Now that Halloween is behind us, that we are replacing our decorated pumpkins with plastic Santa Clauses and that our American neighbors are preparing in style for Black Friday , I dare to hope that the merchants of the province have already eagerly planned their holiday strategy, unless it's already in motion!
For those (and for the latecomers!), creating remarketing lists using Google Analytics will make it easier to track the customers you want to target online. Like AdWords remarketing lists, those created from Analytics make it possible to precisely retarget users who have visited your site in order to display AdWords ads encouraging them to return to the site.
Some companies with a powerful CRM or marketing automation solution might not see the value in this tool, but it's a real boon for those just starting out in their CRM business.
HOW TO ACTIVATE ALL THIS?
At first glance the option to create remarketing lists in Analytics is open to everyone, but it will be impossible to use them until you have done this:
- Modification of the code : To be able to use the function, you must first make a modification to the Analytics code found on all the pages of your site. Yes, even if you have the latest version of the code, you installed it from Google Tag Manager , you have to do this task manually. The new line of code adds the DoubleClick cookie to the other files your users are targeted with during their visit. If you are not yet using the asynchronous version of the GA code on your site, you will have to make the switch!
- Modification of your confidentiality rules : In order to comply with Google's user privacy policies, it is necessary to mention in your policy that you will collect site usage data and possibly use it for advertising purposes. Of course, it was already a prerequisite to make these kinds of changes when we add a conversion chip to our site or when we want to use AdWords Remarketing, so some of the writing should already be do .
- Link your Analytics account to your AdWords account : Necessary step for the lists created under Analytics to be accessible from AdWords.
Of course, we must not forget that a maximum of possibilities are offered to you if we take into consideration that you have already implemented the asynchronous code of Analytics and configured your conversion objectives before today.
WHAT'S THE POINT OF ALL THESE STEPS IF I'M ALREADY USING THE ADWORDS REMARKETING TAG?
ADVANTAGE 1 – RETROACTIVITY OF USER LISTS
While lists created from AdWords tags only count users targeted after the list was created, those created from Analytics can pick up users who have visited your site (or match the criteria of the filters you want to target ) up to 540 days back. Of course, this is to be taken with a grain of salt. As with all cookies, the user must have stored them on their computer so that they can be retargeted.
What's more, you can start displaying ads instantly after the listing is created instead of having to wait until it has at least 100 users like AdWords listings. It is here that we realize that this tool can be a beneficial last minute addition to our strategy if the fateful day of Christmas is fast approaching.
ADVANTAGE 2 – USE ANALYTICS METRICS AS FILTERS
Even if it is possible to import Analytics objectives into AdWords to use them as conversions or inside retargeting lists, the operation is never done without a hitch (waiting for a first completion from the source cpc to be able to import, discrepancies in statistics between AdWords and Analytics). On the contrary, the new lists solve these problems and allow the creation of very elaborate and precise targeting lists with the statistics of visits and completed objectives as calculated in Analytics.
If you've already been using AdWords tags for a while and have tweaked your campaign over Google's improvements (implementing a single code, importing Analytics objectives), this news may seem less interesting. However, the addition of sequence filters (impossible until now) makes the transition to this feature unavoidable. These filters allow you to target users who have performed a series of actions on your site during the same visit.
HOW CAN I MAKE THIS TOOL AN ASSET IN MY WEB CAMPAIGN?
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WHERE TO FIND THE OPTION IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS
With this new tool in our arsenal, the possibilities of using it wisely are multiple. Since this is a Google product and the listings can only be used with AdWords, the advertising mediums are the same as usual: Text ads and banners on the GDN ( Google Display Network ), ads self-service video on YouTube, and… in conjunction with new AdWords features coming soon!
Interesting lists to build include:
- A user who viewed a specific page for more than two minutes watched the video on that page, but did not complete the desired conversion.
- A user who visited the site from the newsletter and made a purchase of more than $100.
- A user who visited the site from Facebook, added products to their cart, and then left the site.
- Loyal buyers who have made at least two purchases in the last month with an average shopping cart value of more than $50, but who have not yet purchased product Z, which is a complementary product.
With lists like these allowing for quite a bit of digging, the level of detail you can give to your campaigns and ads will be up to you!
THE FUTURE: TOWARDS A GOOGLE CRM?
With the new functionalities that are added to Analytics, such as the integration of data from external systems , the measurement tool is improving its offer and could become a must in the measurement of commercial data, whether web or not. Speculators have believed for some time that it could be beneficial for Google to offer its own CRM solution . Analytics, Google Apps, Google Apps Script, … there's enough to build a whole marketing automation solution at least!
But hey, besides this speculation on my part, do you plan to create retargeting lists soon? What do you think are the must-have lists to create?
Thanks to Pascal-Philippe Bergeron and Thomas Dobranowski for their participation in the post.
