Romain Gauthier is Commercial Director for MediaMath France and also founder of Tactads, a provider of cookieless and cross-device targeting technologies which was acquired by MediaMath in 2014. Romain recently met with Journal Du Net to discuss how it’s time to rethink retargeting – below is a translated summary. You can view the original interview in French. 

The e-commerce sector in France is booming, with online sales expected to surpass €60 billion by the end of this year. But with one in four internet users in France using ad blockers, retailers must look for innovative ways to connect with consumers and serve relevant ads at the optimum time to engage and retain customers.

As part of a wider digital marketing strategy, retargeting is a highly valued tactic, delivering personalised messaging to consumers who have already shown interest in a product and converting window-shoppers into customers. With over half (53%) of consumers considering ads from relevant companies useful when initially researching a product or service, retargeting may seem like a safe bet, but there are dangers in relying too heavily on this tactic.

Ineffective retargeting focuses on quick wins at the expense of long-term performance. Placing too much emphasis on retargeting can lead to the misallocation of marketing budget to the bottom of the sales funnel – neglecting upper-funnel strategies and exhausting the customer base. Retargeting should never be viewed as a stand-alone tactic, but should be incorporated into an omnichannel marketing strategy.

With this in mind, what approach should marketers take to introduce effective retargeting tactics into their wider marketing campaigns?

Consider the consumer
Unsurprisingly, consumers aren’t as enamoured with retargeted ads as marketers, especially when they are retargeted multiple times. When an ad is seen more than three times it becomes annoying or intrusive, which makes the tactic counterproductive.

To prevent retargeted ads irritating consumers, IAB France recommends implementing stringent frequency capping. Retailers should ensure their vendor measures exposure before conversion to avoid bombarding users with repetitive ads that are having little impact – or worse still, having a negative impact – on their decision to convert.

Marketers can better address customer needs by leveraging first party data to tailor ad creative to the consumer’s position on the path to purchase. While a generic creative may convert consumers at the top of the purchase funnel, a product-oriented creative is more appropriate for mid-funnel advertising, and a special offer or discount could be used for consumers at the bottom of the funnel. This approach results in advertising that is less intrusive and more useful.

Address the attribution model
Retailers need an attribution solution that rewards marketing tactics at all stages of the consumer journey, including prospecting activities such as search and social as well as lower funnel tactics such as retargeting. This attribution model should be unique to each business. It must be designed to ensure incentives are set and budgets are allocated in a way that will grow the customer base and increase performance in the long term.

Today’s consumers are shopping via different platforms and devices – and mixing online and offline touch points – so there are many interactions prior to retargeting that conversion credit needs to be allocated to. Cross-device tracking is required to identify the same user across smartphone, tablet, and desktop, and to better reward marketing strategies regardless of device. Retargeting should form just one part of an overall marketing strategy and should not be measured separately from other marketing tactics.

Use a single vendor
Using multiple vendors for remarketing introduces competition and leads to practises such as cookie-bombing, where the vendor aims to serve the last ad and set the last cookie prior to conversion. This ensures the vendor gains full credit for the conversion even if their action has no impact on the consumer’s final decision to purchase.

By using a single vendor for multiple tactics, marketers can set the right incentives to grow performance over a longer period without diminishing the customer base for quick wins. It also makes it easier to monitor the impact of other marketing tactics on retargeting performance. For example, an offline campaign will generate large volumes of website traffic, providing easy wins for retargeting vendors. Distinguishing the conversions that result from the offline campaign from those that result from retargeting becomes much simpler.

In addition to selecting a single vendor, retailers should consider how vendor performance is assessed. Measuring performance by clicks means restricting marketing spend to the very small sub-set of their customer base that actually clicks on ads – not addressing the whole customer base – so alternative measurements such as ROI are required.

There is clear value in recapturing the attention of consumers who have already shown an interest in a product, but retargeting should never be the sole focus of a marketing strategy and works best when part of a wider omnichannel campaign. By addressing their attribution model, using a single vendor with long-term incentives, and considering the consumer experience, retailers can enjoy the benefits of retargeting alongside other marketing tactics.