The best way to use programmatic retargeting

Advertisers have long known that some of the best targets are people who have already expressed interest in your product or your brand. That’s the logic behind retargeting: if someone has been to your website before, they’re more likely to convert if you use advertising to bring them back.

The idea seems pretty sound, but the execution is trickier. That’s where the power of a well-executed programmatic campaign can dramatically increase your conversion rate.

Just to define what we’re talking about here…

Programmatic advertising is the process of buying ad space on websites in an automated manner using real-time bidding (RTB). Publishers (websites that post content) offer ad space to ad exchanges, and an automated system bids on ad space in real-time, with the winning bidder’s ad being shown on the website as it appears to a particular user.

Retargeting is one targeting strategy within the larger umbrella of programmatic, in which ads are shown specifically to people who have visited your website but left without completing the desired action (e.g. purchasing a product). This leaves a “trail of breadcrumbs” around the internet to lead the customer back to your website, ideally recapturing their interest and getting them to convert.

Programmatic enhances retargeting by not only targeting the “where,” but also the “who”

Anyone who has visited your website is at least somewhat more likely to convert than someone who has not. But programmatic can get much more precise than that. For example, you can serve ads that align with customer intent based on how they interacted with your website previously, such as ads for products they viewed on your site or similar products, or cross-device retargeting to follow potential customers as they switch from mobile browsing to more in-depth research on their tablet or desktop.

The power of programmatic retargeting is that it leverages your own first-party data, that is, the information you have on how people interact with your website. There’s no need for assumptions or guesswork; you can literally serve up ads for a product that someone left in their online shopping cart and never proceeded to checkout. It doesn’t get more precise than that.

The trick is to think strategically and target precisely

Here’s the potential pitfall of retargeting: some advertisers overdo it to the point where it feels invasive from the customer’s perspective. No one wants to be bombarded with ads from every website they’ve ever visited! The best strategic approach is to take full advantage of programmatic’s precise targeting options and hit potential customers with highly focused advertisements that add value for them. By taking into account your customers’ mindset, behavior, and intent, we use retargeting to nurture relationships and move them down the sales funnel instead of damaging your brand.

If you’re ready to turn people who are merely curious about your brand into reliable customers, you need to invest in programmatic retargeting. Contact us today to talk strategy with a THRONE expert.

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