The Simple Truths About Why Retargeting is Broken
As a parental co-founder (or dad) of 3 girls, I often have to teach them hard truths for their own good – ‘no, your science experiment can’t be asking your sister to stick a fork in an outlet’, ‘no, you can’t marry your 8 year old boyfriend’ and ‘you are absolutely not going out in that!’.
Sometimes, as marketers, we also need to hear similar truths – I particularly find myself telling those about the myths of ‘retargeting’.
‘No, site retargeting is not a prospecting tool’
‘No, using 5 simultaneous site retargeting vendors is not a good idea, even if they all think they are doing a great job’
and my favorite…
‘Your digital marketing performance is not as awesome as it looks because your site retargeting is hiding the real results’
These aren’t new ideas by any means, but it feels like there are only a few of us openly saying them. In part, it’s because marketers don’t want to hear them due to the ‘retargeting high’ – they are seeing some great results, which in turn makes them look great, and so want to believe in them and keep them coming.
Yet, the CMO or budget holder needs to be responsible for understanding what these retargeting truths are so that they can ensure their teams are using them correctly, measuring it correctly and not making big mistakes with budget allocation.