What is Search Retargeting & How Does It Work?

When a user is on Google and after. seeks “Sneakers,” Companies like Nike and Skechers likely want their ads to run continuously online for these users as they are currently in the market for a product they are selling.

But how are you supposed to do that if the user isn’t looking for you and maybe doesn’t even know that your company sells sports shoes?

This is where search retargeting comes in. With this behavioral targeting, companies can display their ads on search engine results pages (SERPs) and social media sites after a user has entered certain keywords.

This is a popular strategy among marketers. In fact, 68% of marketing agencies and 49% of brands have their own retargeting budget. In addition, it is also popular with online users – 25% of online viewers like to see refocused ads.

In this post, let’s discuss what search retargeting is, how it works, and how you can use it to reach new audiences.

Continuation of the example above when a user searched for “Sneakers,” they could go to Facebook a few days later and see an ad for Nike or Skechers. This would mean that the company has set up a digital campaign to re-target users who search for sports shoes in search engines.

Now you may be wondering “How does this work?” Let’s dive in below.

How does search retargeting work?

In essence, search retargeting works through automation. Once a user searches for a keyword, certain display ads will appear on their SERPs, social media, and other pages they visit online.

This works by creating a custom audience for your display ads. To do this, you create a list of keywords that are relevant to your company. You can choose to retarget people using broad, specific, or relevant keywords.

Then go to your search engine ads (whether on Google, Yahoo or Bing) or whatever software you use to set up your display advertising and use their ecosystem to set up your campaign. The search engine or software then uses their data to target those users again and show them your ads online.

The idea is that a user searches for a product, sees your business’s ad, and then hopefully either visits your website or considers returning to your website when they are ready to make a purchase.

Before we dive too deep into search retargeting, you are probably now thinking about site retargeting and wondering, “Isn’t that the same?” The answer is no, but let’s expand below.

The great thing about search retargeting is that the user doesn’t even need to know that your business exists. They see your ads because they are looking for a specific product or service, whether or not they know your brand.

While site retargeting helps those in the consideration / decision phase of the buying process, search retargeting is intended for those who are in the awareness phase. The main difference lies in the type of consumer that is being addressed.

Benefits of search retargeting

1. Increase brand awareness.

Search retargeting is particularly effective in increasing brand awareness. So much so that 70% of marketers use search retargeting primarily to increase brand awareness. This is because the audience you are targeting doesn’t need to know who you are to see your ad. The more people see your ad who have never heard of your business, the greater your brand awareness.

2. Increase the visitors to your website.

A big benefit of search retargeting, of course, is that it increases the number of visitors to your website. You will be able to attract new visitors to your website who have never heard of your business and who otherwise would not have appeared on your website through search retargeting. This is because you capture visitors by the intent of their search.

3. Convert more consumers.

At the end of the day, run digital campaigns to increase your ROI (return on investment) and increase sales. Search retargeting can help with this. In fact, realigned search ads have higher conversion rates than regular display ads. And in the end, it’s cheaper.

Google search retargeting

While you might use a marketing automation tool to set up your search retargeting ads, most likely these are just using data collected by Yahoo and Bing. Google prefers to store its data internally so that you can use Google Ads to run your search retargeting campaigns on this search engine.

Google calls this process contextual keyword targeting. You use Google’s Keyword Tool to choose your keywords, and you can even use negative keywords to make sure your ads don’t show up on irrelevant searches.

Reach new audiences with search retargeting

Search retargeting is a great way to increase brand awareness and drive more engagement and traffic to your website. Not only does it work, consumers also prefer this type of advertising over other display ads.