After you visit his site, Paul Potratz’s ad follows you around the internet.
Internet expert offers “magic tricks” for your website
I am sure you have had it happen to you before. Maybe you were aware of it or maybe you thought it was just a coincidence? I am talking about retargeting which is also known as remarketing, or behavioural marketing.
Let’s assume that Bob the car shopper visits Potratz Chrysler in search of a Chrysler 200, and then Bob leaves the website since the phone rang or maybe he is just early in his shopping process.
Later that day, the next day, or whenever Bob visits ESPN.com, Kijiji, Yahoo Autos, or tens of thousands of other websites (including websites that are specific to Bob’s hobbies such as wine collecting and goose hunting), Bob will magically see display ads for the Chrysler 200 at Potratz Chrysler.
The magic potion
Now Bob is going to think: “Wow, there is that Chrysler 200 that I really like and I could probably get a girlfriend with such a sharp car!” Bob then clicks the display ad and is directed to a landing page featuring the Chrysler 200 on Potratz Chrysler’s website. Bob then chats with the online chat and schedules an appointment to come in to Potratz Chrysler and take it for a test drive.
The reward is high
If Potratz Chrysler did not have a retargeting strategy, Bob might have been on to another make and model or ended up on another dealer’s website. However, since Potratz Chrysler invested in this relatively low cost but high ROI marketing strategy, they created top of mind awareness and drove Bob back to their website.
Retargeting is just a little piece of code placed on a website and when Bob visited the Potratz Chrysler website Bob’s computer picked up the code and then when he visited other websites the code told the website he was visiting to display a specific ad based on Bob’s behaviour.
The website that displayed the Potratz Chrysler ad was paid for displaying the ad and is also paid if Bob was to click the Potratz ad. Do not confuse this with spyware since it is completely legal and this type of marketing is used by tens of thousands of companies like American Express, Dodge, and Dell Computer.
Very few dealerships, however, are using a retargeting technology and even fewer are maximizing it to even a fraction of its potential.
Survey says
Retargeting is an excellent strategy to get car shoppers back to your website for retail sales, secondary credit offers, service, parts, or anything that could result in a lead, phone call, chat or even a walk in on the lot. It is a top of mind marketing strategy that has resulted in:
• 47 per cent of car shoppers returned to the dealers website that used retargetting;
• 242 per cent higher conversion rate on lead forms; and
• 108 per cent increased phone leads.
To bring this to a close just imagine if you average 5,000 visitors to your website every month, then in six months your message will be presented to 30,000 people multiple times per day and it would be at a fraction of the cost that you pay for radio, TV, and newspaper.
Higher reach with a lower cost is the magic with a retargeting strategy!
