Search retargeting is a great thing when done correctly. You are reaching a potential client that you know has a need due to his search history. However, I think in this case it pays to have a well defined keyword list with a well defined and relevant call to action and landing page. For example, if one of your terms that you are bidding on for retargeting is "Best Widget Support Provider", you'll want to include in your ad relevant text as well as a relevant landing page that includes recommendations or commendations why your company is the "Best Widget Support Provider" as well as a call to action to have the potential client contact you for a free demo, analysis, etc.

There is also high value in having an overlap with the search terms you are targeting as part of search retargeting campaign with the keywords that are a part of your SEO and your paid search campaigns.

Ben Plomion

Posted on Feb. 16, 2012

To add to Al, search retargeting is mostly done through display ads. Make sure your search retargeiting providers offers things such as dynamic creatives where you'll be able to customize ads based on a given keyword. Pay attention to frequency cap when serving ads, customers hate to be stalked. And finally remember search retargeting also works very well on competitors' keywords. As opposed to SEM, it won't necessarily trigger a CPC war.

Full disclosures, I work for Chango, a search retargeting company.

Ben Leftwich

Account Executive, Anvil Media, Inc.

Posted on Feb. 16, 2012

Celine,

As much as people might say they are “creeped out” by retargeted ads, they are by far the highest performing display ads you can run (usually in the range of 2-3x better conversion rates than standard managed placements). There are a few different considerations though depending on display or search retargeting.

Display:

You need to make sure here you are monitoring frequency performance numbers as Ben P mentioned. In other words, if someone sees your display ad 5 times they might be very likely to convert on that fifth viewing, but after 10 or 20 times, there is likely a diminishing return on your investment.

Be sure to pick a platform where you can cap the number of times each user sees the ad. The more advanced display retargeting networks will also allow you space out the time intervals between each time a user sees an ad to help maximize exposure and performance.

Also keep in mind on how you are paying for these ads. Some networks are CPM pricing, where others are CPC or CPM. If you’re paying by CPM then frequency capping becomes even more important because it’s controlling your costs.

Search:

Keep in mind that with search remarketing users are not necessarily coming to your site. They might only be searching for general keywords that you are then bidding on, so seeing your ads show up all of a sudden for them will likely mean lower performance numbers than with “traditional” remarketing which only cookies users when they actually land on your pages.

That being said, search remarketing can be incredibly powerful, especially if you haven’t had a lot of time to devote to your search engine optimization efforts and you’re not appearing on the first search engine results page.

Last item to keep in mind as you begin a retargeting/remarketing effort is to take a close look at your website’s privacy policy. Most retargeting vendors will ask or require that you include the fact you are remarketing to website visitors. Google has some details for their network:

http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=100746

Hope that helps you get off the ground. When done right, retargeting can be an incredibly powerful tool to add into your online advertising mix.

Good luck!