Google Ads remarketing: how to create a profitable campaign

Remarketing (or retargeting) is an essential tool for your digital strategy. In this article, I show you how to create, step by step, a Google Ads remarketing campaign on the Search network as well as on the Display network. Follow the guide.

In a previous article, we saw how create an effective Google Ads campaign : structuring, keywords, auctions, tracking and optimization.

After this (big) appetizer, we are now going to tackle remarketing (or retargeting).

What is remarketing?

It's simply about targeting people who have already interacted with your business (website visit, cart added) but haven't converted.

Remarketing campaigns often perform well because they reach a specific and, above all, very “hot” audience. Having already shown interest, this one is in fact easier to convince.

But you still have to do the right thing..

Once again, to perform, everything is a question of structure and especially of strategy. And that's what we're going to see in this article.

When remarketing on Google Ads - or Google Adwords for the oldest ones - there are several types of remarketing campaigns:

• Standard on the Display network
• Dynamic
• On the Research Network
• Video on the YouTube network
• By customer list

Here we will see how create a remarketing campaign on the Search network and on the Display.

How to do a Google Ads remarketing campaign on the Search network

As a reminder, the Search network (also called Search network) is the network on which your ads will be published following a user request. Ads appear on the search results page on Google and on “Search Network Partner” sites.

1) Create your remarketing lists

To do a Google Ads remarketing campaign, you will first need to create specific audiences, lists of people that you will target again.

To do this, you will have to go to your account Google analytics.

Why create remarketing lists via Google Analytics?

You can in fact create your audiences directly in Google Ads, by installing the Google Ads tag on your site beforehand (a small cookie necessary for data collection). The catch: audiences are quite limited.

Google Analytics, on the other hand, makes it possible to create much more accurate audiences. It provides extremely detailed analytics data about your site visitors. For example, you can generate audiences of visitors who stayed on a page for more than two minutes, who visited X pages, visitors who made a large shopping cart without buying anything, etc. The more refined your audiences are, the more effective your campaigns will be.

Karine Lopes Ramos, Google Ads expert at Growth Room.

Important prerequisites!

Before creating your audiences, 4 things to check:

• Your Google Ads and Analytics accounts need to be connected.

If not, click on the “Tools and Settings” tab in Google Ads, then click on “Shared Library” and then on “Audience Management.”

You can also check the connection in the “Administration” and then “Associated Accounts” tab of your Google Analytics account.

• The Analytics tag must be placed everywhere.
• Remarketing needs to be enabled on your Analytics account.

To do this, click on “Administration”, “Tracking Information” and on “Data Collection”.

Then activate remarketing.

• You have to have some traffic on your site. Note that a remarketing list on the Search Network must in fact include at least 1000 cookies before it can be used.

““The most difficult thing is to have lists that are full enough to be usable for remarketing. With the arrival of cookie consent, lists can take much longer to reach 1000 cookies. Remarketing work is still possible but longer. ”

Karine Lopes Ramos, Google Ads expert at Growth Room.

You must therefore give Google “something to eat” before you start remarketing.

How do I create remarketing lists on Google Analytics?

If everything is good for you, let's move on to creating your audience lists now.

Know that they will also be useful for your remarketing campaign on the Google Ads Display Network.

The principle is quite simple.

In your Analytics account, click on the “Administration” cog nut and then click on “Audience Types” in the “Audience Definitions” tab.

Automatically, Google will generate an audience made up of all your users. Here, Carefully add audience destinations: Google Ads and Google Analytics. Something you are going to have to do for each audience creation.

Once saved, it will appear in your audiences.

You can then create other audiences that are much more specific.

To do so, simply click on “New Audience Type.” Google will recommend several lists, but you can easily create custom lists by clicking on the “Create” button.

What remarketing audiences should you create on Google Analytics?

The creation of your lists will depend on your business and your goals.

The key will be to conduct a thorough analysis of your Analytics in order to identify the most interesting audiences for you.

Some audience ideas:

• Visitors who stayed more than 2 or 3 minutes on your site without converting (audience that corresponds to the session time) or who have looked at several pages.
• Users who looked at a specific page/product page
• People who have abandoned a cart (e-commerce)
• Users who visited your site in the last 2, 5, or 7 days The hotter the better!
• Etc.

Be strategic as well. You don't have to touch up all of your visitors. For example, target Internet users who have a high business potential.

“In e-commerce, for example, it is interesting to retarget people who have made a very large basket. We can thus create a specific campaign and assign a certain budget to this audience. This type of campaign generally proves to be quite profitable.. ”

Karine Lopes Ramos, Google Ads expert at Growth Room.

However, pay attention to the segmentation of your audience. If your lists are too small, you won't be able to distribute them. I'm back to my 1,000 small necessary cookies!

Each of your lists will then be the subject of a Google Ads campaign.

2) Create lists of users to be excluded

Also, consider excluding Internet users who have already converted to the list of all your visitors. It would indeed be counterproductive to re-target them. Unless you want to retarget your customers to cross-sell, upsell!

