Today there are many terms related to Internet topics that can escape your understanding. One of them may be retargeting, a concept that very few are familiar with. And yet it is very important.
If you would like to know what retargeting refers to, how it works, the advantages and disadvantages it has as well as the types and improvements you can give it, do not hesitate to take a look at the following information.
What is retargeting
Imagine that you suddenly want to buy something online. You are looking for an ecommerce, you enter, you are looking at the product, seeing the advantages and disadvantages and, suddenly, you do not finish making the purchase for whatever reason (you have to go, it seems expensive, you think better of it). So you quit. But, why are these products starting to appear on Facebook? And why do you get ads for the same thing when browsing other web pages? Do they have us booked?
The truth is that all this has a culprit: retargeting.
It is a “legal” digital marketing technique that is responsible for attracting attention, to impact users with things they have interacted with at some point. In other words, we are talking about reminding users of products that they have seen or are interested in, making them not forget about them (even when they have already bought them).
How does it work
If you are wondering if you can have a say in this, the truth is that it is not easy. For retargeting to work, what they do is "strain" some cookies into your browser. And this happens on almost all web pages. Therefore, when you enter another that accepts third-party advertisements, these are "personalized" with products or stores that you have previously visited.
It is a way of telling the user that they have visited a product and a website. Or that you have left something incomplete (the purchase of a product, the alternatives of that product on other sites, etc.).
Its operation, therefore, is very simple:
- You visit a web page, either with a product, with a news item, etc. In this step the cookie is installed in your browser.
- You go out and go to another website. Then you start to see that its advertising is related to what you have visited before.
- You go to social networks and the same thing happens.
And it is that cookies are very selective and are created so that you do not forget that interest that you have shown. Hence, when you stop looking for it or change it for another product, the advertising changes.
Advantages and disadvantages of retargeting
Now that you know retargeting a little better, you should know that, just as it offers advantages, there are also some disadvantages to its use. In more detail, you should know that, Among the advantages, you have:
- Reach a limited audience that has shown an interest in the products you have. In fact, according to the results, many end up buying the product they have been looking for, perhaps not at the beginning, but in a short period of time.
- You can make specific branding by focusing on users who have shown interest in the company or the products.
- You can segment, targeting the ads according to user behavior. In this way, you can choose a limited number of your products and bring them closer to users based on what they are looking for or what they want, in such a way that the conversion rate increases significantly.
- You impact users with products that they really have an interest in. And that means that you have a better chance of finally buying.
Meanwhile, the disadvantages that you are going to find with retargeting are:
- Damage your reputation, especially if you go overboard with ads, which can be considered intrusive and annoying, making the person not want to know anything about the company.
- Be repetitive, especially when the purchase has already been made and even so, ads for that product continue to appear, which can be annoying to the user.
- You may consider that your behavior is being spied on and, therefore, feel insecure, making purchases more spaced in time (or that you do not want to carry them out). There are times when many "shield" browsers so that cookies are not installed on them.
Types of retargeting
Now that you know what retargeting is, the advantages and disadvantages and how it works, you may need to know that there is not just one retargeting to apply, but several of them. And each one can be the best in each case.
Thus, you find:
Retargeting on the web
We are talking about the most common, since it will be the one you find when you visit a web page, be it just a blog, a website, an ecommerce, etc. Once you arrive, it will leave a "cookie" in the browser that you are using to navigate through it, so that, when you leave, you will begin to See ads related to the business you have visited.
Dynamic retargeting
It is a variation of retargeting that only applies to ecommerce. What are you doing? Well, when you have a large volume of products, what it allows is to automate the ads, in such a way that you can influence what is shown to others.
Social
It is very similar to the above, only, in this case, where the ads will be displayed will not be on other websites or when you are browsing, but on social networks, especially Facebook, Twitter ...
Retargeting in email
Well yes, there may also be a retargeting in emails. To do this, what is done is that a cookie is introduced in the browser in order for advertising of that company to be displayed. And they do it as soon as they open the mail that reaches you.
Through searches
Why is it that when you search for a product then you don't stop seeing advertising for it? Well, yes, that is what retargeting does through searches, in sending advertising of what has been searched for in search engines.
Retargeting «cookie-lists»
You may have an email list. And many of those people who have only left the email and have shown interest at some point will have a cookie in their browsers. What does that allow? Well, even if they haven't visited your website for a while, they can show ads related to it.