Have you ever seen an advertisement for a product you viewed on a website that appears again when you move to another site?
These are tracking ads (behavioral targeting ads) that are displayed using features provided by Google’s advertising program AdWords and Yahoo! Promotional Ads.
By being seen by users over and over again, you can increase their desire to purchase, but if the same ads are displayed too often, users may find it annoying.
Is there an appropriate way to use this advertisement?
In this article, we will explain in detail about ad tracking.
What is tracking advertising?
As briefly explained at the beginning, tracking advertising is an advertising system in which information about the site or product that a user has viewed is displayed even when the user transitions to another site or page, and is also called behavioral targeting advertising. It is.
This is a mechanism that mainly uses the remarketing function added to Google’s advertising program “AdWords” and the site retargeting function provided by Yahoo! Promotional Ads.
The only difference between remarketing and site retargeting is that the provider is Google or Yahoo!, and the only difference is the name, but the functionality is almost the same.
A typical way to use tracking advertising is to track users once they have visited a site and display the same ad over and over again, mainly to capture potential customers.
Tracking ads can be used mainly in combination with SEO and other ads to capture potential customers more effectively, but depending on how they are used, they can also lead to a decline in the image of the company. It is important to have a clear understanding of how this works.
Features and effects of tracking ads
The most important feature of tracking ads is that they are displayed continuously (following) specific users who visit your website.
Geotargeting ads are ads that are displayed according to the user’s actual movement location and behavior history, and tracking ads are the Internet version of this. The mechanisms are similar, as ads are delivered to users who visit and view your company’s website (location).
Another feature that differs from geotargeting ads is that they are followed and displayed even when you visit other sites.
It is a system that displays advertisements based on the user’s online behavior history and uses records of past website browsing history and search history.
What can you do with ad tracking?
Taking advantage of the above features and effects, we will explain what tracking advertising can do specifically.
3.1 You can display advertisements more efficiently to prospective customers and potential customers.
Users who receive tracking ads have visited your website at least once, so they are likely to be interested in your product or service even if they do not make a final purchase.
Let’s say a user gives up and stops purchasing, thinking, “I want this product, but it’s payday…”
If the same product appears when the user searches for the product again after payday, the probability that the user will purchase it increases.
It can be said to be a more efficient and effective method of advertising because it allows you to directly display advertisements to potential customers who have wanted it before but have forgotten about it, or who have given up because they don’t have the money.
3.2 Easily results in final results
As in the example above, products and services that the user was previously interested in are displayed, so the probability of the user purchasing the product or service is higher than that of a user who is aware of the product or service for the first time.
See the product for the first time and buy it immediately! I think that the majority of users consider purchasing after carefully considering several products, rather than those who do.
Rather than appealing to someone who has shown no interest at all, it is more likely that once someone is interested, they will end up purchasing your product or service.
3.3 You can create a list of users and expect greater effects
Google’s advertising program and Yahoo’s advertising function both have a similar “user list” function.
Basically, in both cases, all users who have visited the website just once are added to the distribution list, but if you leave this setting as is, even unpromising users who stumble upon your website by chance will also be added. Even if you track them and display advertisements over and over again, it may feel annoying, and it will only damage your image.
To prevent this from happening, you can create a list with detailed settings such as visit period and pages visited, and then deliver ads only to users listed in that list.
By distributing advertisements only to prospects and potential customers who are more interested, you can minimize the dispersion of advertisements and damage to your image, so this setting can be said to be essential.
3.4 Costs can be reduced because ads can be distributed only to specific prospects and potential customers.
As explained in 3.3, by creating a list of only prospective customers and potential customers who are interested in your products and services, and distributing targeted advertisements, you can minimize the variation in advertisements. .
Since ads can be delivered only to users who have been interested in a product for a long time, rather than to users who are aware of the product for the first time, costs can also be kept lower.
When distributing advertisements, cost considerations are very important. It is important to carefully identify the visiting users and create a list.
Advantages and disadvantages of tracking advertising
In addition to the benefits introduced above, tracking advertising also has the advantage of being able to increase user interest by displaying products and services that have been viewed multiple times. Masu.
Conventional web advertising was effective in increasing awareness, but it often did not lead to final results, so compared to that, the effect up to the purchase of the product is quite strong.
