Remarketing Google advertising: How to reduce the number of abandoned carts
Use consumer behaviour data to increase sales
It has happened to everyone.
You browse a website, add products to your cart, then close it without completing your order.
There could be many reasons - you decided not to shop from this site, or something just interrupted you and you forgot to continue.
After a while, you get an email or see a Facebook or Google ad with the same products you added to your cart.
They may even offer you a discount to complete your order. You say "okay" and act.
What are "abandoned carts"?
That above is a simplified example of a successful abandoned cart campaign, a problem that's becoming more and more of an issue for online stores lately.
π‘ In 2023, the percentage of abandoned strollers globally has reached 70% for the first time in 10 years.
That's a lot of lost opportunities and unrealized sales of businesses.
Fortunately, advertising platforms like Google Ads offer effective solutions that can point your users in the right direction.
These are remarketing ads. In our guide, we'll tell you a bit more about them and how to use them to reduce the number of abandoned carts in your online store.
What is Google Remarketing Ads?
These are campaigns that use data about the behaviour of users who have had some interaction with your website or app.
π Maybe they've just visited, maybe they've read a blog post of yours, maybe they've browsed products, added them to their cart, or maybe they've even completed their order.
All of these cases we listed in the above paragraph are options for criteria by which you can create different remarketing segments in your target audience.
This way, you can show each user the ad that matches the stage they are at in the marketing funnel.
π Dynamic Remarketing Ads allow you to remind a user about the specific products they have viewed or added to their cart.
Through this technique, the ad matches the interests of the users and Google's algorithm makes sure you get the best results.
In addition to data about your website or app users' behavior, the algorithm uses information about their demographics and interests to create a personalized experience for everyone.
The ads are displayed on Google's network, which includes Google Search, YouTube, Gmail and millions of websites and apps that have banner ad positions, where so-called display advertising is shown.
How does dynamic Google advertising work?
To use these ads, you need to add a Google tag and dynamic remarketing events on all pages of your website.
These are pieces of programming code that give Google Ads information about the actions users take on your website.
The Google tag makes it possible to use the remarketing features in Google Ads, and dynamic remarketing events indicate specific actions performed by users on your website.
The code collects data about a user's specific interest in certain products or services.
The algorithm detects them in a pre-built and uploaded product catalog or feed, which is used to display custom ads.
When someone adds a product to their cart without completing the order, this information is transmitted via Google Tag and triggers the corresponding remarketing event.
Based on this information, you can segment these users and create an abandoned cart campaign that shows them the products they forgot to buy.
Remarketing Google advertising without third-party cookies?
Here is the time to mention that remarketing advertising on Google depends a lot on so-called third-party cookies, by accepting which the user gives his consent to his data being used for advertising purposes.
These types of cookies, also called trackers, are small text files that collect information about the user. If you give your consent, the cookies will store data about which sites you have browsed and what you have added to your basket.
Increasingly on the internet we see terms like "cookie apocalypse" or "future without cookies". The reason - Google is phasing out the use of third-party data in order to protect user privacy. Companies like Firefox and Safari have already done the same.
This year, Google surprised advertisers with another innovation - Consent Mode Version 2, which became mandatory in March.
This is a tool by which the user consents or not to their data being used for advertising and remarketing purposes.
Learn more about advertising on Google
With Consent Mode V2, the user's choice information is sent to the Google tag on your website.
With consent, the user enters your remarketing audience and you can show them ads to remind them of their abandoned cart, for example. However, if there is no consent, you won't be able to, because the given user won't enter your remarketing lists.
For now, cookies are not a thing of the past, but this is expected to happen by the end of 2024.
π‘ How will this affect our remarketing campaigns? π‘
They are also possible without third-party cookies, but using so-called first-party cookies, which also collect information about the user, but do not provide it to third parties (advertising platforms).
Through them, we can find out about users' preferences and settings and, for example, what products they have added to their cart.
They're the reason why when you've abandoned your unfinished order on a site, when you log back in, the products are still waiting in your cart.
Through first-party cookies , businesses can better understand their users' behaviour and perform effective audience segmentation. For example, by doing behavioural analysis or creating their own database of customer profiles.
Benefits of dynamic Google advertising for reducing the number of abandoned carts
However, let us return to the present. Dynamic ads will continue to be an effective method of increasing conversions and turnover for online marketers.
Apart from the obvious - more completed orders, reminders for abandoned carts also help increase brand recognition, customer retention, and build loyalty.
Detailed targeting capabilities provide audiences with a personalized experience - everyone sees an ad with the products that interest them.
From a business perspective, this means reduced costs and a better return on investment.
How to set up dynamic abandoned cart ads in a few steps
1. Create a product feed.
It includes all the products or services you offer plus information about them such as SKU, price, image and more. These details are automatically displayed in the dynamic ad. If you're in ecommerce, creating a product feed is done through Google Merchant Center.
2. Add your remarketing tag to all pages on your website.
Through the tag, your website visitors are added to remarketing lists and linked to the unique SKUs of the products they've interacted with.
3. Adjust the event parameters that will trigger the ad.
They can be, for example:
- view_item - when the user has viewed certain products;
- add_to_cart - when the user has added products to the cart but has not completed the order;
- purchase - when the order is completed.
4. Create segmented remarketing audience lists.
According to the event they have activated, users will fall into different segments - for viewed products, for added products to cart, for completed order. This way, everyone will see the ad that matches their location in the marketing funnel.
5. Create a Display Remarketing campaign in Google Ads.
Select "Sales" for the campaign objective, then "Standard display campaign." Find the "Dynamic ads" section and check "Use dynamic ads feed for personalized ads."
6. Add the segmented audience lists to the campaign.
7. Add the product slide to the campaign. This is done at the ad group level.
8. Create your ads as you would for other campaigns.
You will need titles and descriptions as well as images and a company logo.
In conclusion...
π Dynamic Google advertising is an effective method that can easily reduce the number of abandoned carts.
It offers a high degree of personalization, resulting in more completed orders and better return on marketing spend.
Setting up dynamic Google Ads for remarketing isn't difficult, but it takes expertise to make sure you get successful results.
π Our ADvantage team is always available to create a winning advertising strategy for your business and take you to the top. Just request a consultation.