How to improve your ecommerce performance with retargeting

Retargeting (or remarketing) enables you to maximise traffic to your site and increase conversion rate by targeting visitors who leave your online store with customised adverts on other sites, based on their interactions on your site.

Popularised by the French company Criteo, retargeting has quickly established itself as an effective way to increase conversion on ecommerce sites. Founded in 2005 by Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, Franck le Ouay and Romain Nicoli, Criteo is today a world leader in behavioural retargeting

Google is also a major player in this market. During this year’s Lengow Ecommerce Day, Google employees Catherine Boisset and Leo Sei, hosted a workshop dedicated to Google Remarketing, the retargeting solution developed by Google. Whether you want to reach customers and/or prospects who’ve shown some interest in your site, increase the number of customers and customer loyalty, or even re-engage your old customers, retargeting has become an indispensable tool in e-commerce.

Here is a basic recap of what you need to know to start using retargeting

Principle of retargeting

• The visitor goes to your ecommerce site,
• The sections and pages they visit are tracked (via cookies)
• They leave your online shop without buying the product they looked at and continue their internet browsing
• The product is then re-exposed to them while they are on partner websites or ad-exchange platforms,
• Thanks to the personalisation of advertising, the customer clicks on the banner,
• They are they redirected back to your website, where they will hopefully make a purchase.

Goals of retargeting

Increase your conversion rate:

By identifying and tracking the behaviour of your visitors while they are on your site (searches, pages visited, etc), you can effectively customise your advertising messages. Your potential customer is exposed to a tailored advert based on their previous actions on your site, and their click on the banner will most probably lead to a conversion.

The great thing about retargeting is that your ads are displayed to a highly appropriate audience. The visitors have already shown an interest in your online store, for example by looking at your product pages, putting an item in their cart or starting an order!

The further the visitor is in the order process, the greater the impact of your campaigns is.

Lengow offers its customers the possibility of creating a retargeting feed with retargeting companies such as Criteo and Struq to guide e-tailers in the process of retargeting.

Increase your visability

Retargeting allows your ads to be seen numerous times. Even if the user does not click on your ad, they will be exposed to it, and thus be reminded of you.

Develop your cross selling

It is becoming essential for emerchants to offer customers complementary services and products to the one(s) they buy on your store, this is a great way of developing customer loyalty.

How to create your retargeting strategy

• Define your audience
• Personalise your adverts in relation to the group you wish to target
• Define the delay between the visitor leaving your site and the diffusion of your retargeting ads
• Define your cost per click

Further comments

If the visitor only views one page of your online store it is best to reduce delay for diffusing the targeted ad. Also do not forget to also consider the commitment of your (potential) customer when planning the diffusion delay.

Respecting the privacy of your customers is paramount to loyalty. Avoid harassing them with adverts, as this may lead to negative effects, such as disengagement.

Finally, retargeting is not only limited to banners. This feature can also be carried out via emails or a “push” mobile message.