By Angela Seckinger — Oct 11, 2018 11:00 AM
According to HubSpot, 96% of your website visitors will exit your site without a purchase and/or engagement action; and the majority of those will not return.
With this series, you will learn how to easily bring those visitors back to your website to take that action or make a purchase, even if they don’t complete a form or submit their contact information. How? We will use the power of remarketing to show your audience ads across other platforms and convince them to return.
Here’s an overview of the process:
Steps one, three, and five are up to your visitor. You control steps two and four. That’s where the magic happens.
Step two is literally one action, while step four is a multi-part process that requires significant planning. We will walk through that planning in the next blog post in this series.
Setting up the Basics
Google Analytics. Are you signed up for Google Analytics? If not, sign up with admin privileges and add the tracking code to your website. Your Analytics account will have your visitors’ interaction data which will be important to our segmentation step below.
Permissions. Before the tracking can take place, obtain cookie permissions based on your privacy policy and/or GDPR compliance.
Cookies. Place a cookie on your site that tracks user behavior. Place that cookie at the top of your html code (or if this is a new setting for you, contact your web developer for assistance). Include variables for pages viewed, time spent on the page, the number of visits to your site, what type of device they are using to access and more. This cookie data helps you to identify customer segments, which is key to many of the tactics below. Once the visitor comes to your site, the cookie gets triggered and recorded.Putting the Pieces Together
Decide which platforms to use for your remarketing efforts.
- Google Ads - Google can show your ads all over the Internet and many apps based on their advertising network options.
- Facebook - Facebook shows your ads throughout the Facebook environment in many different formats.
- Google Ads and Facebook - We recommend both platforms, but if this is your first time trying remarketing, or placing advertisements, consider starting with Google Ads.
Sign up for the platform(s) you selected.
- Google Ads - Are you signed up for Google Ads (aka AdWords) If not, sign up for Google Ads with admin privileges and add the tracking code to your website.
- Facebook - Are you signed up for Facebook? If not, sign up for Facebook and add the pixel to your website. This pixel will be used to help create your remarketing list.
Link Google Accounts.
- If you want to make use of your Analytics data to better track the interaction of your visitors acquired through remarketing, you need to link your Analytics account with Google Ads (aka Google AdWords).
To link your Google Accounts:
1. Go to the admin area of Google Analytics
2. Select “Google ads linking” in the properties view.
Note: Analytics is also where you will create your remarketing audiences for Google Ads. You can also set up these audiences in Google Ads, however, doing this from within Analytics is the recommended method.
Going Live
To enable remarketing, you must turn on Google Signals in Analytics. Note: Remarketing has recently changed in Analytics to Google Signals. Previously, you were required to activate “remarketing” but that option is no longer available.
To activate your remarketing campaign:
- Go to admin
- Under the property section, select “Tracking Info” to expand the menu. Then, click on “Data Collection” and enable “Google Signals”
Wrap Up
Now that you have the basic settings in place, start preparing to bring your visitors back! We also recommend listing the most important pages of your website and map the desired visitor journeys. What pages or steps happen along the way for your most important visitors? Knowing these pages and steps will be extremely important when planning your audiences and your ads.
Stay tuned for Part Two of our remarketing best practices series.