How Retargeting Boosts Personalization and Customization

By Seema Poptani

Many people will recall occasions when after visiting a website one day, the very next day they saw an ad for the same website while browsing online. If so, they were ‘retargeted’.

Retargeting is a popular form of marketing in the digital domain. Here, marketers present ads to users who have visited their portal earlier but may or may not have undertaken a specific action or purchase. Remarketing is an effective way to target those who have previously shown some interest in a brand or business. The term re marketing is used since existing customers or past visitors are targeted.

Understanding Remarketing

Whereas ‘remarketing’ and ‘retargeting’ are used synonymously sometimes, basic differences exist between the two. The main difference is in the strategy. While retargeting mostly concerns presenting ads to prospective consumers based on cookies, remarketing is generally done through email and by collecting users’ information and creating lists that are later used to send sales emails.

Although remarketing and retargeting are equally effective, a combination of the two is best to boost digital marketing activity while improving revenues.

Remarketing requires pixel installation. Let’s suppose Brand A creates a campaign for a specific ad network.It is then provided with a small piece of code or pixel tag to add to its website. Every time a new user visits the portal, an anonymous browser cookie is deposited by the code and the visitor is added to the retargeting list of this brand. When the visitor then visits another site that has display or native ads of this particular ad network provider, the system presents Brand A’s ad to the user. This will continue as long as Brand A’s campaign is active.

To elaborate, pixel tags comprise small pieces of code on webpages, which enable the website to plant cookies or ‘crumbs’ that are left behind by online visitors. Since each visitor generates a unique but anonymous ID, their website activity is easy to track through the trail of cookies.

For remarketing, the ad server network can access each visitor’s ID,saving it for relevant remarketing lists. A remarketing list refers to one with website visitors who perform specific actions on the site. For instance, a remarketing list of the Homepage will have all visitors to this homepage during a specific period. As each visitor lands on the homepage, his/her cookie is added to the remarketing list.

Thereafter, brands can only remarket to this list of people who had visited their homepage. Various kinds of remarketing lists can be created and messages customized for each list.

Meanwhile, more marketers are moving to mobile app remarketing from desktops to boost their user base, since sales conversions are much higher here. Since 2020, app marketers are focussing not only on acquiring new users but also on re-engaging existing and dormant ones via paid and owned channels. Remarketing now comprises an integral element of many apps’ marketing strategy because it boosts their users’ long-term value and profitability. Global statistics indicate that 20% of apps use remarketing. This constitutes an 18% rise over 2019 and a 65% spike since 2018.

Incidentally, the finance segment has recorded major year-on-year conversion growth, soaring more than 50%. This is remarkable as the number of apps using remarketing campaigns has only risen 4% between 2018 and 2020. Similarly, the other standouts of remarketing are shopping apps, which have grown by more than 30% vis-à-vis the share of remarketing conversions.

Nonetheless, a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work with digital marketing campaigns as customers expect more from their brands. Consumers want brands to comprehend their precise problems and offer solutions best suited for them. In such situations, some digital marketers may be in a dilemma whether to provide personalised or customized offerings.

Decoding Personalisation and Customization

Again, there may be some confusion because the terms personalize and customize are often used interchangeably. However, though some overlap is present, there are inherent differences too. While personalization is done for users, customization is initiated by them. In customization, users are told to pinpoint their preferences. Then they are shown the things they prefer.

For example, after Netflix users select the shows they like, options are offered as per those choices. The user’s account is then customized based on those preferences. Customization enhances users’ experience by allowing them to control what they wish to see. As a result, users are likely to respond positively to any ads they view later.

Conversely, personalization deploys data points or information about the customer for increasing user relevance to the cross-channel messages such as text and emails or the ads shown. Personalisation leverages insights such as behavioral patterns, basic demographic information and purchase preferences to curate marketing experiences for select audience segments, raising the likelihood of a higher return on investment. Personalisation improves the user experience since marketers can craft campaigns based on the data collected about their target audience and show them relevant messages.

Likewise, customization enhances the user experience as it allows them to choose their preferences. This makes it is easy for marketers to show them campaigns customized as per specific needs. Given their benefits, it is best to deploy an amalgamation of both to optimize marketing campaigns.

Not surprisingly, remarketing is one of the best ways to retain existing customers. Studies indicate it costs less to retain existing users than to acquire new ones. Whereas the probability of selling to a new prospect is barely between 5% and 20%, selling to existing customers has higher chances of 60% to 70%. Therefore, customer retention via remarketing is an excellent way to increase sales and revenues.

Indeed, 95% of first-time visitors won’t be ready to buy from an e-store immediately. It takes around three to four visits before visitors may buy from a website. During this period, brand awareness and user engagement keep rising, significantly increasing the chances of conversion.

The importance of conversion rates cannot be overlooked. As per research on e-commerce sites, the usual conversion rate is barely 2.86%. In essence, despite high traffic, sales are minimal. Remarketing helps to capitalize on all this lost traffic.

While remarketing can be used across sectors, it’s especially effective in e-commerce. Consequently, remarketing is an effective means to nudge first-time visitors into returning more often to an online platform and finally buying. Which is what remarketing is all about.

(The author is Marketing Lead – mPokket and the views expressed in this article are her own)