What is the Difference Between Remarketing and Retargeting?

These two types of digital marketing have several things in common which can make it confusing when deciding which route to take. Each tactic is meant to re-engage a customer or prospect that has interacted in some way with your business. The difference is how that re-engagement is achieved.

REMARKETING uses email marketing to re-engage your customer. This can be through triggered emails based on actions that your customer takes on your website. For example, your customer may have abandoned something in their shopping cart, an email would then be sent to that customer reminding them that something they wanted is waiting for them. Or your customer clicks on a few items on your site and an email would be sent to them related specifically to those items.

RETARGETING focuses more on paid advertising based on how your customer interacted with your website. Strategic ad campaigns are used to re-engage site visitors by displaying online ads specific to their interaction on your website. These ads appear on third-party websites that your customer visits. You can also use retargeting to reach potential customers based on their search engine behavior or interactions with a partner website. You can use google display network and social media to deliver targeted ad content to customers and prospects. Have you ever noticed a product follow you around in your online browsing? You searched dog beds on Amazon and the next thing you know a dog bed ad has appeared on your Facebook news feed. That is retargeting at work.

Now that we have established the different ways these digital marketing tactics use to re-engage your customer, the next step is to decide how and when to use each tactic.

Here are the pros and cons of each form of digital marketing:

REMARKETING
PROS

• Provides a space for a larger amount of content to be delivered to your customer. For example, you can use a reminder email to also cross sell, upsell or add an additional promotion.
• Encourages return visits to your website.
• Develops a communication relationship with someone you know is interested in your products.
• Cost effective – you are marketing to consumers that you know are very interested in what you are selling. Studies show that your ROI is much higher than other forms of digital marketing because you know they are interested.

CONS

• Because the communication is through email, if your prospect hasn’t provided that information to you yet, you cannot use this tactic. You may be missing out on interested customers.
• You can only reach previous site visitors.

RETARGETING
PROS

• Provides more flexibility in the location of your content and can target a broader range of consumers. It also allows you to reach potential customers based on their online actions, getting your brand in front of new audiences.
• Improves brand recognition through repeated exposure to your brand.
• Encourages return visits to your website.
• Cost effective – you are marketing to consumers that you know are interested in what you are selling. Studies show that your ROI is much higher than other forms of digital marketing because you know they are interested.

CONS

• Content is limited to the ad size constraint.
• It’s annoying, creepy and weird… words often used to describe retargeting ads. This happens when they are appearing too much. Others think that it is an invasion of their privacy. Not everyone likes getting ads about things they searched for online.
• Can be ineffective if your customer has already purchased. Make sure that the retargeter you choose to work with uses segmentation. For example, interested versus converted to spare your new customer from a redundant campaign.

In the end, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for re-engaging your customer. Pick a tactic or possibly a blend of both tactics that works best for your business, marketing strategy, brand or service.

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