Increase online conversions for your business using Google Ads Remarketing
Google Ads Remarketing is sophisticated, measurable and will unlock the potential of your online presence by increasing sales and generating quality leads for your business.
Remarketing in itself is not a new concept. Savvy marketers know the value of repeat business and qualified leads. Targeting existing and potential customers who meet certain criteria can deliver excellent ROI.
What is Google Ads Remarketing?
Remarketing with Google Ads allows businesses to target people who have already visited their website with online adverts as they browse the web. Think about the potential of that for a second. These people have already visited that business’s website, they are aware of the brand and some need they are looking to fulfil has already brought them to the site. Thanks to the sophisticated targeting options available via Google Ads Remarketing, business owners and marketers can now unlock the potential of that visit.
How does Google Ads Remarketing Work?
Google Analytics is a free tool many businesses use to analyse website traffic. Analytics works using a tracking cookie; when a visitor lands on a web page the tracking cookie is triggered and stays on the visitor’s computer for a period of time. Google Ads Remarketing works by recognising that cookie and displaying ads as the visitor continues to browse the web.
Google remarketing requires a slight change to the Google Analytics tracking code and that Analytics and Ads are connected. It should be noted that Google Remarketing can be used for both display and search advertising campaigns.
What are the capabilities of Google Ads Remarketing?
I have already mentioned that Google Remarketing is a sophisticated tool, with wide-reaching capabilities. Like any good database, segmenting potential customers based on various key attributes is vital. Google Remarketing comes with several pre-defined marketing lists, and multiple remarketing lists can exist on one website. Users can customise the parameters of their own remarketing lists in AdWords using the Rule Builder, which is mainly URL based. Because Google Remarketing leverages the best of Ads and Analytics businesses can also create remarketing lists in Analytics based on Custom Segments and then use those lists to retarget visitors via Ads.
When creating a remarketing list in Analytics, business owners can use any of four predefined segments:
- All users to your site
- Users to a specific page or area of your site
- Users who completed a specific conversion or goal (These must be enabled, set up and triggering conversions)
- Smart Lists – Users that Google determines, via machine learning, to be viable candidates
There is also a fifth option. Users who match the criteria of a segment you configure based on Analytics Dimensions and Metrics. Segmenting by Analytics Dimensions and Metrics is a powerful tool. Here are some examples of Analytics Dimensions and Metrics.
| Dimensions | Metrics |
| E-commerce | Transactions – the number of transactions the user has completed. Per user, per session, <, >, = etc. |
| Gender | Male, female |
| Device category | Desktop, Tablet, or Mobile. |
| Location – where visitors are from | Country, Region, City |
| Medium – the mediums which referred traffic. | Organic, Direct(none), AdWords |
When creating a remarketing list in Analytics it is necessary to specify the Ads account in which that list is available. That list then functions the same way as any remarketing list created within Ads.
How do I apply Remarketing to my business?
Here are some examples of how business owners could apply Google Remarketing to their online advertising campaigns with the goal of increased sales and leads.
Example One – Abandoned Shopping Cart
Online retailers can retarget abandoned shopping carts in multiple ways, via both search and display campaigns. Remarketing lists can handle multiple parameters. By creating a custom combination list that includes all visitors who put something in their cart but excludes customers who completed a purchase; businesses can retarget these customers. A remarketing list like this can be easily created using the URL Rule Builder in Ads.
This can be further fine-tuned based on the product category of the item the person added to the cart. This requires the implementation of custom parameters to build more advanced remarketing lists in Ads, but is highly recommended for online retailers.
Example Two – Hotel Wishing to Generate More Wedding Enquiries
Create a remarketing list that includes visitors to the wedding pages of the hotel website. A good strategy for the hotel to implement when creating this remarketing list would be to add a parameter that excludes visitors below a minimum time on the page. This may be a good way to segment out less qualified leads.
Follow up by creating a remarking campaign in Google Ads to retarget these potential customers with creative visuals and strong calls to action.
Example Three – Target customers who have previously converted and who have recently visited your website.
Targeting high value, repeat customers seems like a good strategy to me! This is an example of a Google Analytics Segment that includes UK or Irish customers who have previously bought on the site, and have visited the site in the past 14 days. It can be used to create a Remarketing list.
Once you have selected the Ads account to associate the remarketing list with, this custom remarketing list will appear in that Ads account almost instantly and can then be targeted with ads.
Where to Start?
The capabilities of Google Ads Remarketing are significant and sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start. I believe that Remarketing has the potential to drive sales and leads for any business with one caveat; Remarketing is dependent on the quality and volume of traffic to the website. My advice? Give it a try, start with a test campaign for one product or service and build your remarketing campaign from there.
Sue Palmer, Partner at EzSales, is an internet marketing consultant based in Galway. She has been running Ads campaigns for over 18 years. Sue loves sports, particularly basketball and golf and sitting by the fire with a nice glass of red wine. Find out more about how EzSales can help your business with online advertising.