Remarketing for Google Analytics pirates

Hey everyone,

well I didnt write a good article for a while now, but I guess most of you know the reason (super busy with Wheelio) and I simply didnt find the extra time. Its not like I have time now, but sometimes your blog is more important than sleep – and this is the time.

All of you (most) use and know what remarketing is some of you know that its more than milking cart abandoners and all visitors.
If you know how to leverage remarketing and lists, well you know how to make the bottom line flourish and that is the point of e-comm.

This article will focus on remarketing lists and Google Analytics, so you wont say Im only endorsing Facebook content. I love Google Analytics ever more.  Google Analytics is the foundation upon which you build your e-commerce empire and if you dont know your Analytics (or similar data program u use), you will have a hard time scaling your business and identifying the weak points in your sales.

I will focus on remarketing and what ways you can remarket to your target audience. I believe this will broaden your spectre and you will never think of remarketing the same. Trust me, Im a pirate.

Not only that, you will learn some other things in the process.

Before I begin, I would like to thank Himanshu Sharma, for not being lazy as me and writing all the lists down. It helped me A LOT and I think you guys will benefit from it greatly. Himanshu is a genious with data.

Google Analytics Remarketing Audiences for E-commerce

This means – list of users which started ANY shopping activity on your e-comm site.

The shopping activity is any or all of the activities below:

1. Viewing an internal promotion campaign.
2. Clicking on an internal promotion campaign.
3. Searching the website to find a product.
4. Viewing a product category page.
5. Clicking on one of the product links on a product category page. 
6. Viewing a product detail page.
7. Adding products to the shopping cart.
8. Removing products from the shopping cart.
9. Starting a checkout process.
10. Abandoning a checkout process.
11. Making a purchase.
12. Adding Coupon Code.
13. Asking for a refund.
14. Viewing a product which is no longer available.
15. Adding a product to the shopping cart which is no longer available.
16. Adding a product to the wish list.
17. Watching a product video.

Any or all of these shopping activities can be abandoned by users before they bounce from your website.

E-Commerce Abandonments (Noooo, dont leave me).

Depending upon the shopping activities “abandoned”, before the actual website exit, we can have three categories of e-commerce abandonments:

1. Checkout abandonment – starting the checkout process but not making a purchase
2. Basket abandonment – adding products to the shopping cart but not starting the checkout process.
3. Shopping abandonment – starting a shopping activity but not adding any product to the shopping cart.

Determining the most important remarketing audiences

Users who abandoned the checkout process have highest probability of making a purchase (if correctly retargeted) because they showed lot of interest in making a purchase. This much you guys have figured out by yourselves.

Alternatively, users who abandoned the shopping process have a low probability of making a purchase in subsequent sessions because they didn’t show any considerable interest in making the purchase in the first place.

In retail language, these are the people who were “just looking around, nah dont need your help etc.”.

Consequently, users who abandoned the checkout are more important retargeting audience than the users who abandoned the basket or shopping.

Following are the examples of remarketing audiences which are most likely to convert in future sessions (visits):

1. Repeat Customers
2. New Customers
3. Prospects

Repeat Customers

Customers who have made two or more transactions are repeat customers also known as, I LOVE YOU customers. These are the ones that will make you the most money in the long run.

There are three categories of repeat customers:

1. High value repeat customers
2. Low Value repeat customers
3. Average repeat customers

High Value Repeat Customers

Repeat customers who frequently spend more than the average order value of your website or who frequently buy high priced products are high value repeat customers. These are also known as “I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THEY KEEP BUYING HERE”.

These are the most profitable customers for your business and you should always identify them, cherish them and retarget them with irresistible offers. Make them feel as special as they make you feel when they order shitloads of your stuff.

Low Value Repeat Customers

Repeat customers who frequently spend less than the average order value of your website or who frequently buy low priced products are low value repeat customers.

These customers are less profitable than their corresponding high value counterparts but they are still important a pretty remarketing audience.

Average Repeat Customers

Repeat customers who do not show any pattern while making a purchase are your average repeat customers. These customers can buy any product regardless of their price. There behaviour is random and really hard to find a pattern.

Any repeat customer who can’t be put into high value or low value segment is your average repeat customer.

