and purchase, at times slashing cost per conversion in half, and increasing conversion rates by 600%.¹

Performance Attribution – How to Measure Success

Retargeting campaign performance, like most display advertising, is generally measured on click-through and view-through conversions.

Click-through conversions occur when a user is shown a display ad, clicks the ad and converts.
View-through conversions occur when a user is shown the display ad and navigates back to the site to convert, without ever clicking within the ad.

Attribution models containing both view-through and click-through conversions can become an issue for advertisers running retargeting in tandem with their other media placements, as individual publishers and ad networks serving the ads do not de-duplicate the conversions they count.

Retargeting – The Bottom Line

Retargeting relies on traffic from the advertiser’s website to build up a pool of users to target with ads, so it is strongly recommended that an advertiser run paid search, display ads, or email marketing along with their retargeting. While it can be effective on its own, retargeting is only able to fully maximize its potential when run as a part of a full media plan.

For more information about retargeting, display advertising, and paid search management, contact ZOG Digital.

To learn about more advanced retargeting strategies, please download our POV on “Sequential Offers with Retargeting.”