Banner Ad Retargeting: Why your business needs to harness this red hot advertising tactic in 2016

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February 26, 2016

Ever noticed when you surf the Internet and visit a specific site, an ad from that site starts to pop up periodically when you visit your local weather, news and sports Websites? If you answered yes, then you’re ahead of the curve. If you answered no, then get ready to learn about one of the biggest Web Marketing game-changers for 2016. And, now is the time to talk about how this process, known as “Retargeting,” can work to get you more business this year.

Retargeting is a method of putting your business back in front of consumers who have previously visited your Website or even just searched for your products or services. It combines two specific tools: Site Retargeting and Search Retargeting.

What is Site Retargeting? When someone visits your Website and leaves, they get tagged as “Interested Consumers.” Then, as they visit their favorite News, Entertainment and Sports sites on the Web, they see your ad which in turn reminds them to return to your site and contact you.

What is Search Retargeting? When someone searches for your products or services, but doesn’t find your business listed, they are identified as an “Interested Prospect.” They are then exposed to your display ad over time as they browse the Web on their favorite media properties.

By combining both tools, you can greatly increase the chances someone interested in your services ends up calling you. Retargeting is a perfect complement to traditional Pay-Per-Click efforts because it specifically focuses your advertising on people who are already familiar with your brand or have already shown interest in your services. This targeted advertising can lead to a higher ROI than other forms of marketing.

Here’s the catch…
Retargeting isn’t a good enough strategy on its own. It performs best when it’s run in conjunction with other marketing efforts like Search Engine Optimization. Those efforts will get more traffic to your site, and retargeting will increase the likelihood that each of those visitors ends up calling to use your services. Without a steady flow of traffic to your site, there won’t be enough people to retarget to.

I’m convinced! How much does it cost?
Not much – as low as a penny per lead. But, a better way of looking at this topic would be to consider what percentage of your monthly marketing budget should go toward retargeting. According to a recent study from Marin Software, the majority of marketers spend under 10% of their budgets on retargeting. Chances are that will end up being somewhere between $500 and $1000 per month, which is plenty of spend in order to make sure your ad is displayed sufficiently enough to get leads. It’ll only cost you a few cents every time the ad is displayed, which allows for a good amount of flexibility. Talk to an expert who can work with your budget to maximize your ROI on a retargeting campaign.

The final word
Retargeting is typically favored by marketers and business owners who have the time to monitor their spending, target data, and ROI – and have the chops to actually design and test ads. If you’re looking for something you can ‘set and forget,’ you probably shouldn’t try to manage a retargeting campaign on your own. It takes time to keep track of all the data that comes through in order to optimize a campaign so consider hiring an expert to manage your campaign and help design your ads. It’s a small investment in addition to a monthly click budget, and can pay much bigger dividends by driving stronger results.

Consider Retargeting as another tool in your marketing toolkit, to help you take your business to another level this year.

Author
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Brian Kraff

President at Market Hardware, Inc.

Brian is a co-founder of Market Hardware. He is a member of the ‘club’ of Internet media executives who are tapped into the daily changes of how the internet affects all small businesses. Brian is a frequent speaker at Industry and Association tradeshow conferences. He was an integral part of the group of marketing experts who pioneered the pay-per-click model in 1996, the pay-per-lead model in 1997, and has been at the forefront of getting customers from the Web ever since. Prior to founding Market Hardware, Brian was the founder and CEO of eStudentLoan, the world's largest comparison marketplace for student loans. His role as a Founder and Chairman of 13 Colonies Software (now part of Interwoven/Autonomy) was a highlight of his experience in the Enterprise Web Content Management space. Brian has a B.A. from Cornell University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.