The Remarketing Revolution in Pay-Per-Click Advertising

(Click on the image above for a PDF of the original article.)

I wrote previously about how Pay-Per-Click advertising can bring you leads and get you that all-important first consult less expensively than just about any other type of advertising can.

Just to review very briefly, a very small proportion of the public is ever going to be your prospect.  Therefore, radio, TV, direct mail, and Yellow Pages advertising mostly is seen by people who are never going to pick up the phone and call you—but you pay a lot of money up front anyway.

Pay-Per-Click, on the other hand, only costs you when your ad appeals to someone enough that they click on the ad and get directed to your website.  Then your landing page takes over and hopefully is appealing enough that Ms. Prospect calls or at least requests more information through your website.

Here’s the “Remarketing Revolution”—

Even though you wrote a good ad that got people to your website, and even though your landing page/website was informative and appealing . . . still, only a very small proportion of your website visitors will pick up the phone or even request additional information.

What to do about all those people who leave your site without taking the next step? (Google says that 97% of your visitors, on average, do so.)

You “remarket” to them, that’s what.  (Google calls it “remarketing”, most of the rest of the world calls it “retargeting.”)

Remarketing takes a number of forms, and it keeps evolving, but the bottom line is that when someone visits your site, you can “tag” her, so that as she continues on her way around the web, you can show her your ad from time to time, so that she doesn’t forget you, and so that when she’s ready to act, you’re “top of mind,” and she calls you, and not someone else.

The ads can be display (graphic) ads, text ads, even videos.

You can target people who looked at a certain page, or who spent a certain amount of time on your site, or who bounced off your site quickly, or who looked at a certain number of pages, or who looked at your “about us” page.  You could even target someone who spent a certain amount of time on your facelift page and who then went to your testimonials page.  That lady is a live prospect, even if she didn’t pick up the phone right then!

Retargeting is extraordinarily powerful.  You get to keep getting in front of people who have already shown interest in what you do and who are already familiar with you.

And you get to show them not just generic ads.  A well-put-together campaign will show a scar revision ad to the visitor who checked out that page, a breast enhancement ad to the lady who spent time on that page, and something about Botox(r) or Dermabrasion or rhytidectomy to someone who spent time on your facelift page.

It’s a little like “branding”—the kind of thing that huge advertisers like Ford(r) or Coca-Cola(r) do.  They just keep putting their names out there in front of you so that you never forget them—so that in that instant of decision, you think of them instead of someone else.

You get to do the same thing much more elegantly by showing an ad about the precise thing your visitor has already shown an interest in on your website.

That’s really huge.  It’s only the most significant innovation in marketing since toll-free phone numbers!

Do it Properly

You have to do it right, of course.  You mustn’t show your ad too often, and you need to change your ads around so that your prospect doesn’t feel “stalked”—especially for something as personal as plastic or cosmetic surgery.  You need to show ads that are relevant, but not so specific that the viewer feels that you’re violating her confidence.

You have to rewrite your privacy policy to reflect that you’re using remarketing cookies, and there are dozens of other things to think about.  It’s definitely something to talk to a PPC professional about, because there are plenty of ways to go awry and achieve the opposite of what you would like to accomplish, by annoying or offending your visitor.

Also, there’s no point in trying to run a remarketing campaign if you’re not already running a well-performing Pay-Per-Click campaign and capturing and analyzing the data with Google Analytics or a similar analytical program. You have to learn to walk before you can run, and the data you obtain from your basic Pay-Per-Click campaign will help you maximize the results of your remarketing campaign.

Remarketing Done Right

What can you expect when it’s done right?

Because you can be so creative with your ads, and can target them so accurately to the concerns people have already shown interest in, well done remarketing campaigns can get you three or four times the responses, or even more, and can get you double the consults– and those added consults may well cost you only half as much.

If you’re not already using the Internet aggressively in your marketing, especially Pay-Per-Click advertising and Remarketing, you should certainly consider it.  Done right, you’ll realize a very nice return on investment.

All trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.