Search retargeting is a close cousin of ad retargeting and is a great opportunity for affiliates to get a second chance at converting runaway players.
If you’re not familiar with how retargeting works, it’s actually a fairly simple concept. Though the execution can be a bit more complicated.
Retargeting serves up ads for your sites on advertising networks to customers who have visited your site in the past. In the case of search retargeting, those ads appear on display networks after end users search select keywords on standard search engines like Google or Bing.
If you’ve been looking to get started on search retargeting we strongly suggest taking a look at, Search Retargeting: A Quick How-To Guide, by Ben Plomion, over at Marketingprofs.com. They’ve put together a six-part plan for retargeting success that includes the following steps.
Pick Your DSP
Not all display side providers, the folks who will be putting your ads in front of end-users, are created equally. Some of them collect a lot more search data than others. As Plomion observes, the more data they collect the more accurate their targeting will be.
Keywords, Keywords, Keywords
The good news about search retargeting keywords is that they can actually be a lot cheaper than the same words on Google. As is the case with any campaign, be prepared to tweak your keywords as you go.
Handsome Landing Pages
Second impressions count. If you didn’t convert a player a player on your first stab, you’ll really want to step things up for your second try.
Crafting a great looking landing page with a strong call-to-action is a search retargeting necessity.
Know Your Bids
Keyword auctions are a tricky business and we definitely recommend doing your homework before getting involved with them. Part of that research should include a spreadsheet with the relative value of your desired keywords.
In Plomion’s opinion, the is the absolute key to the bidding process.
Keep Your Eye on the Ball
Display advertising of any kind is tricky animal and taming means keeping a good handle on key metrics. He says to keep a particularly close eye on, “view-through attribution, which measures the number of people who arrive at your site after being exposed to one of your ads.”
Don’t Settle for Success
Just like your standard SEO campaign, a search retargeting campaign is never really going to be finished. Over time, you and your DSP will uncover new techniques and keywords that spin retargeting straw into gold and you’ll never really be able to rest on your laurels.
Finally
Search retargeting is an excellent way for affiliates to get their hands on potential players who’ve slipped the noose. And in today’s ultra-competitive affiliate marketing scene, second chances like this are few and far between.