Just What Is Remarketing?
Remarketing, also known as retargeting, is a very common and popular form of digital marketing.
Marketers serve ads to users who have visited their website or a specific web page and have or have not taken a particular action. It’s an effective way to target people who have already shown some interest in the business or brand.
Because we target our past visitors or existing customers, it’s called “re”-marketing. Think of it as a second chance to convert, up-sell, or retain customers with online ads or campaigns. We can do remarketing in different ways and with other ad platforms, like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.
Whichever way we use, remarketing is an absolute MUST in every marketer’s playbook.
How Does Remarketing Work?
It’s not difficult to set up a remarketing campaign for the website. What it requires is pixel installation.
When we create a campaign with a particular ad network, the network will provide us with a small piece of code (called a pixel tag) to add to our website. Every time a new user visits the site, the code will drop an anonymous browser cookie, and the user will be added to the retargeting list. When the same user visits another site that hosts display or native ads from our ad network provider, the system will serve our ad to this particular user. This will occur as long as we have an active campaign running.
Google’s move to shut down the use of third-party cookies will impact the ability of marketers to remarket. That’s why it is important to advertise on platforms based on first-party data that allows tracking. Although the move to a cookieless world has been somewhat delayed, it is still essential to start planning for tools and tactics that will enable us to remarket in the future.
What Is A Target Audience?
A target audience is a group of people identified as likely customers of a business.
Target audiences share similar demographic traits, including, but not limited to:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Education
- Socio-economic Status
Identifying the target audience as a business can help craft marketing strategies and define the core customers. Instead of spending money and resources trying to cater to every consumer, defining a target audience allows for more intentional and personal outreach to those most likely to purchase the product or service.
How Target Audiences Work
The best way to find the target audience is by first thinking about the specific needs the product or service fulfills. It’s essential to identify the pain point and determine who has those pain points.
For example, if we’ve learned that creating websites is a hassle and start a business that designs websites, the next step would be to find out who needs a website that would likely have trouble creating one. In this scenario, the target audience is likely small business owners.
The more specific we can identify our target audience’s demographic, the more effective we can advertise to them.
In this example, it would be best to focus on small business owners that are likely to be less technically sound. Instead of deeming small business owners as the target audience, we may focus on small business owners over a specific age in a particular location.
If the product is very general, we won’t have to do as much market research to find the target audience. If the audience is more specific, it’s important to gather data about the customers to narrow our focus.
One way to collect data is to offer a special price or coupon code to those who visit the website or business if they fill out a survey that captures the information we need.
Market research companies can also help conduct this type of research.
Benefits Of Target Audiences
Target audiences help businesses advertise more efficiently as we know who the target audience is and how to reach them. While it’s important to reach as many people as possible, and it often seems like focusing only on specific population segments is limiting, we need to reach potential consumers directly.
Directly reaching those interested in the product or service will ultimately put more money in the pocket. Therefore, before we decide what the message is and how to deliver it, we need to understand who we will be receiving it.
For people to buy a product or service, they need to relate to the message’s tone and content. A personal connection is made by striking a chord with someone, and trust is established.
Let’s say the goal is to sell a product to working mothers. The advertising methods might employ digital and social media platforms and have an energetic and empathetic tone. A better approach to reaching retired seniors is a marketing campaign using print ads in newspapers and magazines that carry a softer and more relaxed tone.
