Basics of remarketing, how it works, and best practices and recommendations.

1. Latest News
bbc.com
Latest News
bbc.com
remarketing
July 15, 2014
Elias Dabbas

2. what is remarketing?
a way to target people based on their
previous behavior (visiting your site)

3. why it works?
the content people consume
is a very powerful indicator
of what they are interested in

4. how can a person end up on
a web page?
• direct: going to www.example.com
• search engine: they express their intent and select a result
that is relevant
• clicking a link: “read more about xyz topic” etc
• banner / ad: clearly showing what the landing page is about
• starting an app on a phone or tablet
• popups and popunders: most browsers block them, and
not allowed on the main ad networks

5. in all cases, the user knows
(expects) where they are going
!
they don’t randomly end up on a
page by chance
!
allow for 20 - 30% misleading ads,
or clicking by mistake, still 70 - 80%
is a very strong indicator of interest

6. remarketing
• how it works
• types of remarketing
• implementation
• types of tagging and segmentation
• examples

7. how it works
• the users visits your site
• a cookie is dropped on the user’s computer
• a label is given to that user (based on the cookie)
• the user is added to a list (the label)
• the user(s) goes to browse other sites
• the user is shown ads for your brand / website
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8. website segmentation
• mysite.com/news
• mysite.com/sports
• mysite.com/lifestyle
• mysite.com/fashion
• mysite.com/weather
• target each section visitor
with a different message
• groups (lists) may overlap
• makes more sense with
bigger sites that tackle
different topics

9. types of remarketing
• display: basic (traditional) type, targeting people who previously visited your site, or
sections of it
• dynamic: for very large sites with thousands of products, displays dynamically generated
ads for specific products
• remarketing on search: similar to display but on search
• similar audiences: takes hints about your visitors and targets people who are similar to
them
• exclusion (negative remarketing): not targeting users based on certain criteria
Google Facebook Twitter
Display Yes, on GDN network Yes, on Facebook Yes, on Twitter
Dynamic Remarketing Yes Yes No
Remarketing Lists for
Search
Yes No No
Similar Audiences
(lookalike)
Yes Yes Yes

10. implementation
• remarketing code is inserted on all site pages
• all settings and rules can be implemented from the
remarketing interface (this is where most work and
thinking happens)
<!-- Google Code for Remarketing Tag -->
<!--------------------------------------------------
Remarketing tags may not be associated with personally identifiable
information or placed on pages related to sensitive categories. See
more information and instructions on how to setup the tag on: http://
google.com/ads/remarketingsetup
--------------------------------------------------->
<script type="text/javascript">
/* <![CDATA[ */
var google_conversion_id = 961060489;
var google_custom_params = window.google_tag_params;
var google_remarketing_only = true;
/* ]]> */
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="//www.googleadservices.com/
pagead/conversion.js">
</script>
<noscript>
<div style="display:inline;">
<img height="1" width="1" style="border-style:none;" alt="" src="//
googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/viewthroughconversion/
961060489/?value=0&amp;guid=ON&amp;script=0"/>
</div>
</noscript>

11. visitor tagging options
• visitors of a page
• visitors of a page who did not visit another page
• visitors of a page who also visited another page
• visitors of a page during specific dates
• visitors of a page with a specific tag
• custom combination

12. segmentation by task
• people who log in
• people who don’t log in
• people who purchase an item
• people who start a process and don’t complete it
the pages people visit tell us a lot about
which task they have completed on the site

13. summary
• people don’t randomly go to pages, they expect
certain content before going there
• the power of content to inform us about user
interests is the basis of why remarketing works
• several types of remarketing exist: display, search,
dynamic, similar audience, negative
• setup is based on URL definitions and grouping

14. remarketing examples

15. example - banking
• people who never paid their bills
through the bank can be targeted, and
the targeting can be stopped once they
register (or after a certain period of time)
• people who transfer money can be
targeted with ads about transfer
promotions / benefits
• people who never visited the insurance
section can be targeted to get to know
more about insurance

16. example - travel
• people who search but don’t book can be
encouraged to book
• people who search and book can be given ads
about additional services (hotel, driver, etc)
• joint promotions can be run between insurance and
travel companies (people who booked a ticket are
traveling and need travel insurance)

17. example - retail
• people who bought a TV might be
interested in accessories
• people who saw a TV might be
interested in other similar TVs (to
help them make up their minds)
• people flying to a certain
destination might want to attend an
event / concert

18. negative remarketing
• a good way to attract new audiences who have
never visited your site before
• people who expressed their interest and filled a
contact form should not be bothered with ads after
you have contacted them
• people who visited a certain section of your site,
but not another
• at the end of a promotion or event
not targeting certain users for various reasons

19. list membership duration
and frequency of ads
• how long should the user be targeted after visiting
your site?
• this is part of the settings while creating a
remarketing list
• determine the maximum number of impressions a
user will see per day / week / month
• important elements of every campaign and depend
on several factors

20. list duration factors to consider
• high / low consideration: products that need a lot of
consideration (high prices, deliberate decisions) should
be targeted for a longer period, and vice versa for low
consideration items; house, car, vs book, phone cover
• event-based: keep targeting people until the end of the
world cup, schools begin, national day, etc
• market based: users in certain countries tend to plan for
longer times than other countries, even in the same
industry, target based on that
• reactive: discover how long it takes users to take the
best decision and target accordingly

21. caveats / why it might not work
• timing: although a user might really be interested in buying a
certain product, at the moment, they are browsing a completely
unrelated page because they are in a completely different mood
• use contextual targeting and then use remarketing when you
have exhausted your contextual budget
• combine remarketing with other targeting (contextual, interest)
• carefully target and set the duration and frequency
• visiting a page once might not really be a strong indicator of
interest
• try more than one criterion to make sure they are really interested

22. remarketing through google analytics
• extremely flexible
targeting based on
many criteria at the
same time (almost any
type of user definition)
• needs linking between
analytics and
adwords
• recommended as it
provides more
flexibility and options

23. thank you
!
!
elias@media-supermarket.com
slideshare.net/eliasdabbas