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Pros and Cons of RETARGETING ADS

SCENARIO: A prospective buyer visits your Web site, then navigates away within a minute or two. You want them to return to your site, but how?

SOLUTION: Retargeting ads are designed to bring customers back by displaying your ads on other sites they subsequently visit. They also help give the impression that you have a substantial market presence and advertising budget.

HOW IT WORKS: A small piece of data called a cookie is automatically downloaded when someone visits your site. When that person subsequently visits one of millions of ad-supported sites, the cookie prompts that site to display your ad. (You decide how many times this occurs.) If the consumer clicks on the ad and returns to your site, you are charged a pay-per-click (PPC) fee, similar to other online advertising.

THE GOOD: The technology is generally considered very effective, but also underutilized. One provider, Fetchback, claims that retargeted ads outperform normal PPC campaigns by at least 74 percent. According to a study conducted by Advertise.com/SEMPO, 70 percent of marketers had never used the technology, but 43 percent of marketers thought retargeting was the "most underutilized marketing strategy." New offerings such as RoundTrip by AdRoll have put retargeting technology within the reach of smaller businesses. Earlier this year, Google also began offering retargeting advertising capabilities through its Adwords service.

THE BAD: Retargeted advertising is not without controversy. Privacy advocates have fought the practice. And if not executed well, retargeting can backfire with consumers, causing them to feel like they are being "stalked" online. It also takes time and manpower to create the ads and manage the campaigns, although these services can also be purchased.

For more information, visit the Today's Buyers Rep Newsletter.


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