Retargeting – “the next big thing” in display advertising?

Ever since Goto.com (later Overture.com) launched the first successful pay per click (PPC) advertising program, the million dollar question has always been “How do I convert more visitors into sales on my website?” Countless eBooks and online forums have been dedicated to the pursuit of this quest. Retargeting, also known as Remarketing, is currently a popular strategy which attempts to answer this question.

In a traditional PPC campaign the goal is to make a sale/conversion each time a surfer visits a website. In a perfect world, everyone would experience a 100% conversion rate. In reality, advertisers who fail to capture a sale 90-95% of the time are considered successful in today’s market. Retargeting allows an advertiser to place a special code on their web pages which then places a cookie on their visitor’s computer. This cookie will then proceed to serve the visitor select display advertisements tailored to the advertiser’s business anytime they visit web pages that are part of the Retargeting program’s network. Most of the popular programs feature greater than 90% reach, which results in your ads being triggered when a potential client visits many of the top active websites across the internet.

The Retargeting solution can provide an incredible avenue to maximize advertising spend. While the level of ad customization varies by program and network, users have the option to create special landing pages for their “re-targetees” to view when they visit their website again. These pages may contain additional bonuses, such as free shipping or a 10% discount, to entice them to purchase. Another notable customization is the ability to only retarget surfers who have purchased from you previously or those who have abandoned the process at a predetermined point in the purchasing cycle.

Retargeting does pose some potential issues to consider. Implementing the code needed can become increasingly complicated as a user’s need for more targeted data increases. There is also the very real possibility of a percentage of your “retargetees” suffering from ad blindness. Ad Blindness is the inclination to ignore display and/or text ads on a web site and a portion of your spend can be wasted when it occurs.

There are also questions about what percentage of your Retargeting sales are due to the effectiveness of the offer versus the percentage of sales that would have occurred due the customers being repeat clients. Ideally users would only pay for those sales that they would not have received without the use of Retargeting.

There are numerous players in the Retargeting market. Display networks like DoubleClick, adBrite, and SpecificMedia all feature options. With all of the competition in this market, the smart shopper will be able to compare options in terms of features, price, and reach to find the remarketing solution that works for their business.

Would you consider Retargeting program if presented by the 7search.com network? Your feedback is greatly appreciated!