What is remarketing and how does it work?
Remarketing is a strategy in online marketing where you show ads again to people who have previously visited your website, but haven't bought anything or taken any action, for example. The idea is simple: someone has already shown interest in your product or service by visiting your website, and with remarketing you can remind this person to come back and still take the desired action. This is usually done through ads that this person later sees on other websites, social media or in search engines.
A term often associated with remarketing is retargeting. Although the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there is an important difference. Retargeting specifically focuses on retargeting people based on their online behavior, such as visiting certain pages on your website. This is done primarily through ads on external websites and social media. Remarketing, on the other hand, is a broader strategy that can include other ways to re-engage previously interested customers in addition to ads, such as through email campaigns. So whereas retargeting focuses primarily on using online ads, remarketing can also use other methods to win back customers.
Technically, remarketing works through cookies, small pieces of data that are stored on the visitor's computer when he or she visits your website. These cookies track the visitor's behavior, such as which pages he has viewed or which products he has added to his shopping cart. Marketers can then use this data to create personalized ads targeted to these specific visitors. With tools like Google Ads or Facebook Pixel, marketers can easily create these remarketing lists and set up targeted campaigns.
A strong example of remarketing is the use of display campaigns, where personalized ads are shown on other websites that are part of an ad network, such as the Google Display Network. These ads are tailored to the products someone has previously viewed or even added to their shopping cart, but has not yet purchased. In addition, remarketing through social advertising, such as on Facebook or Instagram, offers the opportunity to reach people who have visited your website again with ads created specifically for them. Also within SEA (Search Engine Advertising), remarketing allows you to use specific keywords and ads to attract previous visitors back to your website. These different uses of remarketing help you increase the likelihood of conversions and effectively win back potential customers.
