While online advertising, has its pitfalls, one benefit that makes it such an attractive medium is the enabling technology to retarget ad respondents. Yet nearly one-half of specialized marketers told Advertise.com and the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) in August 2009 that remarketing or retargeting was the advertising technology they thought was the most underutilized. Other forms of targeting, including geo-targeting (18.3%), were also being underused.
Retargeting is essentially recording an interaction with an online ad, and then optimizing the impressions of those ads to ensure that those who responded (but didn't necessarily buy), are served the repeat impressions.
The lack of using retargeting also stems from the source. Not nearly enough publishers have adopted the technology. Nearly one-fifth of online publishers worldwide offer retargeting to their advertisers. Demographic targeting was only available on 37% of online publishers.
This is exactly why I cringe when I hear colleagues dismiss Facebook Social Ads based on the lack of clickthroughs. It is so difficult to find such a highly targeted impression online than that offered by Facebook Social Ads. Once you add the fact that these impressions are FREE (you only pay for the more common PPC social ad when the ad is clicked), and I'm left wondering how my colleague keeps his or her clients!
When it comes to retargeting, there is no argument to be had about its value. It is widely accepted that retargeting can boost ad response up to 400 percent!
It never ceases to amaze me how many "dinosaurs" are advising their clients in a digital capacity. How targeting technologies can be this ignored in such a progressive era of marketing and advertising is baffling! Just BAFFLING! This article actually made me angry! Nice job!
Posted by: Regina Cross | 12/23/2009 at 10:45 AM