Retargeting and remarketing are digital marketing strategies that allow you to reenergize your ad copy and engage more effectively with your audience. Despite their similar names, these are two different marketing strategies. Each one has a specific time and place during the user experience.
Differences Between Retargeting and Remarketing
Retargeting is a way to target people that have already visited your website or counted as a lead. They may have visited your website but didn’t make a purchase or count as a conversion. The goal is retarget that person and fulfill a purchase or conversion. This is accomplished through ads, social media, and email marketing. There are two ways to retarget: pixel-based and list-based. Pixel-based is reusing any content to a broad audience. You aren’t targeting a specific person. Companies use cookies to retarget a broad audience. Cookies are pieces of JavaScript that are left in a consumer’s browser when they visit a specific landing page. The advantages of pixel-based retargeting is the broad and timely aspects. You can quickly retarget a large volume of users. One of the downsides is that you can’t pick out specific audience qualities to retarget. The best way to overcome that is to use list-based retargeting.
Utilizing list-based retargeting involves having a contact list of everyone that’s visited your website or made a purchase. This can be accomplished through Google Analytics or any data collection software. To retarget the specific users, you upload the email addresses into a campaign and the platform will retarget specific users. List-based retargeting is based on behaviors so you can easily identify what behaviors you want to retarget.
Remarketing focuses on sales and marketing emails to reconnect with customers. You want to spark interest in current or inactive customers based on old purchases or interactions. You can send emails or newsletters to customers about new products. These customers are already familiar with your products so it may not be helpful to advertise products they’ve already purchased. You can provide alternative or similar products to they’ve already purchased.
Retargeting and Remarketing Methods
Retargeting
- Converting new customers
- Reminding customers about abandoned carts
- Engaging with customers on social media
- Show someone a product they’ve showed interest in
Remarketing
- Informing customers about a sale
- Providing coupons
- Informing customer about related products
- Reminding customers about previous purchases
At first glance, retargeting and remarketing seem like similar strategies. While they are related, they provide contrasting results. Retargeting is best used for users that visited your website without making a purchase or conversion. Remarketing is meant for users that previously purchased from your website and are reminded about related products. Both strategies can be used to drive user engagement and brand awareness.
