You know that shirt that has been following you around on the internet for the past week? That way-different-but-kinda-cool shirt that you impulsively put in your shopping cart, but never quite got up the nerve to actually purchase? It seems to have a life of its own now and tails you like an orphan-puppy begging to be invited into your life. Who knows, after a few cocktails one night you may break down and, with just a few clicks, make the commitment.
For better or worse, you can thank some type of remarketing for that experience. Dynamic remarketing, sequential messaging and remarketing with artificial intelligence (AI) are three separate types of remarketing. If done correctly, we can combine them to create one incredible remarketing strategy to target the right audience, with the right message, at the right time.
Basic remarketing simply allows us to show ads to people who have visited our website or app, but dynamic remarketing gives us the ability to show more specific ads to previous visitors based on what they viewed on your website. While the idea of targeting audiences rather than specific websites has been around for some time, advertisers are getting better at linking products to individuals based on their proclivity to engage and ultimately purchase. In fact, it is a fundamental part of our strategy as an agency. Not only are we targeting the low funnel audience through remarketing, we are also presenting them with a product we know they have already shown interest in. Sure, it may be annoying at times, but chances are you didn’t forget about that shirt.
Now, let’s take this a step further. Rather than serving the same single-message ad, let’s tell a story using sequential messaging. This is a series of ads based on an individual’s interactions with the brand and/or previous ads. Each view, click or engagement informs the next message, creating a more compelling and relevant dialogue that constantly evolves with the actions of the target consumer.
That shirt that keeps following you around has a $49.95 price point in the creative. You click on the ad but don’t convert, so we sweeten the pot and serve the ad to you at a $45.95 price point. This time you click on the ad, put the shirt in your basket, but you change your mind at the last minute. We then serve you an ad with a 5% discount code on top of the $45.95 price point.
You are now 4-5 business days away from being in possession of that way-different-but-kinda-cool shirt.
Not all consumers are so straightforward, all human beings are different and behaviors are multilayered. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) technology comes into play. My friend, John, recently shared a funny experience with me. He was looking into building a new lighting fixture and visited a random mobile site to get some ideas from their lighting section. Since visiting that site, he has been blasted with mobile ads for bikinis and dresses. John does not wear bikinis or dresses, nor has he ever been in the market for either. After further inspection, he realized the site he visited for the lighting fixtures also sells bikinis and dresses. John was being retargeted based on a single sitewide pixel rather than retargeted based on his individual interaction, as done with dynamic remarketing. While dynamic remarketing strategies could have targeted him based on his interest, and shown him ads for light fixtures instead of bikinis and dresses, John is still not in the market for light fixtures and only wants to build his own. John’s behavior is multilayered and a dynamic remarketing strategy would not be able to solve this problem on its own. AI is able to use first and third party data, as well as machine learning to create psychographic profiles for each individual, rather than siloing consumers into groups. By adding AI to this remarketing strategy, we are able to combine the first party data from the site with third party data, such as articles that John read about building lighting fixtures, to build an accurate consumer profile.
Not only can AI help us to better identify targets and understand behavior, the intuitive profiles created by AI technology empower the machine to decide which message and imagery an individual is most likely to respond to. It is so important to present something that is meaningful to the consumer. Sure, we can target audiences based on interests, behaviors, geo, etc., but with the ability to couple cognitive dynamic creative and AI technology, we are able to truly send users the right message.
Not all consumers are so straightforward, all human beings are different and behaviors are multilayered. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) technology comes into play. My friend, John, recently shared a funny experience with me. He was looking into building a new lighting fixture and visited a random mobile site to get some ideas from their lighting section. Since visiting that site, he has been blasted with mobile ads for bikinis and dresses. John does not wear bikinis or dresses, nor has he ever been in the market for either. After further inspection, he realized the site he visited for the lighting fixtures also sells bikinis and dresses. John was being retargeted based on a single sitewide pixel rather than retargeted based on his individual interaction, as done with dynamic remarketing. While dynamic remarketing strategies could have targeted him based on his interest, and shown him ads for light fixtures instead of bikinis and dresses, John is still not in the market for light fixtures and only wants to build his own. John’s behavior is multilayered and a dynamic remarketing strategy would not be able to solve this problem on its own. AI is able to use first and third party data, as well as machine learning to create psychographic profiles for each individual, rather than siloing consumers into groups. By adding AI to this remarketing strategy, we are able to combine the first party data from the site with third party data, such as articles that John read about building lighting fixtures, to build an accurate consumer profile.
Not only can AI help us to better identify targets and understand behavior, the intuitive profiles created by AI technology empower the machine to decide which message and imagery an individual is most likely to respond to. It is so important to present something that is meaningful to the consumer. Sure, we can target audiences based on interests, behaviors, geo, etc., but with the ability to couple cognitive dynamic creative and AI technology, we are able to truly send users the right message. 
