Hit your retarget with online ads
It’s definitely fall in Seattle. Months of gray skies are here again. Recently while walking to lunch on one of these gray days, I noticed a bus. Buses aren’t unusual downtown, but this one was covered with a brightly colored ad wrapped around the whole bus with pictures of…Hawaii. Usually I don’t notice bus ads, but this one caught my attention.
Billboards and ads on buses aren’t usually used as examples of effective targeting, but this time it seemed to be working. At least in getting fellow office-mates to all stare longingly as the bus rolled by. And I wasn’t the only one who searched for tropical vacation packages when we got back to the office. Perhaps a stay at the famous Royal Hawaiian, Waikiki or the luxurious Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa?
Successful targeting works when it reaches
the right person in the right place at the right time.
The problem is that I don’t remember what website, hotel or special the bus ad was advertising. I needed an extra reminder (maybe another bus…) to show me exactly where to book my sun-filled getaway.
Congratulations, you hit the target! Now what?
Retarget.
Online, you don’t need another bus because you have the power to retarget.
Here’s a scenario. You have someone who found your website by clicking on your banner ad, following you on Twitter or seeing your ad on a bus. Then they leave.
Even if your visitor didn’t fill out your handy web form for more information, you can still remind them to revisit your site with retargeting. Retargeting uses a tag added to a specific page or pages on your website so that when a users leaves and visits a site on the same ad networks your ad is on, (for example if you are advertising through Google or Yahoo!) they will see your ad again and be reminded to visit your site again.
Your retargeted ad is in front of someone who has already shown interest in your website and you have the opportunity to give them an incentive to come back too.
Photo via The Library of Congress
