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Let me try explaining how retargeting ads work.
Imagine you go to a local supermarket, where you check a few items you want – say, clothings for your kid. After spending a lot of time at the kids' apparel section, you check a lot of items, and buy a few items.
Someone is Watching You
A salesman at the store was watching you all the time. And he noticed you checked a particular t-shirt, but didn't buy it. Now, the one who watched you knows you are interested in that tee and in dressing stuff for your kids. That is all he wants to know.
When he sees you in some other place, the salesman will try to sell you the same t-shirt. You have already checked the item at the store, but didn't buy it then.
In fact you are interested in the item and probably you will buy it too.
That is the essence of retargeting.
Retargeting Works By Tracking Your Online Activities
Once while using Rediff Shopping, I added a set of kitchen utensils into the shopping cart, but didn't place the order. After a few hours, someone from Rediff called me over phone, told me I didn't complete the order and asked if I'd like to place the order. *
I asked a few questions about the size, thickness and weight of the items. He gave me satisfactory answers and I placed the order over phone. You can see, this is a kind targeted advertising. Rediff knows I'm interested in the item because I added it to the shopping cart only a few hours ago.
Here's One Retargeted Ad I Saw:
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| Retargeted ad for building blocks, baby feeding spoons and an external hard disk |
Delivering Retargeted Ads
When you go to a website, say Amazon, the site can track the pages you visit, the amount of time you spend on each page and the items you purchase. The pages you checked and spent time on are the pages that interested you.
Armed with this knowledge, they can show you ads of products that you already showed interest.
There is no guesswork. Only the calculation of probabilities. If you are interested in an item, it is highly probable you will buy the item. That makes retargeting a worthwhile effort for e-commerce sites.
How Retargeted Ads are Shown
Once the shopping sites know you are interested in a particular item, the site can choose to follow you around until you buy the item. They will then show the ads on the right side of Facebook. This is a place to see much of retargeted ads.
Facebook is not the only place you see retargeted ads – any website that allows Google to run ads (through Adsense program) can also show you retargeted ads.
The e-commerce sites buy advertising credits from Facebook, Google and other networks to show you ads that you are most likely to respond to.
What Can Go Wrong With Retargeting
I see ads of items I have already purchased. Seeing ads of products you have already bought is one drawback of retargeted ads.
People raise privacy concerns. Who is watching all over me?
It is creepy seeing the same ad 100 times a day in 50 different websites. OK, enough is enough. Stop pestering me with your ads.
Seeing ads in wrong places. Seeing ads for wedding dress in an obituary page just isn't right. Hey, I am not shopping for wedding dresses.
How to Stop Seeing Retargeted Ads
The easiest method is to browse in Incognito (InPrivate, Private Browsing) window with your Google, Facebook, and other accounts signed off.
Or open this link in all the browsers you use in your device: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/
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