When considering the digital marketing services to include in the marketing strategy for your brand, it is important to keep in mind that one of the best bets is to re-engage people who have already shown interest in your brand.  Whether they visited your site, saw a Google Ad or a Facebook Ad, clicked on a PPC, or filled out a form on your site, now you have the capability to market to them again. Retargeting and remarketing tactics are the best ways to bring interested users back to your website and convert them into customers.

Retargeting and remarketing are used interchangeably, but there are, however, some key differences paid media advertisers should be aware of. 

But let’s take things one step at a time.

What is retargeting?

Retargeting is a re-engagement tactic that involves implementing an online ad or display ad campaigns. This tactic is most often used to describe online ad placements and display ads served based on a user’s activity on your site. 

Since about 79% of people abandon their online shopping cart on a website, your main goal is to get them to finish their purchase. By adding pixels (a short snippet of code) to your website, you will be able to track the user’s actions through cookies placed in their browser. Once a visitor enters your website, clicks on a product, or takes a certain action that you want them to take, a cookie is set in their browser. You can then use this information to “retarget” them with ads based on their interactions once they live your site.

What makes retargeting so appealing is that it’s done through third party networks such as Facebook and the Google Display Network, giving you the opportunity to reach users wherever they are, on millions of sites. 

You can make retargeting both on-site, by targeting individuals who already visited your website, and off-site, through social media platforms. Compared to non-retargeted display campaigns, retargeting campaigns can have significantly higher engagement.

Retargeting is an important part of the marketing toolkit, but you need to pay attention to the frequency, context and recency at which ads are served to your customers. When done well, retargeting will have a positive ROI and will keep your brand top of mind with customers in the early stages of the buying process.

What is remarketing?

Remarketing is typically associated with re-engaging customers through email marketing. In the world of digital marketing agencies, remarketing is used to describe shopping cart abandonment email campaigns (like those personalized emails you get from Amazon after you’ve bought a product) and lifecycle marketing emails. 

One of the main reasons why remarketing emails are so effective is because email marketing has a wide reach and an even bigger ROI. Since the visitor has already clearly shown interest in the product, the remarketing email serves as a reminder to motivate him to return to their shopping cart or wish list and finalize their purchase.

Using an email marketing platform, like Mailchimp, you can automatically send emails to users based on timelines or when a user completes a particular action on your site. This can be a service that you are doing yourself, for yourself, but you could always turn to a digital marketing agency to help you especially with optimizing the content of your emails.  

Where are the differences between retargeting and remarketing?

We already pointed out the most important differences between these two. While retargeting typically refers to online ads, remarketing is mostly used to refer to email marketing. The difference isn’t really the strategy being used - it’s the channel.

There is a fine line between these two tactics, as both have the same goals - to target audiences who are aware of your brand and have shown interest in the past and also to re-engage an audience who is more likely to buy from your brand and build brand awareness that won’t fade with time. 

Another part of the reason why there is confusion between the two is that the lines between various marketing channels are becoming increasingly blurry. Besides the fact that, now,  you can use similar content in your paid ads and emails to target the same sets of users, you can also target users with paid ads using email lists, using advertising platforms like Google Ads and Facebook. 

How to make the best of both?

We could spend all day on the fine line that separates retargeting and remarketing, but those differences don’t matter that much in today’s digital marketing landscape. What is really important is the channels that work best for your objectives and audiences.

The most important thing to focus on is creating well-researched, data-caked campaigns, tracking their performance and adjusting them based on the new data you collect. The best part of re-engaging is the insight you have about your ideal audience, which is not available through the huge amount of buyer personas that one can make. 

Therefore, personalized services are the most powerful decision you can make. Keep in mind that 37% of customers click on a retargeted ad because they enjoy behaviorally retargeted ads that remind them of products they’ve previously seen. Moreover, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences.

The next step to take in your remarketing strategy is to leverage your best content. Content marketing is the ultimate contributor to push a user further down the sales funnel. With the data you’ve gathered from your site visitors, you can create specific content that appeals to specific people and enjoy the automatic success of your brand’s strategy. Also, to make sure you gain visibility on the organic side too, Search Engine Optimization or SEO strategy can get you a better rank and reach for your business.

Now that you have an idea of how both these strategies work, why not try them out? You have everything to gain by reaching out to people who have already shown an interest in you. The best course of action for you would be to work together with a digital marketing agency that can help to create an effective cross-channel marketing strategy based on suitable messaging, interesting visuals, and maybe even an offer your audience can’t refuse.