PPC Ad Retargeting How it Works and Why It’s Used

Have you ever been looking for a specific product or service online only to have ads for it show up all over your Facebook the next day? That’s called PPC ad retargeting, which employs certain technologies to “follow” you across the internet. This form of marketing can be particularly effective because it targets potential customers who have already shown interest in your brand and products, with retargeted website visitors being 70% more likely to convert on your website. With results like that, it’s easy to see why so many businesses are turning to retargeting to help them gain customers. But how exactly does it work? Let’s take a closer look.

PPC Ad Retargeting: How It Works

A website that is using PPC ad retargeting has a small piece of code that is invisible to your site visitors and doesn’t interfere with the site’s performance. When a potential customer visits the website, this code (usually called a pixel) is placed on their browser. This marks their browser as “cookies” and when they browse the web, this cookie lets retargeting platforms know when and where to serve you ads from the website. That’s why you always seem to see ads for shoes everywhere after you’ve been on a shoe website. The pixels essentially let the site’s ads follow you around the web so that they don’t lose your attention.

Why PPC Works

Oftentimes, a potential customer will visit your website, look around for a bit, and then leave. The goal of PPC ad retargeting is to recapture that visitor’s attention and get them to convert into a customer. It works particularly well because the customer has already shown interest in the website, thus they’re more likely to return. Retargeting is frequently used by e-commerce websites to help fight shopping cart abandonment. This is when a customer places items into their online shopping cart and then, for whatever reason, doesn’t complete the transaction. This is a huge problem, as nearly 68% of shoppers abandon shopping carts. Retargeting can help combat this, a great bonus for companies.

How to Make It Work for You

The first rule of PPC ad retargeting is to not show too many impressions. You want to capture the attention of the consumer, but not at the cost of annoying them. Don’t overload them with ads and banners, and set a cap to limit the number shown to each customer. In the same vein, don’t show too few impressions. If your customers are barely seeing your ads, then your retargeting isn’t doing its job. It’s all about balance, so make sure you find yours.

Just like the number of impressions customers are receiving, what they are shown is critical to the success of any PPC ad retargeting campaign. Ever see the same thing so many times you cease to even acknowledge it? You don’t want to happen to your ads. Avoid becoming background clutter by switching up your creatives every so often. This way, customers aren’t just seeing the same ad over and over. Similarly, don’t keep showing a customer retargeting ads if they’ve already completed the transaction. This is not only a waste of time and resources, since you’ve already achieved the desired goal, but you run the risk of annoying the customer and preventing them from returning to your site.

Measure Success

You can do all the PPC ad retargeting in the world, but if you don’t know what’s working and what’s not, your campaign will still be lacking. Make sure to measure your success through a service like Google Analytics. Tracking your ROI will help advertising efforts, making your life all the easier.

PPC ad retargeting can be extremely helpful, but it can also backfire. Make sure you aren’t overwhelming the customer with ads, lest they’re driven away by the very thing meant to capture them. So next time you spot an ad online, pay attention. It just might be retargeting in action.