How to do it?

First, go to “Administration”, “Objectives” and then create a new objective. Google recommends several goals. The best thing will be to personalize them.

Let's say I want to exclude people who have filled out a contact form. I am going to name my objective “Contact Form” and indicate the type “Destination”. This will be a specific URL, namely the thank you page.

It's up to you to create your goals according to your needs.

Then go back to your audiences and create a new list. Example: “all visitors.” Enter the name of your list, then click on the little pen in the top right corner.

Then go to “Conditions”.

Here, I'm going to add my filter. “Contact Form”.

Once this step has been validated, you can change the validity period of your list (duration during which the user is included). Google defaults to 30 days but you can take up to 540 days (the maximum).

Note that it is possible to create several lists of identical audiences but with different validity periods. The idea: create ad sequences. You can therefore adapt your messages according to the customer journey. Once again, you have to think about strategy!

If needed, our experts at Growth Room are there for you. Do not hesitate to contact us at welcome@growthroom.co

You now know how to create audience lists for your remarketing campaigns on the Search network.

You will find them in your Google Ads account: “Tools and Settings” - “Shared Library” and “Audience Management”.

Each of your audience lists will be the subject of a Google Ads campaign.

That is what we are going to see now.

3) Create your remarketing campaign on Google Ads

After creating your audiences, you can now develop your remarketing campaigns on the Google Ads platform.

It's pretty simple. The process is the same as for a regular campaign.

To find out more, I invite you to read or reread my article on how create an effective Google Ads campaign (the ultimate 2021 guide).

The only big difference is the addition of your audience lists defined in advance in Google Analytics.

How to do a remarketing campaign in Search?

Having already dealt with the subject, I will voluntarily skip a few steps. Don't be mad at me;)

Click on “New Campaign” and on “Create a campaign without a specific objective.”

Then choose the “Research Network” campaign type.

On the next page, Google Ads will ask you to provide your budget and bidding strategy.

What budget should you define for your remarketing campaign?

Just like on Facebook Ads, it is preferable to do 70-30:70% for pure and lasting acquisition, and 30% for retargeting.

“At the start, I recommend starting with 30% of your budget. Of course, you can put in more budget, especially for a retention strategy. It will really depend on your objective.”

Karine Lopes Ramos, Google Ads expert at Growth Room

What bidding strategy should you choose for remarketing?

Google Ads offers several bidding strategies. I detailed them all in my previous article on Google Ads.

Again, your bidding strategy will depend on your objective.

Add your remarketing list

It is at the level of your ad groups that you will add your remarketing list. Click “browse” and choose the “User Interactions with Your Business” window. Then select the audience you want to use.

Also consider add your list of audiences to exclude.

How to do it?

You can do this once your campaign is finalized in the “Audiences” tab, located in the left column of your screen. Click “Exclusions,” add your list, and associate it with your campaign.

What keywords should you choose for your remarketing campaign?

Search campaigns require keywords. And you know it (I hope), keywords are the heart of your campaigns, whether remarketing or not. You will therefore have to select them carefully.

Two possibilities:

1. Reuse keywords. Analyze data from your previous “classic” campaigns, and use the ones that generated a lot of traffic but few conversions. Don't choose keywords that have a very good conversion rate. There is no point in that.

“On these ads, we can for example offer a promo in order to push Internet users to convert. It works very well in e-commerce.”

Karine Lopes Ramos, Google Ads expert at Growth Room

On these keywords, do not hesitate to maximize your bids. In particular, you can make an increase of 30%.

2. Broaden its semantic field. Use other keywords that correspond to the maturity stage of your target audience.

“Let's take the example of the car manufacturer Peugeot. Internet users can search for a specific model “Peugeot 208" or “Peugeot 308" but the process of buying a vehicle is quite long. The user does not convert at the first search, and will try to compare the models through other searches. Here, it will therefore be wise to do a remarketing campaign to target the Internet user in this comparative research phase, with keywords “the best city cars” or “city car comparison”. We are broadening the semantic field, by targeting people who have shown an interest in a Peugeot model (those who have visited the Peugeot 208 or the Peugeot 308 page)”.

The keywords chosen, all that's left to do is create your ads.

Writing your ads

The approach is the same as for a classic campaign. You will need to provide your titles and descriptions. Be compelling and compelling. And of course, don't hesitate to do A/B tests!

Two goals in writing your ads:

• Perfectly match what prospects have been looking for
• Add the most important keyword of the search in the headline (titles) to be sure to be 100% relevant.

However, remember that Google prohibits exclamation points, superlatives such as “best” or explicit comparisons with one or more competitors in titles. Find all the rules on Google Ads Policy Center.

Now you know how to create a Google Ads remarketing campaign.

What are the optimizations?

Concerning The optimizations, wait at least 7 days. Then perform the same analysis as for your traditional campaigns. I explained everything to you in my previous article: create an effective Google Ads campaign (the ultimate 2021 guide).

