Search Retargeting has been around for a while.  You may recall that this is when a visitor to a site page is tagged based upon the keyword they clicked on and is re-engaged on subsequent websites with pre-designed offers and messaging.
 

An Example of a Previous Implementation of Search Retargeting

1. At one of the major search engines I might search on the term “Home Saunas.”  I go to several sites and narrow my interest down to a couple of products at two different sites.  I do nothing yet because I want time to think.
2. With Retargeting I have been tagged and will be re-engaged base upon my previous behavior at the site set up to do Retargeting.
3. When the visitor goes to another site in the network of participating web properties, another offer is presented to the visitor.
4. The visitor doesn’t know we have tagged him and we will respect their privacy but we will get tighter and tighter with our messaging and offers with a goal to get them to take a predetermined course of action. We will try several ad approaches and different offers.  We will also keep our brand out front in the prospect’s mind.
5. After the prospect contacts us or, or after 30 days, we will stop the re-engagement process.  The result is a coordinated display of timely offers calculated to elicit the appropriate response.

Yahoo’s Implementation of Search Retargeting
While this technology has been available for several years, Yahoo has recently introduced its own version.  Yahoo implementation is notable in several ways:

1. Yahoo is associated with tons of websites that millions go to daily.  Previous solution providers were never able to offer this large a network of website properties and resulting visitors.
2. Yahoo is able to re-engage quicker.  With other solution providers we were lucky to re-engage a visitor within a couple of days.   Again because of the large Yahoo network reengagement occurs within hours, and even minutes.
3. Yahoo implementation of Retargeting removes the criteria that the person searching has to actually visit the site.  To become a candidate for retargeting the prospect is only required to perform a search on Yahoo—not actually click to the site which was previously required.  Once someone searches on “Home Saunas” for example, Display and/or Text ads will instantly be selected and directed towards this person.

Yahoo has had its challenges over the past few months but, in my opinion, this is a step in the right direction for them.  My experience with Search Retargeting, along with personal touches that Yahoo brings to the table, leads me to conclude that, if done correctly, this could be a gold mine for many companies. 

Feel free to contact Steve Thompson at 816-587-8880 if you would like to discuss how Search Retargeting might help you.

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Posted by Steve Thompson on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 7:20 pm.