There are many tools out there that online marketers can use to increase sales, from email marketing to search engine optimization and everything in between. What I find interesting is that one of the most powerful sales tools available – ad retargeting – is often one of the least used.
Ad retargeting is not a difficult concept to understand. When someone comes to your site and looks at your products or services, a cookie is placed on his or her computer that remembers what the potential customer seemed to be interested in.
Then, as the potential customer goes to other websites, ads for the products they looked at on your site will appear on their screen. When they click on the ad, they are brought back to the page on your site where they can buy the product or service.
This drives people back to your site and increases your chances of conversions. Best of all, it’s passive. You don’t have to do anything but set up your site to install the cookies, and the rest is fully automated.
Yet, many companies don’t take advantage of the potential of ad retargeting. A recent survey by Advertise.com and the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization showed that 70 percent of online retail companies don’t use ad retargeting at all.
This is despite the fact that ad retargeting is powerful. According to FetchBack, 42.9 percent of site visitors who get a retargeting ad return to the advertising site within an hour. For the consumer housewares category, the number is even higher – with 69.9 percent returning within an hour.
Beyond that, an additional 21 percent of visitors who get a retargeting ad return to the advertising site within 24 hours.
With results like this, it’s hard to argue against using ad retargeting for your channel partners. It works. Best of all, your competition probably isn’t using it, so it gives you a leg up and a better chance of not losing a sale to another company. It encourages prospective customers to come back to your site and increases your chances of making conversions. If you are serious about expanding your sales funnel, ad retargeting is a no-brainer.
