Remarketing through Google Ads

Have you ever searched for a product online? To end up on the page of a particular site that sells it, and then to see advertisements with the site or even the product displayed wherever you browse? What did you say? Wow… Those people are probably investing a lot of money in online advertising and advertising themselves all over the ‘net… Well, actually, they are following you because you once showed interest in something they could offer you. They have used the clever tool provided by Google Ads, called remarketing, made you remember the brand, and in the end maybe even got you to buy products from their site.

What does remarketing do?

In short, it helps you display relevant ads to users who have visited your site. For example, you own an online clothing store. Because you want to recapture the audience that visited your evening dress pages, you will use this incredible tool. You will create a few banners containing images of evening dresses and a message showing that you know what those users are looking for, the banners will be displayed on any site they visit and … that’s how you get to “follow” them everywhere. Also known as retargeting, this tool allows us to identify users who visit certain pages (or sections) of the site and target them with a specific message.

Why use it?

It is a tool that helps you to place the image of the brand in the minds of users, so that when they decide to buy the product/service you will surely be among the options to consider, possibly even the top option. It’s useful because you already know that people who have visited your site are interested in what you sell. It is easier to get a conversion from someone who has already visited your site than from someone who has not yet had contact with your site. By showing visitors ads while they browse other web pages you gain exposure, become more recognizable, increase brand trust and ultimately gain customers.

How do we select the audience?

First of all you need a strategy when you start remarketing. You need to decide which of your website visitors will be retargeted. Here are some ways to choose your audience:

• choose visitors based on a particular page they have seen on the site
• select visitors who have placed products in the shopping cart but have not completed the purchase
• combine lists of visitors who have had different actions on the site. For example, users who have viewed a page of the site, but have not successfully completed the offer request form.

You can do this by using the URL of the pages on the site. If users visit a certain product page, you can use the URL of that page to create a remarketing list of those who have indicated an interest in that product.

Lists of visitors to be retargeted can be created from both Google Ads and Analytics. Below we have an image that captures the creation of a remarketing list using Google Ads.

If you also have an Analytics account you could use it to create these lists as it gives you more options to choose your visitors. In Google Ads you can only choose visitors based on the URL of the pages visited (as above), in Analytics you can also choose visitors based on the number of pages visited, time spent on the site etc., as in the image below, by setting your goals.

In some cases, it is also important to determine how many times a user will see an advertisement in a given period of time. If we show it to him too many times we might annoy him. It can lead to brand aversion and the campaign objective will not be achieved, and even important customers may be lost. For example, if you are going to retarget customers who have already bought and you know that it will take some time before they buy again, it would be good just to remind them from time to time that you expect them to buy from your store again.