Can Google's Cross-Device Retargeting Drive More Conversions?
An ongoing challenge for retail brands is how to “close the loop” and control cross-device remarketing campaigns across phones, tablets, laptops and more.
Now, thanks to the recent release of cross-device remarketing for Google Display network and DoubleClick Bid Manager, advertisers can monitor how frequently users see your ad across device, apps and sites.
New Google Cross-Device Retargeting
According to the announcement:
“Let’s say you’re a retailer and want to build a customized Halloween campaign. With cross-device remarketing, you can reach your customers with an “It’s almost Halloween” ad on their phone during the morning commute. Later in the day, you can follow up with a limited time offer on decorations and recipes when they’re browsing a tablet at home.”
Advertisers can streamline their campaign to follow up with users throughout the day – regardless of the device they use.
From your office at 9am to your cellphone at noon and finally your tablet while you’re relaxing before bed – the ability to seamlessly market to consumers is no longer distorted or suffering from gaps in messaging.
How will cross-device retargeting influence conversion rates?
According to our in-house experts, it does seems like re-targeting to someone on desktop who originally found your website via mobile presents a much better opportunity to drive conversions.
“Takeaway for me is that we should monitor our device metrics for changes in impression and click volume, as well as conversion performance the coming weeks and months,” Josh Brisco, Manager Retail Search Operations at CPC Strategy said.
“We could possibly see some significant fluctuations once this begins to roll out.”
The announcement is pretty big deal – since Google did not offer any cross-device remarketing capabilities prior.
Unfortunately, if a user saw an ad for a Halloween costume on their mobile phone but later decided to use their desktop to check out the same site they would double listed – which would ultimately impact the frequency cap (on each device).
Experts on the Growing Trend of Device Segmentation
Earlier this summer, we reported on the 2016 Google Shopping Performance Summit, where advertisers were introduced to more control and flexibility on specific mobile bids including the ability to set individual bid adjustments for other devices like desktops and tablets.
https://tinuiti.com/blog/2016/06/introducing-google-shopping-bidding-device/
“AdWords is going back to old school ways by bringing back what advertisers missed the most from enhanced campaigns: campaign level device segmentation,” Roman Fitch, Retail Search Manager at CPC Strategy said.
Thanks to this shift in device segmentation, advertisers can anchor their base keyword bid to the device most valuable to their business and then set bid adjustments for each of the other devices.
As traffic continues to rise in popularity on mobile and tablets – the ability to measure device specific metrics accurately is essential for campaign optimization. Google, advertisers will also have a wider range to adjust bids, up to +900%.
With more controls, advertisers can optimize their campaigns while maintaining a single campaign that reaches consumers across devices.
Not only does this give better control of budget, visibility & ROI at the device level, this will also enable much cleaner campaign-by-device segmentation, which will make substantiating the multi-device conversion path much more simple.
“If you structure your campaigns currently, it’ll allow you to see how Shopping on specific devices interplays with other campaigns, and even see in Google Analytics how shopping from device devices interplays with other channels,” Fitch said.
To learn more about cross device retargeting & bidding strategy, email [email protected]
Additional Resources
Introducing Google Shopping By Device
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