Among the indicators to follow carefully: CTR (keywords and ads), CPA, your impression rates and of course your conversion rate.

How to do a Google Ads remarketing campaign on the Display network

Now we are on our second part: creating a remarketing campaign on the Display network. Promise, it won't be that long 😉

What is the Display Network?

The Google Display Network brings together a set of sites and applications (more than 2 million) where your Google Ads ads can appear. They are found in the form of banners (rectangular, square) on online platforms. According to Google, advertising on this network would reach more than 90% of Internet users.

Example on the Les Echos site:

Display is especially interesting for increasing brand awareness. But in remarketing, it is particularly effective for specific operations such as promotions for example.

“As a common thread, I run campaigns on the Research Network. But when I need to do a boost or perform a special operation, I go to the Display”

Karine Lopes Ramos, Google Ads expert at Growth Room.

1) Create your remarketing lists on Google Analytics

I specify this step again for those who have scrolled so far. Yes, I see you 😉

If this is your case, I invite you to go back to the beginning of this article to find out how to create them on Google Analytics.

2) Creating a remarketing campaign on Google Ads: the steps

Here, too, it is quite simple.

In your Google Ads account, click “New Campaign” and “Create a campaign with no specific goals.”

Then select the “Display Network” campaign type and check “standard display campaign” in order to have some control over your campaign.

On the following pages, fill in the necessary information concerning your budget, your auctions but also your distribution schedule.

When it comes to the budget, bet small at the start. Display is certainly interesting but not very profitable. More and more Internet users have an Adblock (an extension that allows you to block ads).

On the Display, know that you only pay per click. Not the display.

What about the devices? Indeed, Google Ads allows you to select devices. Select all devices at first, then advise based on your results. What device do your campaigns work best on? Are they working the worst?

Targeting

In the “Targeting” section, enter your remarketing list. Remember that a campaign = one audience.

Click “browse” and choose the “User Interactions with Your Business” window. Then select the audience you want to use. The manipulation is the same as for a remarketing campaign on the Search network.

Again, once your campaign is finalized, indicate which audience you want to exclude.

Google Ads also allows you to specify the demographics of your targeted audience. Do not hesitate to do it.

Another option proposed: broadening targeting.

This allows you to reach audiences similar to your target.

I advise you to deactivate it because the objective is to re-target people who have already interacted with you. It is possible to use this option, but you may run the risk of burning up your budget unnecessarily.

The creation of responsive ads

To finalize your campaign, you will finally have to create your ads.

You have the option of making video ads or image ads.

For images, you must import one in square format and one in landscape format. From your URL, Google will automatically select some from your site. However, you can import them via your computer or choose them via an image bank offered by Google.

Advice. Avoid images from image banks, which are far too formal. Take your own visuals. Like on Facebook Ads, they should be attractive and meaningful.

Google offers you a guide to best practices for creating display ads.

Then add your titles (up to 5) and descriptions. Do not hesitate to do A/B Tests!

Complete the setup and you're good to go.

Once your campaigns are launched, let them run for a few days, then optimize them if necessary. Carefully analyze your performance indicators. The KPIs to follow are the same as in Search. However, pay a little more attention to each element of your responsive ads. For the least performing ads, this can be a creative or copywriting problem. Feel free to replace them.

Now you know how to remarket on Google Ads. Next article in our Google Ads dossier: How to create a Google Shopping campaign. If you are in e-commerce, this article will be very beneficial to you!

If you need help launching your Google Ads campaigns or optimizing existing ones, our experts are there for you. Do not hesitate to contact us at welcome@growthroom.co.

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4 things to remember when remarketing on Google Ads:

• Have a minimum volume of traffic on your site
• Create accurate and intelligent audience lists (cf. customer journey) via Google Analytics
• Choosing the right keywords (remarketing campaign on the Search Network). Just like your audiences, your keywords are at the heart of your remarketing campaigns!
• Test, test and optimize! That's true for everything 😉

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Remarketing on Google Ads in 4 questions:

Why create remarketing lists via Google Analytics?

You can in fact create your audiences directly in Google Ads, by installing the Google Ads tag on your site by installing the Google Ads tag on your site (a small cookie necessary for data collection). The catch: audiences are quite limited. Google Analytics, on the other hand, makes it possible to create much more accurate audiences. It provides extremely detailed analytics data about your site visitors.

What remarketing audiences should you create?

The creation of your lists will depend on your business and your goals. Some ideas for lists: visitors who stayed more than 2 or 3 minutes on your site without converting (audience that corresponds to the session time), users who have returned X times to your website, people who have abandoned their cart (e-commerce), etc.

What budget should you define by your remarketing campaign?

Just like on Facebook Ads, it is preferable to do 70-30 at the beginning: 70% for pure and lasting acquisition, and 30% for retargeting.

What keywords should you choose for your remarketing campaign on the search network?

2 possibilities: reuse keywords that have generated a lot of traffic but few conversions during your “classic” campaigns or broaden its semantic field, using keywords that correspond to the maturity stage of your target.