Out of Site, Out of Mind? The Benefits of Remarketing Campaigns

August 23rd, 2012 by Search Influence Alumni

In advertising, the Rule of Seven states that a potential consumer must see or hear your ad at least seven times before taking action and actually purchasing your product. While this rule is not set in stone, it establishes that you cannot simply engage your target market a single time and expect to stick in their minds. With the sheer volume of ads we see daily, people have adapted to an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality with products and brands.  In order for you to obtain optimal results, the Rule of Seven asserts that your marketing campaign must include continual efforts towards staying in the forefront of people’s minds.

To best apply the Rule of Seven to Internet advertising, I recommend a remarketing campaign.  Whether your goal is to drive sales, promote brand awareness, or increase the number of leads you receive (phone calls or forms filled out on your site), remarketing—if done correctly—offers an innovative way to convince those fair-weather consumers to return to your site.

According to Google, “Remarketing is a feature that lets you reach people who have previously visited your site and show them relevant ads when they visit other sites on the Google Display Network.” By implementing remarketing code on specific pages of your website, all visitors to these pages are given a specific cookie ID which is added to your remarketing lists. Once you receive 50 cookie’d users per a given page, you can stay in touch with these visitors by showing them ads across the Google Display Network, which includes any sites that run Google ads.

Remarketing most benefits Ecommerce retailers because advertisers can market individuals who may have gotten as far as adding products to their shopping cart before abandoning the sales funnel. Ecommerce sites can also direct special offers and promotions straight to their remarketing lists as well.

Keep in mind that remarketing campaigns are not meant to initiate sales, but they are fantastic for closing them.  For the most effective campaign, advertisers should combine a display campaign dedicated to branding with a remarketing campaign. A strong display campaign will drive new traffic to your site based on their keyword searches. Once these individuals are introduced to your brand and added to your remarketing list, you will appear to them across the Display Network. Your ads will serve to remind your visitors that, at some point, they were interested in a product on your site, thus eventually leading them back to the site to complete the sale.
By analyzing your remarketing lists, you can better deconstruct the demographics of your target audience. These demographics can later be used for other marketing campaigns. Specifically for Internet marketing, demographic research can influence the style of ads, the placements for your display campaigns, and the keyword research you conduct. You can also attribute your demographic research to Facebook campaigns,

So now, even when your viewers are out of site, you can keep your brand on their minds!