According to the Nielsen Norman Group, bounce rates are linked directly to the way that a user found your site: low value referrals (e.g., links from Digg), direct links from other sites, search engine traffic, and loyal users. The first 10 to 30 seconds are the most critical; the vast majority of users will leave around the 10-second mark, but if you can keep them engaged for 30 seconds, the probability they will hang out for at least 2 minutes skyrockets.
Guides on increasingly the length of site visits and improving the quality of referral traffic are all over the web. But when all is said and done, factors like poor internet connections and prospects being pressed for time are way out of our control.
The best way to turn casual window shopping into a conversion is “remarketing.”
What is “remarketing”?
Remarketing gives those who’ve casually browsed through your website additional brand impressions of your company by showing your company’s banner ads on other sites after they’ve left yours.
How does remarketing work?
When a user visits your site, your site gives them a cookie, which is a tasty little text file that lets the user’s computer know that the user has visited your site. Among other uses, it can be used to autofill forms when they return to your site or send you information about where the user came from (e.g., Google search results page) and how long the site visit was.
However, when used for remarketing purposes, cookies can help create a broader presence for your brand across the web. If Company A detects that a user on their site has also visited Company B’s site, it can automatically generate a banner ad for Company B’s site – that’s like driving ahead of your potential clients during their daily commute and putting up billboards along their route.
Is that legal?
Not only is it legal, but it’s also safe for online users and websites to implement when done through a reputable company. Cookies cannot be used to transmit viruses or give companies access to a user’s private files. They can be erased easily from a user’s browser through a few clicks of a button. They also benefit both the web user by providing advertisements tailored to their personal interests and the company engaging in remarketing by staying on the radar.
How do I get started?
Like any other marketing strategy, figure out your goal and budget first. From there, you can work with your marketing team to figure out which remarketing strategy you’d like to use, whether you want to take advantage of text advertisements or full color banners.
Make sure you’re working with marketing professionals that can help you choose the best remarketing key words to target your ideal clients – whether it’s browsing prospects or customers who’ve already made a purchase from you in the past.
From there, continue working with your marketing and web site development teams to research the technical aspects of including code on your site for remarketing, selecting the key words you want to target, and the frequency you want to appear on your window shoppers’ browsers (don’t want to creep them out).
Good luck with remarketing, and keep expanding your brand!
Jana Quinn is a blog writer, social media dabbler, and promotional product describer who’s been publishing her take on marketing and geekdom since 2005. Read more of her content at the Quality Logo Products blog and see how many Die Hard references you can spot.