If you have ever visited a company’s website (typically an e-commerce site), left without purchasingone of their products, then started seeing ads from the company when browsing on almost everyother website you visited online, you have encountered retargeting.

Retargeting is a marketing strategy that aims at following potential leads and converting them intocustomers. Most site visitors online do not convert on the first visit, and retargeting ads areimportant in reminding or persuading them to take action even after they have left a website.

Several types of retargeting that are highly effective for marketers include:

Search Retargeting

This is a relatively new type of retargeting marketers have started to utilise. With SearchRetargeting marketers serve subsequent banner or video ads to people who have searched forsomething specific and relevant via a search marketing campaign on Google or Bing. It is apowerful way to leverage the visual and persuasive power of display but targeted to people basedon their keyword search activity.

Site Retargeting

Site retargeting is mainly what we have mentioned in the introduction. It involves targeting websitevisitors who left without buying or perhaps left items in their shopping cart. Marketers tag sitevisitors and follow them around with ads and messages with the aim of making a conversion.

Site retargeting is a good tactic because it involves targeting persons who are more likely toconvert. You can also use it to remind a customer to take action such as follow up on theirabandoned shopping cart.

Email Retargeting

This method involves targeting individuals who are interacting with your email campaigns. Thespecific actions taken by an individual upon receiving your emails informs what marketing actionyou take.

This strategy is powerful because it retargets individuals who are more likely to beinterested in your ads having already received a copy heavy email communication.

Cross-Channel Retargeting

Cross-Channel retargeting involves reaching out to customers on different channels with uniquemessages tailored to resonate well with each platform. This method is superb as it allows marketersto have ads on multiple platforms – with their content adjusted to meet the consumer experiencedesired on each platform. For example we retarget people that have seen a video ad on a desktopcomputer with a banner ad on mobile that is call to action focused and designed to drive peopleinto store or similar.

Account-based Retargeting

It involves acquiring target prospects by pooling and analyzing data by your marketing and salesteam to identify target accounts that visit your website. With this information, you can personalizeretargeted ads for each. It’s an excellent option to help you classify “top of the funnel” targetaccounts. There are numerous account based targeting solutions that use IP addresses at thecompany level.

Video Completion Retargeting

VCR involves targeting site visitors who completed watching a video ad. The general use of VCR isstorytelling. We serve a video ad to someone and knowing they watched 100% of the video wethen serve them a follow up banner ad. Often brands will use the multi sensory appeal of a videoad to capture attention and basic awareness then use the banner ad to sell something or try andconvert them.

Different types of retargeting are excellent for specific situations. It’s vital to understand how andwhere to use each method. It is usually based on how well a specific type of retargeting helpsidentify a customer then what type of follow up ad is most relevant.