Drive customer retention with Google Dynamic Remarketing

With all this gushing about PPC and Google Remarketing campaigns, I strongly feel the need to let you know that I am not to be romanticized or this isn’t a sponsored post. I enjoy following remarketing best practices, and I’d like to provide some justifications as to why I think it is the need of the hour. 

Gone are the days when you were required to pay for people just to see your ads. Today, with PPC advertising, you only pay when a user clicks on your ad. The only downside is that you still need to pay for traffic that doesn’t buy the first time around. Here’s when remarketing comes into play.

For those who have no idea regarding the term: it is the practice of using ads to target those people who have visited your website or have already shown an interest in your products or services. The method allows you to show ads to people who have previously visited your website, as they are more likely to click on your ads in comparison to the new ones.

Renowned networks like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Bing Ads allow you to set up such campaigns easily. All you have to do is install a remarketing pixel on your existing site. This will automatically add a cookie on your visitor’s browser. Your ad network automatically identifies the cookie and lets you display a customized presentation to allure them.

Why consider Google Dynamic Remarketing?

The term allows you to show ads to those who have previously visited your website, but Google Dynamic Remarketing works on another level. Here it will enable you to show previous visitors’ ads that contain products and services they viewed on your site.

So why should you use it? A few reasons.

1. Retain site abandoners

One of the prime reasons is that Google Dynamic Remarketing enables advertisers to display ads to visitors who have abandoned their site, but it is mainly based on prior engagement. Which means ads can be displayed to those who have:

1. Already visited your site
2. Viewed a specific product
3. Added a product to the shopping cart but didn’t purchase
4. Already purchased products

2. Google display network

In layman’s terms, Google’s display network includes web pages or sites where Google ads appear. Right from Google search, YouTube, and Gmail, Google’s display network covers Google’s partner sites across the web. It’s pretty significant and is substantiated where retailers can get the opportunity to reach customers across different sites using different ad formats. In fact, you can choose which sites you want your remarketing ads to appear on, analyze site impressions, clicks, costs, revenue, and so forth.

3. Bid competitively

By using Google’s conversion optimizer, you can use conversion tracking on the Google display network to identify purchase behavior from click to purchase. By doing so, retailers can optimize their spend on remarketing. It may quite interest you to know that with the help of this conversion data you will know who purchased (and from where), the Conversion Optimizer identifies trends to help you avoid over-bidding for ad placements.

Here are five ways to reduce cart abandonment rates

As I said before, cart abandonment is a major concern these days. Like it or not, unless you are a master of remarketing you won’t be able to reach out to your previous visitors and get them back. Fret not! Down below I would like you to get acquainted with a few dynamic techniques that can increase customer retention.

1. Narrow down your audiences

Before you start any campaign, it is essential to segment your audiences. I often find businesses making this terrible mistake of targeting every visitor with the same campaign. No, that’s not how it should work. What’s a better way to split your audiences?

• U-turners – People who leave your site within seconds
• Scrollers – Visitors who spend more and more time on your page before leaving
• Clickers – Users who visit multiple pages and spend minutes on your site
• Easy quitters – Users who start the conversion process but quit before converting

2. There is a way beyond the landing page

Is a landing page everything that your visitors need? Probably not. To make the most of your remarketing efforts, you need to track users beyond the landing page to determine the pages they visit. This includes the landing page, product page, product category page, checkout and what not. Checking all these pages tells you a lot about a visitor’s interest. For example, the products they are interested in or the item they almost bought, and so forth.

If someone is showing a clear interest in your product, it apparently means stop targeting them with ads featuring your brand logo. Instead, target them with ads featuring the product they’re interested in and make it too tempting to resist.

3. Cart abandonment campaigns

Dynamic remarketing can reduce your cart abandonment rates. It all starts with tracking page visits. Try identifying users who tend to make it as far as the checkout but never reach the confirmation page. With the help of event tracking, one can track which products people add to their carts. In case if their products are still waiting for them, you can remind them.

Many people quit halfway through signing up for your webinar, filling out a quote, etc — you can track them as well.

4. Create campaigns for existing customers

In the quest for retaining previous customers, don’t forget to pursue the existing customers. According to several experts, it takes five times more effort to acquire a new customer than it does to keep your existing ones. So what can be done is:

• Cross-selling
• Up-selling
• Renewing
• Rebuying
• Reinventing
• Loyalty campaigns

5. Guide users along the buying process

Making a purchase is a complex journey for the end user as he/she has to make a ton of interactions with brands. The best advertisers tend to create campaigns that guide users along this journey.

Wrapping it up.

I hope I have made my point pretty clear stating why Google Dynamic Remarketing is apt for your online store. Share your thoughts in the comments.

Charles Richards is a Business Analyst at TatvaSoft UK.