Monthly Archives: July 2010

Retargeting has become a standard online marketing tactic used to engage and convert potential customers.  However, there are a few different forms of retargeting and in this post I want to explain the key differences between search retargeting and site retargeting.

Site Retargeting

Site-level retargeting is the best known form of retargeting available today.  The goal of site retargeting is to encourage known customers to come back to your site.  The key point here is that you are not reaching new customers but are marketing to customers that have been to your site previously but who failed to convert.

When a potential customer arrives to your site, perhaps via paid search or display, they are cookied before they leave.  This cookie allows retargeting companies to bring the user back to your site after they’ve left by showing the user display ads while they navigate across other sites.  Over the past few years, site targeting has evolved and many companies now offer advanced retargeting capabilities. New techniques involve showing each lost visitor a unique banner based on their very specific past interactions on the advertiser’s website. This new form of retargeting involves real-time personalized banner creation and can results in a dramatic impact on campaign performance.

Site retargeting should be part of your marketing mix to convert lost leads.  The true cost per conversion can also be difficult to calculate because you have already paid once or more to drive that customer to your site.  Providers include Google, FetchBack, Criteo, AdRoll and most ad networks.

Search Retargeting

The goal of search retargeting is to find new customers by retargeting users based on the searches they have done on Google, Yahoo!, Bing or other sites.  For example, you may retarget anyone that searched for “insurance” on Google, or perhaps they searched for “LCD TV” on a comparison shopping site like shopping.com.   The important distinction here is that these customers have likely never been to your site before.  Search retargeting targets new customers who have shown intent to purchase your product or service based on the keywords that matter to you.  As a result, you are targeting purchase intent exactly like you do on AdWords.  Search-retargeting should be combined with customized dynamic ads that target the original search phrase the user searched for.

Summary

In my opinion, both site retargeting and search retargeting are part of an essential strategy for online marketers.  Additional info on search retargeting by chango