The Biggest Mistakes in Remarketing & Retargeting + the Best Solutions

Remarketing is the be-all and end-all in online marketing. Also known as retargeting, a visitor to a website or online shop is repeatedly reminded of the visitor through various channels. In marketing, this is referred to as remarketing touchpoints. On average, a buyer in the B2C sector needs between 3 and 7 touchpoints to purchase a product. In the service sector, it looks similar with 3-5 points.

The Most Common Remarketing Channels & Platforms

Retargeting can be realized with various media in different locations to address the appropriate target group specifically and without significant wastage at the right interval. A distinction is made in the medium between text ads,product/shopping ads (feed ads),image ads, and video overlays.

Depending on your goal and orientation, you can choose the following placements:

1. Google Search Results / Search Network
   You have probably noticed it before. As soon as you visited a website, the same pages often appear in the upper text ad blocks in the search results. This is usually not because there are no other competitors, but because of a clever RLSA strategy (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads). Here, a familiar page or online shop is preferentially displayed to you in the upper search positions within a defined interval. This also applies to partner search networks that use Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
2. Google Display Network
   Advertising on major news portals, on wetter.de, or other internet forums and portals? With Google Display Ads, this is no problem at all. Whether as a simple text ad, image, animation, video, or dynamically filled with suitable shop products, you can track visitors to your website on other sites on the internet and advertise attractively. You only pay for the click on the ad and not for the display of the advertisement. In remarketing, placement on thematically relevant portals is thus a revenue generator with very low costs and minimal wastage.
3. YouTube and other video platforms
   Often annoying, but a good channel to bring visitors back and engage them with overlay ads, similar to those from the Display Network. Video ads before, during, or after the watched video are also very interesting for addressing doubts among interested parties. With a well-produced video specifically for this purpose, you can reach 100% of your target audience and realistically lead up to 80% back to conversion/lead. Personality is key here. Billing is based on viewing duration and clicks.
4. Social Networks
   Probably the most interesting remarketing target are social networks like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Xing, etc. Whether B2C or B2B, remarketing is suitable for everyone, and privately, most users spend several hours on these networks. So why not directly address the right users there, feed them information, and lead them back to your own site or online shop? Especially tailor-made ads, product feed ads, and a slightly more aggressive approach promise true wonders here. For this, a conversion pixel and so-called audiences are usually used.
5. Messengers and Chat Programs
   Where people communicate, you can interact and convince them. Whether as a remarketing target group or an interest-based advertisement. Your ad in view during direct communication can be a revenue guarantee.
6. Marketplaces and App Stores
   Less common but increasingly popular are ad placements on marketplaces and in app stores where you can display yourself directly next to competitors or competing products/service providers. With click-based billing, you take minimal risk with maximum target group acceptance.

The most common mistakes in remarketing & retargeting

1. Mistake: Wasting money on the wrong people = target group definition
   Some of your visitors land on your page by mistake, and some may not feel addressed and will never buy or make contact. This can be determined by the bounce rate and the duration of the visit/time spent on the page. Whatever the reason they leave your website, one thing is certain: you should not address them again.
   You should not waste money on this type of traffic. Instead, you should remove everyone from your target audience and rather focus the budget on genuine prospects.
2. Mistake: Treating all people equally
   Every visitor is at a different place in their search, booking, commissioning, or purchasing journey. Similar to real life, no two people are alike.
   Some of your visitors come directly and buy, some will analyze the product or service a bit first, some will look closely at your information, some will read your specifications in detail, and some will contact or buy immediately because they already know you or have informed themselves thoroughly elsewhere beforehand.
   And because every prospect is different, you need to re-align and address your ad targeting INDIVIDUALLY, depending on their current position in their journey.
3. Mistake: Mixing visitors and prospects
   Suppose you have 2 websites or 2 different areas of your website that may overlap slightly, e.g., a fishing spot for visitors and a hunting ground for prospects. If you want to address these two target groups, you need to present specific, relevant information and later segment precisely and link and redirect correctly in your remarketing campaigns. Ensure that your retargeting budget is not wasted on ads that are simply not relevant to their target group.

The solutions for this:

1. The goal, in addition to more sales and profit, is primarily: ROAS, which stands for Return on Advertising Spend + ROI = Return on Investment.
2. Think ahead and align landing pages precisely with the journey and the goal.
3. Avoid linking to the homepage (exception: one-page sites).
4. Create many different lists/audiences with precise targeting and suitable campaigns.
5. Create suitable ads for the lists, not the other way around!
6. Always target only customers you truly want and forgo visitors who will not convert anyway.
7. The more conversions you get and the more compelling your ads are for your potential customers, the cheaper your clicks will be, which in turn means an increased number of searchers!
8. Tip: Use Google Analytics (GA) and avoid other tools or consider them only as a supplement! Reason: List creation with Google Analytics offers significantly more and more precise design options (over 200 key figures and variables) than in AdWords.
9. Use a predefined checklist for reviewing and controlling your lists and ads.

Further fatal errors in remarketing:

1. Scope of recipient groups = lists that are too small
2. Too short list duration = short validity period
3. Overlapping durations = parallel advertising periods (overlaps)
4. Frequency capping = too high frequency of displayed ads per user
5. Missing conversion tracking = buyers or leads must be deleted from or moved between lists

Ihr Ansprechpartner für Performance Marketing mit zielgruppenspezifisches Remarketing und Targeting von Anzeigen:

E-Mail: fi@vastcob.com

Florian Ibe

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