Dynamic Retargeting
Dynamic retargeting ads will typically show the last product you viewed, or added to cart on a website. The aim is to remind the viewer to complete a purchase, or continue browsing.
Consider implementing dynamic retargeting ads as a low-funnel strategy to drive conversions by retargeting users who have visited your site, but did not make a purchase or take action. Dynamic retargeting can be a great way to encourage a purchase especially when competition is fierce. By showing the exact product you know your consumer was interested in, you can remind them of it's capabilities, features and even offer an incentive to complete the check-out process.
Dynamic retargeting ads are highly versatile, they can be used for more than just typical e-commerce brands. Dynamic retargeting can be used for automotive dealerships and resellers, musical events and festivals, travel destinations and airfare, and yes, even real-estate. Real-estate can take advantage of dynamic retargeting by showing homes that a user was viewing, to encourage them to book a viewing.
Similar to the real-estate industry, automotive sales can take anywhere between 5-60 days from research to purchase. One key factor in customizing dynamic retargeting to your brand's purchase window is to adjust the expiry of the retargeting audience accordingly. For example, if your inventory tends to sell out quickly, you may want to rely on a shorter retargeting window in order to showcase products that are still in stock. You can also adjust the messaging in the ad to introduce a sense of urgency, for example "while supplies last," or "get it before it's gone." This way, not only will the audience understand they won't be served the same ad over and over, but they will likely speed up their purchase decision.
Process & Research
Launching dynamic retargeting ads was no easy feat and required lots of testing from serveral teams. By working closely with our engineering team, we tested a very bare bones template to successfully pull elements from the last page a user viewed through a retargeting pixel. The retargeting pixel captured the specific elements that would then be populated in the ad container, and served to the same audience. It was best practice that the pixel would be placed on similar pages across a website, or more specifically, pages that followed their own template to ensure the correct elements would be pulled into the ad. This process required due diligence from the Account Management team, to help guide advertiser's with placing the pixel correctly. The majority of instances resulted in a successful outcome, considering Dynamic Retargeting was most common amongst e-commerce brands or advertisers, where most product pages followed the same layout.
Eventhough the process became adopted over time, it was still best practice to set up the campaign and test the pixel locally before setting the campaign live. This required targeting your own self, by including just your IP address and a few sites to find the ad displayed on. After adjusting the campaign parameters for the testing portion, one would navigate to the brand website to ensure the pixel would fire, then visit some of the provided sites and refresh accoridingly in order to locate the ad successfully populating with elements from the last page viewed. Once each step was successful, the team can then proceed to launching the campaign.
Considering this process was a big learning curve for a variety of teams, I developed a complete guide to dynamic retargeting which became part of onboarding for both creative and revenue teams. See the full guide here for StackAdapt's Dynamic Retargeting process.