Understanding Facebook & Google Remarketing

If you are at all active on the internet, you will have come across the principle of remarketing – even if you are unaware of its mechanics.
Remarketing is the process by which potential customers or clients of a website – those who have visited a site, or a page on that site, but have not followed through with a sale – are retargeted with specific adverts when visiting other sites.

How remarketing works
In its most basic form, remarketing works by placing cookies on your visitors’ devices when they visit your site. You can then present the visitor with ads when they visit elsewhere.
Two of the biggest providers of remarketing for your business are Google and Facebook. Both are huge companies, of course, with massive audiences and therefore great potential for advertising; however, you need to know how each one works and acknowledge their advantages and disadvantages before you can decide which would be best for your needs.

Facebook remarketing
Facebook is a versatile remarketing provider, allowing you to set up custom-made lists and target clients according to a range of distinct categories. You can even search for lookalike audiences with similar tastes to people who have shown an interest in your goods or services.
This is usually a pretty low-cost option for advertisers and is relatively simple to set up and use.
One of the biggest disadvantages of Facebook is that your potential client must be logged in to Facebook to see your adverts. Not everyone is constantly checking their Facebook feed; therefore, you must make sure your clients are typical Facebook users.
Statistics show that most Facebook users are aged between 25 and 34 and that the highest amount of activity takes place between 1pm and 3pm during the week. If this fits your target audience, you will do well; if not, you may have to rethink your strategy.

Google remarketing
Studies show that Google is a trusted brand. It works in a similar way to Facebook, but has a wider scope – processing 2.3 million searches every minute of every day. The Google network is massive, with more than one million websites, apps and videos.
Its advantages include better provision of display advertising, custom graphics, and a bigger choice of formats than Facebook.
As with Facebook, you can target your audience. Google also allows you to review which websites are giving you the best results and change your strategy accordingly.
One of the main drawbacks of Google remarketing is that you are unable to use certain keywords – those that are not connected to your main product, for instance. You are also not allowed to advertise on sites outside your specific subject.

Which is best?
As with most types of advertising, whether Facebook or Google is best for you depends on what type of business you have, how much your budget is, and what you are hoping to achieve.
If you can afford to, it pays to use both. If your budget won’t stretch to this, it probably makes sense to try each in turn to see which gives you a better return.