graphic courtesy of retargetingnews.com
Have you ever researched a product online, and then noticed ads for that product following you around on the Internet? It was really obvious to me this holiday season, when a jacket my wife got me for Christmas was popping up on every site I visited for weeks afterwards.
This is called retargeting, and done correctly it can be a very effective online strategy. As you can see in the graphic above, retargeting is a way to move prospects through a company’s sales funnel, which is also what an effective content marketing program accomplishes.
That’s why I’m helping some of my clients evaluate the feasibility of using retargeting to support our programs. It’s important not to overdo it – if you do it can creep out consumers who don’t understand what’s going on. As I’ve written previously about online advertising, more transparency about the process is good for industry and good for consumers.
Here’s a thorough and easy to understand slideshare presentation on retargeting from Joanna Lord of SEOmoz.org.