A major challenge that many eCommerce websites face is how to induce their abandoned visitors to complete their transactions. These websites attempt to encourage their previous visitors to finish the checkout process by sending them follow-up emails or text messages. Though these approaches can help persuade their bounced visitors to complete their orders, they aren’t as effective as retargeting ads. A remarketing advertisement allows an eCommerce merchant to target abandoned shoppers by showing relevant ads on Google Network.

 

According to Google, “remarketing is a feature that lets you reach people who have previously visited your site, and show them relevant ads across the web or when they search on Google. When people leave your site without buying anything, for example, remarketing helps you connect with these potential customers again. You can even show them a tailored message or offer that will encourage them to return to your site and complete a purchase.” Ultimately, it acts as a general reminder for customers to revisit your website and complete their order. To set up a remarketing campaign, all you have to do is access your AdWords account and “add a piece of code (remarketing tag) to all of the pages of your site. Then, when shoppers come to your site, they'll be added to your remarketing lists. You can later reach out to these potential buyers while they search on Google or browse other websites.”

 

With retargeting ads, you can spark your abandoned customers’ desires to buy your products by making them realize that they still need your offerings. You can for example display retargeting ads regarding your running shoes on a blog post featuring the benefits of daily jogs to target shoppers who have abandoned your website recently. This will help you provoke your shoppers’ interests in your offerings again and garner the money you’ve essentially lost already.

 

Various companies have gained tremendously from remarketing advertising. Loews Hotels for instance increased their revenue by 60%, a 57% lift in bookings, and a 9% lower cost-per-acquisition by using remarketing ads in their Cyber Monday campaign in 2012.  Other companies such as Tirendo have also had similar results. By creating a remarketing campaign to target one set of visitors who had been to their homepage and another set of visitors who had searched for a specific tire model on their website, Tirendo had increased their sales and conversions by 22%, and 163%, respectively. 

 

Currently, other digital platforms are also unveiling their remarketing ads. Twitter for instance has recently released their advanced remarketing tool to help companies target consumers who have shown interest in their products or services previous through customized Promoted Tweets.