What is remarketing and why is it a good strategy?
Remarketing allows you to reconnect with users who visited your site previously for varying reasons. It gives you the option of showing potential buyers over and over again, (even after they have left your website), the products, and services they have shown interest in.
This is done by collecting website data and metrics that will be used to evaluate site visitors. Then transferring that information to an advertising platform (like AdWords) where you can create ads to remarket to past visitors.
NOTE: Marketing efforts should not stop after the first visit.
There are several reasons why your website visitor might not make a purchase on their first visit.
A few of them include:
- They might not have enough information on your product
- They’re still comparing the options available to them
- They do not have the money to buy the products or services at the moment
- It’s possible they were just window shopping
- They got distracted by something else and left your website
- They lost interest in your product/service
Whatever their reason was, once a visitor has shown initial interest in your product, it makes sense to follow up. To remind them that there is an item/service they desire but haven’t yet purchased.
How Google Analytics Improves Remarketing efforts?
The data gathered by Google Analytics from your website visitors can be used to create remarketing audiences for your remarketing strategies. This can be done by applying information collected from users’ activities on your website to be used as a basis to evaluate user behavior and design a targeted remarketing list.
This way, you create remarketing campaigns that are targeted at potential buyers who already established an interest in your products.
Benefits of Using Google Analytics for Remarketing
One of the biggest benefits of using Google Analytics is that it does not just collect data on website visits, it collects all the information that will be needed to segment and evaluate website visitors. To create the best-targeted ads, you can’t ignore the major roles Google Analytics can play.
Some of them are:
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It helps to identify the right target audience
How do you ensure that the right website visitors are those being included in the remarketing funnel? GA gives better insight on what actions those visitors performed, while they were on your website.
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It provides information for ads targeting
The ads are shown to users who viewed a product’s details, users who added products to their carts and users who bought some items can be different. Users who just viewed products might be shown ads for the products they clicked on or discount prices, while users who bought items might be shown ads for related items they might need. GA provides information on the activities of each user, so ads shown to them are targeting their specific needs.
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The criteria required for inclusion in the list is very customizable
The options available go beyond page or product views. You can require that only visitors who viewed more than three products or stayed over a minute on your website, be included in the remarketing options. The details can be narrowed down to make sure that you are targeting visitors who are actual potential buyers.
As interesting as these capabilities are, they are not all that Google Analytics offers for a successful remarketing campaign.
Introducing the Genius Idea called ‘Google’s Smart List’
A Smart List is a remarketing audience generated by machine learning using Analytics data to increase your conversion rate.
In Google’s words “Machine learning uses dozens of signals, including location, device, browser, referrer, session duration, and page depth to identify users for the audience. The model is typically updated daily to reflect the latest data to which Analytics has access, and users are automatically added to or removed from the audience based on that model.”
The process is largely automated as it is constantly being updated with new data collected to gain the best conversion results. Google uses ‘past experiences’ to determine what users will be interested in your products and services. This information is used to generate an audience that will become the focus of your advertising efforts.
Who can use Google’s, Smart List?
Anyone! However, its application to your website varies depending on two alternative requirements. The first is that your website needs to generate at least 10,000 daily page views and 500 monthly e-commerce transactions.
If your site does not generate this much traffic and conversion yet, your Smart List can be generated using data from similar businesses. These are usually businesses that have agreed to share anonymized data with Google Analytics.
Reasons Why Google’s Smart Lists is a Great Option
- For businesses that are trying remarketing for the first time, Smart Lists can save them money and lost marketing efforts through targeting the wrong audience.
- Smart Lists can greatly improve on the success of a marketing campaign
- Although Google Analytics is fairly easy to navigate and setup, creating a well-targeted marketing list like the type your business needs will require some more knowledge on the functionalities of the software. A smart list is an automated option that gives the desired result while requiring minimal action from you.
It’s important to note that results from data are more accurate when collected in large volumes. If your website does not receive much traffic yet, you may not see the type of results you want. This is not because you are doing something wrong, but because there’s just not enough data to make accurate estimations.
How has Google Analytics helped your remarketing efforts? For beginners, are you willing to try? Let us know in the comment section.
To learn more about using Google Analytics to make better marketing decisions, discover our Google Analytics training program.
