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Remarketing is a popular buzzword in search engine optimization/internet marketing circles these days. For those who don’t know, essentially it is when companies use your browsing data to place ads for their product on the web in assorted places for you to see after you see their products and don’t “convert” (IE buy their product or service). Common sense says that this practice is tremendously profitable for those who use it, but I wanted to examine the other side of the coin today, and compare and contrast the two viewpoints: Is remarketing a no-brainer for most consumer industries, or is it irksome and unwelcome?

 

You’ll see varying data on this: Internet marketing agencies will churn out graph after graph after graph after infographic to support their claims that if you don’t purchase their remarketing services you’re essentially leaking money, but as anyone who’s ever experienced these ads can report it can seem at the very least off-putting to see ads for Firestone tires following you around the web after just spending 3-4 minutes on Firestone’s web site. Are the naysayers complaints unsupported by the data and an exaggeration? Is remarketing something that customers won’t put up with at all once they realize how much they’re being followed around the web -- or, perhaps, is the time to stop remarketing now? Or do both viewpoints have some truth in them, and is there a proper way to do remarketing so that it doesn’t have this effect? These are the questions I’d like to examine in this article.

 

When researching for this article, I found that most of the data I found was from internet marketing agencies, with little rigorous sourcing -- leading me to question its viability -- these companies, after all, are looking to sell you their services. Their graphs also ignore the more holistic view of the situation -- when potential customers convert into paying customers, are they really doing it because of additional retargeting ads, and not in spite of them or due to other factors? Also, I wonder what long term impact these ads are having on these customers and potential customers view of the company -- are the companies suffering untraceable decreases in long-term profit as a cost for these increases in conversion? These questions will be difficult to answer, as they require more sophisticated study of the phenomena at hand than I think has really been done -- it is more the domain of academic researchers, and I haven’t found very many academic papers at all on the subject.

 

Some sources, however, I feel, have more possibility of being unbiased. SearchEngineLand.com and KissMetrics.com are both sources of information on search that aren’t being directly paid by consumers, so I felt they had more incentive to provide truthful information without any slant. While they are still in the search engine world, I felt that this layer of division gave them more authority. So let’s get into what they said. An article published by KissMetrics included this graphic:

 

 

Unlike the effusive displays of praise given by search marketers to remarketing (or basically anything SEO for that matter) this graphic seems to accurately reflect how most people I’ve met feel about retargeting. Though some know browsers track our every movement and click, still, to be reminded of the fact is unsettling. I think in the absence of real, scientific data regarding this it’s important to trust common sense. This doesn’t necessarily mean the end for remarketing and retargeting, it might just mean that it as to be done in a more intelligent way.

As this graphic indicates:

 

While in most phases remarketing seems to be detrimental, while a customer actively seeking out information on what he or she is considering buying, to be reminded of the product seems beneficial. The average attention span someone gives to a page before deciding to commit to it is only 15 seconds, so our remarketing might not be used as a pesky insistence, but a friendly reminder -- with the intention to remind him of a great service we can offer him, rather than wring his arm into buying what he’s already shown us he doesn’t want.

 

We have to also remember that a for-profit business isn’t here to save the world, it’s here at the end of the day to make money, though I’d hope it would be done with a conscience. For companies that want to take this strategy, it’s been shown that repetition of ads draws customers to a company’s products (it has to do with the reptilian, instinctual brain), and as we can all attest to, when we see a company’s ads everywhere we tend to assume they are more reputable and hence have higher quality merchandise. If we can suspend the truth at least in our subconscious that these ads are following us around the web, then remarketing can use this tack to further sales. But customers these days are getting smarter, and realizing what corporations are doing. Because of this fact, though this tactic appears effective on paper, I question its long-term viability -- especially as we head into the 21st century.

 

In summation, I think that remarketing can be an effective strategy, when employed properly. There are many different micro-strategies, settings to tweak in Google AdWords and the Display network and other remarketing platforms, but I would encourage you, the reader, to let the guiding light for your company be to help and inform your customers, not pelt them with ads until they relent. Your brand image is at stake, and while this strategy may yield short-term profits, I don’t think it will have long-term benefits for your organization. Optimize your strategy with this lighthouse sentence: “Let me guide my customers to products that they want without pressure, but instead by highlighting the features of my product that they may have missed and by helping them overcome the quick pace of the web through reminders” and I think you’ll not only save money on chase-them-like-a-lost-puppy-dog remarketing, but it will benefit your bottom line through increased sales at well -- long term. As Meg Ryan’s character said in the film “You’ve Got Mail”, what’s wrong with being so personal, anyway? As humans, we tend to anthropomorphize everything -- let your company be a friendly gent.

 

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