Remarketing sounds complicated, but its quite easy to understand. The essence of remarketing is already captured in the word itself. It is an online technique that is used to ‘re-market’ to people you tried to market or sell to before, but did not succeed.

“When it comes to convincing the people who visit your site to take action and convert, one visit is typically not enough,” according to Think with Google. “Remarketing gives you a chance to bring back indecisive customers with tailored ads and offers that relate to the experience they had on your site. With remarketing, you get another chance to close the deal.”

As an online user you have probably experienced remarketing yourself.

What is remarketing?

Recall the last time you were shopping online, but didn’t complete the purchase. You may have abandoned your cart selections and decided to browse a few other websites, and viewed advertisements from the former website as you clicked your way through the Internet.

The ads are served to you with the primary goal to get you back to the original website and convert into a paying customer.

“Remarketing lets you segment your audience of past site visitors and deliver relevant ads for your search and display campaigns based on the actions people have taken on your site. It performs well because the ads this audience sees across the web connect to their previous encounters with your brand and products. This connection makes them more likely to buy” (Think with Google).

How can small businesses use remarketing?

So, how can you use remarketing for your small business?

Well, there are various ways to remarket and tools to help you get started. Remarketing platforms will take care of the technical details (i.e., cookies, monitoring, purchase intent, etc.).

For instance, Google is well known for Adwords remarketing. Chango specializes in search retargeting. AdRoll offers retarging products and Perfect Audience aims to make retargeting simple.

Plus, you can choose whether to target lost customers via email, blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and loads of other online platforms.

The remarketing platform that’s best for your business very much depends on the kind of business you’re running. Furthermore, always be aware of your competitors’ digital marketing efforts to get a maximum return on your own campaign.

Should we hire a remarketing agency?

One word of advice – (great) remarketing does require some help from outside agencies. Many entrepreneurs may outsource remarketing activities to get designs done for a remarketing campaign, but more importantly because you really need to understand the analytics of online shopping behavior.

If you decide to hire a digital agency or handle remarketing they will understand how cookies work on websites alongside rules and regulations. After all, you are capturing your visitors online data, which requires an understanding of regulatory limits that may be in place.

How do I know if remarketing is right for my business?

If you are running a small business that sells products online, remarketing is probably a worthwhile investment. Loews Hotels, a luxury hotel brand, case study from Google, illustrates the power of remarketing for travel and tourism.

“While the Loews Regency Hotel had historically invested little in online marketing, the property decided to shift its remaining print budget to digital channels — namely Google display, Remarketing and Similar Audiences…,” according to Google.

Loews Hotels improved revenue “noting a 60% revenue lift for the Loews Regency Hotel and 57% more bookings during the three-month campaign. The cost-of-acquisition also dropped 9%.” There are also countless remarketing examples out there that show the inherent benefits.

If you decide to invest in remarketing for your small business, setting up a remarketing campaign is fairly easy, but you do need technical know-how to make minor changes to your websites’ code. So, make sure you spend some time with your web developer or an online marketing agency to get maximum results.

This article has been edited and condensed.

Bleddyn Pijpers is the co-founder and Account Director at Hire Media Network. The idea of Hire Media Network was born out of the idea that with today’s technology, you can do more, for less. We work with a number of designers and developers who are based in Europe and in Asia. By simply saving on our overhead costs, we save on our clients’ cost. Bleddyn has been in involved with a number of businesses and founded Hire Media Network in the summer of 2014. Connect with @HireMediaUK on Twitter.

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