Google Remarketing Optimization Tips (Part 3)

In this final post covering Google Remarketing optimization tips, let’s quickly recap the best practices we previously reviewed.

Part 1 Tips:

• Ad testing
• Landing page testing
• Offer testing

Part 2 Tips:

• Frequency testing
• Segmentation testing

We’ll conclude this series with the following best practices and last thoughts. Remember, to find out what is most effective for your campaigns, you’ll want to test these tips and continue testing some more.

1. Site Exclusion Testing: Remarketing is different from display advertising in that the people seeing your ads have been to your site before. Regardless, certain sites and/or ad placements may outperform others. Evaluate site exclusion testing for underperforming sites that are eating up the budget by reducing the bid or excluding them if necessary. You may want to consider raising your bids for websites that perform better to gain impression share. Utilize this tactic sparingly since this is a Remarketing campaign – you can’t control what websites they visit.

2. Bid Testing: Monitor your bids for impression share in addition to ROI. Test different bid amounts to see where they are most effective. Since you are following visitors and not websites, you will need to bid appropriately and not to the point of annoyance. Your bidding strategy should also reflect your list segmentation. For instance, you may find it makes more sense to bid higher on lists that include recent visitors since they are more likely to convert.

Lastly, please don’t limit your Remarketing strategy. Although it is a great start to remarket to anyone who visits your website with a single offer – this is so limiting. You have the power to feature targeted offers based on varied and relevant sections of your website. Get creative with your Remarketing and laser target your offers to afford the most value to your visitors.

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Google Remarketing Optimization Tips (Part 2)

As a continuation to Google Remarketing optimization tips (part 1), this week we will review two more best practices. Last week we discussed the importance of testing ads, landing pages and offers. This week we are covering frequency and segmentation testing.

1. Frequency Testing: It’s happened to all of us. As we visit different websites, the same ad continues to follow us. Not only could the excessiveness get annoying, but it could also have a negative effect on your brand’s image. I recommend testing different frequency caps to strike a balance between not being annoying but yet harnessing the power of interested visitors. Tread carefully with frequency cap testing. Continue to monitor your audience size in relation to impressions. To review frequency reporting within your AdWords campaign, go to the Dimensions Tab > View > Reach and Frequency > and select by Day, Week or Month.

2. Segmentation Testing: Speak to your audience based on where they are in the buying cycle. Utilize different custom combinations including the length of the cookie and layering interest or topic categories. Test this tactic to see what is most effective. Thinking about your audience, wouldn’t you speak to someone who visited your website in the last 7 days differently than a visitor from 90 days ago?


In my next post, I’ll cover tips such as bid testing and what you need to monitor as a best practice.

What optimization methods have you seen success with?

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Google Remarketing Optimization Tips (Part 1)

So you’re excited that you’ve launched your Google Remarketing campaign and it’s generating conversions out of the gate, but now what? How do you go about optimizing the campaign to maximize results? Remarketing is not a “set it and forget it” type of campaign. Similar to Search campaigns, you’ll want to continue to optimize and test.

Looking for some tips to get started? Here are three best practices in no particular order; they are all equally important.

1. Ad Testing: You need to approach Google Remarketing ad testing with a slightly different mindset than traditional display advertising. Remember, these visitors are presumably more familiar with your brand as they’ve had some sort of interaction. Speak to your audience with this understanding. Test different messaging to try to win them back. Utilize all banner ad sizes in addition to text ads. When crafting your messaging, think about what pages the audience has already viewed. What can you say to them that will entice them enough to give you a second chance?

2. Landing Page Testing: Similar to Search campaigns, the experience from the ad to the landing page should function in a complementary fashion. If the messaging is disjointed, you’ll lose the visitor again. For instance, if your ad promises 10% off, be sure that messaging carries through front and center on the landing page. Experiment with landing your audience on different relevant pages to understand what messaging resonates best.

3. Offer Testing: Remember that you need to speak to this audience differently, so you’ll want to test a variety of offers. The generic type of offer will probably not appeal to these folks. Approach Remarketing offers with the mindset of “upping the ante”. What do you need to offer this audience to lead them further down the funnel?

Have you noticed the common theme in these tips? Test, test and then test some more. These tips will get you heading in the right direction, but there are many other tips to cover. In my upcoming posts, we’ll review additional optimization best practices so you’ll want to stay tuned.

What questions do you have about optimizing Remarketing campaigns?

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Image credit: Horia Varlan