eCommerce Fridays – Using your Data Feed for Retargeting
Today marks the beginning of CPC Strategy’s “eCommerce Fridays” which features important marketing tips, strategies, and ideas for eCommerce merchants. We’re currently looking for guest writers to join the conversation, please contact us if you’re interested.
With more people shopping online than ever before, retailers are exploring ways to evolve their online marketing strategies. Retargeting may be an untapped opportunity to add to your arsenal. Retargeting is a form of behavioral marketing in which shoppers who visit a merchant’s website but do not convert are served display ads on ad networks.
The unique advantage of retargeting is the use of data feeds to serve dynamic ads. Good datafeed quality allows for targeting on the category, sub-category, sub-sub category, and product detail levels. If your site features frequently updated content such as a “deal-of-the-day”, it is advisable to create an RSS feed on that page to dynamically populate banner ads. For seasoned veterans of the comparison shopping engine (CSE) space, it is a natural next step.
This relatively new, highly personalized format leverages lead generation from all marketing channels, including CSEs, search marketing, affiliates and social media. Conversion rates of the aforementioned channels can be as miniscule as two percent. Retargeting recycles those visits and builds behavioral segments within the retargeting pool such as browsers, cart abandoners, fashion buyers, new customers, existing customers, and more. It can be used to supplement paid search “which can incur high per-click cost for competitive keywords,” according to a recent CoreMetrics report.
The important distinction between retargeting and traditional media buys is that, unlike its conventional cousin, retargeting targets user, not websites or content. Banner ads are served only on websites visited by your customer, effectively amplifying your brand by appearing wherever they are. In fact, a recent ComScore study revealed the effectiveness of retargeting, noting that “among the six different placement strategies [studied], retargeting generated the highest lift in trademark search behavior at 1,046 percent.”
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