Retargeting creates significant rise in search

The US study conducted with ad network ValueClick Media found that retargeting – re-serving brand messages to users who have visited a brand site or previously engaged with its advertising – generates the highest lift in trademark search behaviour, at 1,046%.

Despite the lift and “moderate” cost, impact is limited by a relatively low reach.

The study analysed 103 campaigns from 39 advertisers across seven industries, examining lift in brand website visitation and trademark search queries across six media placement strategies, including audience targeting, contextual targeting, efficiency pricing, premium pricing, retargeting and run-of-network conversion.

Of the six strategies, both premium and contextual placements are the most expensive – with cost indexes (the average cost of the strategy) of over 1,470 – but premium offers a higher average lift of 300% and contextual has a reach second only to run-of-network (see table below).

RON and efficiency are both high-reach and low-cost but lack the lift that other strategies give.

Unsurprisingly, the study underlined that campaigns employing multiple strategies yielded the best results. One of the examples cited is a pharmaceutical campaign by Good Apple Digital, which used five of the six strategies, resulting in users spending seven times the average minutes on the client’s website.

ComScore VP of advertising effectiveness Anne Hunter said, “Each of the placement strategies has its own advantages and disadvantages that must be understood in the context of the campaign’s overarching objectives. Only when marketers are equipped with the accurate information on performance can they truly optimise their ad campaigns.”

ComScore and ValueClick Media co-presented the findings at the IAB MIXX conference this week during Advertising Week in New York.

This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk