“Who, and what are you?” Scrooge demanded.
“I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.”
“Long Past?” inquired Scrooge.
“No. Your past.”
The classic story, ‘A Christmas Carol,’ tells of a man haunted by three ghosts on a fateful Christmas Eve. The ghosts travel with Ebenezer Scrooge through time to remind him of where he has been and show him where he needs to go.
By reminding him of the choices he made in the past, the ghosts strive to help Scrooge make better choices in the present and future. The ghosts are constant reminders of the choices Scrooge needs to make.
In online marketing, we have our own little ghosts that travel with customers all over the Internet. Ad retargeting creates online ads that follow visitors after they leave a website to remind them of where they have been. We’ve all experienced this phenomenon: reading a New York Times article and seeing an ad for a moving company whose website you once visited; shopping for headphones and seeing an ad for an online shoe store you went to last week; checking the latest playoff scores, then seeing an ad for a dentist whose website you visited to get more information on braces for your kid.
Those ghostly ads that appear everywhere are ad retargeting, and they are very effective. People are rarely ready to buy or contact upon visiting a website for the first time. The Internet gives consumers the power to shop, compare and find the best deal. It is important to stay in front of consumers as they look at what the competition has to offer.
Repeatedly seeing an ad builds trust through familiarity. It creates a brand of dependability. It reminds them of the website they visited and that great deal that drew them there in the first place.
Just as the ghosts in ‘A Christmas Carol’ helped influence Scrooge to give up his miserly ways and become a giver, ad retargeting helps consumers become customers and spread the word of all that your brand has to offer. Why are these ads everywhere? “I told you these were shadows of the things that have been,” said the Ghost.
With ad retargeting, you can show your customers the “shadows of things that have been” and encourage them to come back to your website to seal the deal.
Check out the graphic below to see how ad retargeting works.
Get Started with Online Ad Retargeting
Ready to get started with online ad retargeting, allowing you to keep your brand in front of potential customers until they are ready to buy? If so, get in touch with Uptick Marketing in Birmingham, Alabama. Let us create a tailored plan to help your business grow.