If you only look at the information that has been explained so far, tracking ads seem very attractive and excellent, but of course there are disadvantages as well.
We recommend that you thoroughly understand the disadvantages that we will explain below before considering using tracking ads.
Disadvantage 1: May cause anxiety or discomfort to users
Tracking ads have the advantage of increasing purchase intent by being displayed many times, but the characteristic of being displayed many times can also have the opposite effect.
Not all users fully understand how tracking ads work, so they wonder why they only see ads for products and services they are interested in, and whether their personal information is being leaked. , some users think.
Although we do not collect information that can identify individuals when delivering advertisements, it may still make such users feel uneasy.
The cookie
function used in tracking advertisements does not contain any privacy information that can identify the user, such as personal information, but it is important to include the acquisition and meaning of cookies in the privacy policy. By taking this into consideration, many users will be able to use the website with peace of mind without feeling anxious.
Disadvantage 2: It may lead to a decline in the image of the company or brand.
As mentioned in Disadvantage 1, when the same advertisement is displayed over and over again no matter where you go, some users may find it annoying.
If you broadcast too many times, you may get negative impressions such as being persistent, annoying, or being followed around.
To avoid this situation, both Google and Yahoo! have a similar function that allows you to set the number of impressions related to “frequency.”
This feature allows you to set a limit on how many ads can be displayed to the same user, so it is important to use it in conjunction with the listing feature to balance distribution.
Disadvantage 3: Ads may be blocked
In recent years, an increasing number of users have shown an aversion to tracking ads, as when searching for “tracking ads,” websites related to “tracking ad blocking” appear at the top. .
Tools such as “ad block” that erase advertisements are starting to become popular, so we must be aware of the negative image that tracking advertisements have and use them accordingly.
Detailed explanation of how tracking advertising works
I hope that the explanation so far has given you a general understanding of the content of tracking ads.
But how do you get your behavior history on the web? How do we collect information from users? Well, you don’t know yet.
Here, we will explain how tracking ads acquire user behavior history.
With tracking advertising, after acquiring the user’s “cookie” from a special tag “retargeting (remarketing) tag” installed on the website, advertisements are distributed based on the conditions set in the list above. Masu.
Cookies from users who visit websites that distribute advertisements are stored and accumulated on advertisement distribution servers such as Google and Yahoo!.
Once the information has been obtained, the user visits a website that has an ad space, and then an ad from the advertiser’s website is displayed.
A typical example of the conditions under which advertisements are distributed is that they are adjusted and set using a “frequency” function, etc., in order to avoid being displayed many times and becoming annoying, which leads to a deterioration of the image. There are many.
Introduction of important terms that appeared in the explanation
Cookie
A cookie is a small text file issued by the web server of the website you visit. Cookies temporarily store information about websites you visit on devices such as smartphones, computers, and tablets.
For example, cookies are used when an item is placed in a shopping cart on an online shopping site and remains there even after leaving the page, or when the item is added to the shopping cart without having to enter the ID or password again. I’m doing it.
This has the advantage of saving time for users, and the ability to identify users for site operators.
Tracking advertising uses user identification through cookies to track users who visit the site and deliver advertisements to them.
Retargeting (remarketing) tag
In order to obtain cookies, it is necessary to embed this retargeting (remarketing) tag on your website. This is a mechanism in which advertisements are distributed by acquiring information about users who have accessed pages that have this tag embedded, and by accumulating a certain amount of information.
You need to think about whether to embed it throughout the site or only on specific pages, depending on your purpose.
frequency
Directly translated, frequency has meanings such as “frequency” or “frequency,” but when used as a marketing term, it is used to mean “frequency of exposure to Internet advertisements (web advertisements).”
By using this feature, you can decide how many times your ad will be shown to the same user on your list.
Since you can set a limit on how many ads can be delivered to a single user, it is very important to determine and set the appropriate delivery frequency.
summary
This time I explained about tracking ads, what did you think?
Tracking ads are thought to increase user interest and lead to direct purchases, but if used incorrectly, it can also lead to a decline in the image of a company or brand.
You can maximize the effectiveness of your ads by determining the appropriate delivery frequency and carefully configuring your user list.
It is a good idea to carefully understand the advantages and disadvantages explained above, as well as the psychology of the users to whom advertisements are distributed, before considering whether to use them.