Site retargeting is a display advertising technique used by marketers to display advertising to people who have previously visited their website. The marketer includes a pixel within their webpage which sets a cookie in the user's browser.[1] That cookie allows the marketer to target the website visitor with advertising elsewhere on the internet using retargeting.
A related technique used by retailers involves dynamic creative, which allows the marketer to customize the ad displayed to any site visitor, for example displaying a picture of a product the visitor was viewing earlier, but did not purchase.
Site retargeting is now commonly considered a "standard practice" among digital marketers.[2]
The ability to "retarget", or sell ads on different websites to visitors of certain webpages, lays at the heart of most social networks business models. LinkedIn,[3] Facebook,[4] Twitter,[5] Pinterest[6] & more all allow and have detailed guides on how to run retargeting ads on their platforms. Google's business model is also built on retargeting - both in their search engine and in their display advertising network.
Another common use of site retargeting has been to deliver personalised content to users. A common idea in marketing is the "buyer persona", where marketers create fictional characters of potential customers and think about the "customer journey" - the process that each fictional customer needs to make until it decides to buy the product.[7] Site retargeting makes it easier to keep track of where each user is on their customer journey - and thus personalize the content that is shown to the user accordingly.[8]
The CTR (clickability) of a retargeting ad is on average 10 times higher than that of a typical media ad.[9] [10] While a standard media ad has a CTR of 0.07%, the average clickability of a retargeting ad is 0.7%.[11] [12] In addition, retargeting conversion is 70% higher.[13]
A study conducted by Baymard Institute confirms that approximately 70% of online shoppers fill their shopping cart with items but do not complete the checkout.[14] With the help of banners on third-party resources, sellers bring some users back to the site and thus ensure sales.
68% of marketing agencies and 49% of brands have a dedicated budget for retargeting.[15]