Strong competition in e-commerce makes merchants seize every opportunity as they fight for every customer. Sometimes such rigid zeal seems strange and out of place. Every Internet user occasionally experiences a situation when, wherever they go after visiting an online store, they come across an advertising banner from the previously visited website. This is how remarketing works. This is a very effective channel for online promotion, but it is important to understand how to use it correctly. Today we’re going to talk about the most common remarketing mistakes merchants can make.

brief definition

Remarketing is an Internet marketing tool that allows an advertising message to be displayed on different websites to users who have visited a certain website and have abandoned it without carrying out a previously established specific targeted action. This type of advertising “finds” users on other websites they visit.

An amazing example of a remarketing tool is Google AdWords. It is one of the most popular PPC and media advertising services. Google AdWords allows you to create ads for remarketing campaigns and show ads to your previous visitors as they browse the Display Network.

But even if you follow all the instructions and recommendations precisely, it’s not as easy as it seems. There are some subtle aspects that will be analyzed later.

Error 1: Incorrect display limit setting

Advertisers sometimes forget to set a limit on views per user and this can negatively affect the campaign. For example, you visit one real estate website for interest only, and then within a month you see offers to buy elite real estate on many other websites. Such advertising will be annoying. “The more the merrier” doesn’t work for remarketing.

Mistake 2: Forgetting to remove converted users from your remarketing list

For example, you bought a new smartphone from a certain online store. Then after the purchase you will see the ads of the same smartphone on other websites. You have already made a purchase so, most likely, it will be better to offer you something more than the product you already have.

Mistake 3: Not tracking seasonal audiences

Don’t forget that AdWords allows you to maintain remarketing lists. For this, you need to set the “Membership Duration” correctly. You must decide how many days a visitor’s cookie will be kept in your list if this user does not visit your online store again. Please note that the membership duration is 30 days by default and its maximum duration is 540 days for the Display Network and 180 days for Google search. That gives you a great opportunity. You can use the same remarketing lists for different seasonal shopping periods, like Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Black Friday, and others. There is a high probability that the same users will start shopping again in the same time period, and you can remind them about your online store.

Mistake 4: Using one remarketing list for all users

In a remarketing campaign, it is very important to correctly segment users. For customers who have made a purchase, it is better to display related products and implement a cross-selling strategy. For customers who have reviewed multiple product pages, it is better to show the ad for a category that they are interested in, as opposed to those who only visit one product page. Flexible configuration of remarketing lists is possible in AdWords, so you can segment your visitors in any way you need.

When you’re considering targeting and building lists, you first need to check in Google Analytics if you have enough unique visitors to certain pages within a given time period. You can start using one of your lists once you have gathered 100 visitors. If there are fewer users than the minimum criteria, you need to target further. This creates some limitations on segmentation. For example, not all online stores have the ability to create the list of abandoned cart visitors. But it is a special public. Some recommendations regarding what you should be aware of are listed below:

• If you have an email address or cell phone number of an abandoned cart user, you don’t need remarketing at all. Just use classic direct marketing to remind the user about the product in the cart.
• There is a high probability that a user who abandoned the cart in your store has already made a purchase in another store and therefore did not complete the purchase. But this user may be interested in something else. So, after a certain period of time (for example, in a month) it would be nice to offer this customer some other products in your online store, but not the ones that he already tried to buy.
• Many online stores allow users to add products to the cart without registering. That is the correct approach. Since the email address or other contact details of such users are not available, remarketing can be very effective in this case. If you have enough unique visitors, you can create a special advertising message for this audience and try to attract them again.

Mistake 5: Show Irrelevant Proposal

These types of errors also occur in actual practice. It happens that advertisers forget to turn off the display of ads, and users see ads that offer them products that they do not need: to buy a Christmas tree or decorations after the New Year holidays, they offer a discount for Black Friday when they do not is relevant, etc.

Error 6: Change conditions in active campaign

Sometimes merchants decide to raise prices in their stores. It is a common practice. But if there is an active remarketing campaign, it can be negatively affected, since users saw other prices when they visited the store and possibly planned to order. They will be disappointed, so it’s best not to “change horses midstream.”

Mistake 7: Intersection of remarketing lists

This error causes the same user to be on different remarketing lists and see multiple ads. This is not dangerous if the advertising messages are complementary to each other. Otherwise, this can damage the campaign.

In general, all errors can be divided into 2 types. There are technical errors and marketing errors. Technical problems can be complex, but they are more explicit, since in this case something is wrong and needs to be corrected. Marketing mistakes require constant study of user behavior and are more complicated because users will never directly say what they don’t like and why they don’t make a purchase.