Google now offers advertisers the ability to do remarketing

Have you ever wanted to reach people who have spent time visiting your site but then left before completing a transaction? Perhaps you are a college and frequently find prospective students visiting your website to browse course offerings but then never completing an application online. Instead, prospective students may end up doing more research once they leave your site and continue browsing the web.

Connecting with visitors based on their past interaction with your site

Remarketing is a simple way to connect with these students, based on their past interactions with your site. For example, suppose your college decides to offer a discounted application fee, or a unique scholarship to new students and you would like a way to reach these prospective students who have already visited your site and are familiar with your brand. Remarketing allows you (the advertiser) a way to reach these prospective students when they are browsing other sites within the Google Content Network. Your message will be served to them when they are on these sites at a specific time interval and frequency that you choose. The idea is that past visitors will be more receptive to your message because they have been to your site previously. In addition, your message can be tailored with an offer that is unique to these (perhaps more qualified) prospective students.

How does Google remarketing work on the back-end?

Google drops a cookie on the user’s browser and then is able to track where they go on Google Content Network. You put a piece of code on a specific page of your website, let’s say the first page of the application process, and everyone who reaches this page and then subsequently leaves to browse sites in the Google Content Network could be served a tailored message (such as an offer). In addition, you can also remarket to users who have visited your YouTube brand channel or clicked on your YouTube homepage ad.

What are some of the benefits of remarketing through Google?

Some of the benefits of Google Remarketing include:

• Easy Set Up: Just go to your Adwords campaign and select  the “Audiences” tab. There you will be able to create and manage your remarketing lists.
• Customizable: Your remarketing can be set up in a variety of ways. Find people who had started an application on your site but then left or find users who put items in a shopping cart but did not complete a transaction. Visit Google to learn more about strategies for setting up a remarketing campaign.
• Increase Reach: Widen your audience by reaching even more users multiple times over a time interval of your choosing. Connect with more users as they browse sites within Google’s content network.
• Flexible Pricing: With CPM and CPC bidding, you can select a bidding method that meets your ROI. You have control to optimize your bid higher or lower to reach your campaign goals.
• Refined Targeting: Target by geography or placement to reach users on select websites.
• Creative Testing: Create multiple ad text  messages for each remarketing list, or test different image ad placements. You can even use Google’s  Display Ad Builder to make banner ads for free.

Some Users May Choose to Opt Out from Remarketing

It’s true some users may opt out from remarketing. Google is serving your ad when it is related to a user’s interests and based on sites they have visited recently. This tracking is associated with the advertising cookie that is stored on the user’s browser.

If the visitor doesn’t want Google to store their interests, Google allows them to opt-out of ads permanently through the advertising cookie opt-out plugin at http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/plugin.

Even so, remarketing still presents a great opportunity to reach and convert users who have been to your website. And, with an adequate amount of testing and optimization, organizations should be able to find the right messages to help prospects convert more quickly to sales.