New Customers

Customers who have made only one transaction on the website are the newbies.

Prospects

Prospect are those users who started any shopping activity on your website but didn’t make a purchase. Cheap ass visitors that need to be taught a lesson. Joke. Or not.

Well most of your visitors will be prospects but If you do things right, you can eventually teach them a lesson and make them your buyers or even better – HIGH VALUE REPEAT CUSTOMERS.

Now we know how to identify our visitors and buyers. When we know that, we can do some fun stuff. When you think of remarketing, you have to know WHO you are retargeting.

When it comes to retargeting, “who” has abandoned the shopping activity is as important as the type of abandonment.

To simplify.

Repeat customers that abandoned the checkout process are more important than new customers who abandoned the checkout process (while trying to make a second purchase on your website).

Similarly, among repeat customers, high value repeat customers are more important for retargeting than low value or average repeat customers.

And it is not just about who is more important or less important for retargeting. It is more about the type of messaging and offer you need to use for retargeting. You can’t use remarketing and target all users in the same way, but many marketers do that mistake anyway.

The ad copy and offer for retargeting repeat customers would be different than the ad copy and offer for retargeting new customers or prospects.

WHY?

Not all remarketing audiences are equally valuable for your business in the bottom line.

Some audiences are more valuable than others. 

Audiences are different and niche specific.

So you can’t have one size fit all remarketing campaigns.

EXAMPLE: If you sell alcohol in your store (yeah, PIRATE STUFF), you dont want to target pirates with mojitos, appletinies,… (sorry I dont know more feminine drinks) and target hipster girlboys with real pirate RUM. Imagine that.

Segmentation of remarketing audiences is critical for your business. If you manage a large online store thousands of products and hundreds of product categories and you need to prioritize your re-marketing efforts in order to get optimum results from your remarketing campaigns, marketing budget and testing. But this is not just for the big stores, the beauty of e-comm is that even the little guys can benefit from this in the long run. Not just the long run, use of Analytics can impact you immediately.

What audiences can I find in Google Analytics?

Remarketing Audiences for High Value repeat Customers

Following are the examples of remarketing audiences, made up of high value repeat customers who are most likely to convert in subsequent sessions if correctly re-targeted:

Remarketing Category- High Value Checkout Abandonment

1. High value repeat customers who abandoned the checkout of a particular product.
2. High value repeat customers who abandoned the checkout of a particular product category.
3. High value repeat customers who started the checkout process but abandon it.
4. High value repeat customers who clicked on an internal / external promotion campaign but didn’t make a purchase.

These customers are the people who clicked on one of your text or display ads (hosted on your website or some other website) but didn’t make a purchase.

1. High value repeat customers who abandoned the checkout because of some website error during the checkout.
2. High value repeat customers who searched for a product on the website but didn’t make a purchase.
3. High value repeat customers who watched a product video on the website but didn’t make a purchase.

Remarketing Category – High Value Basket Abandonment

1. High value repeat customers who added a particular product to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process.
2. High value repeat customers who added any product of a particular product category to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process.
3. High value repeat customers who added a product to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process.
4. High value repeat customers who clicked on an internal / external promotion campaign but didn’t start the checkout process.
5. High value repeat customers who searched for a product on the website but didn’t start the checkout process.
6. High value repeat customers who watched a product video on the website but didn’t start the checkout process.

Remarketing Category – High Value Shopping Abandonment

1. High value repeat customers who viewed a particular product but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
2. High value repeat customers who viewed any product of a particular product category but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
3. High value repeat customers who viewed a product but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
4. High value repeat customers who viewed a particular product category page but didn’t click on any product link.
5. High value repeat customers who viewed a product category page but didn’t click on any product link.
6. High value repeat customers who viewed an internal / external promotion campaign but didn’t click on it.
7. High value repeat customers who searched for a product on the website but didn’t add any product to the shopping cart.
8. High value repeat customers who searched for a product on the website but didn’t get any search results.
9. High value repeat customers who watched a product video on the website but didn’t add the product to the shopping cart.
10. High value repeat customers who added a product to the wish list.

Similarly you can have remarketing audiences for low value repeat customers.

However remarketing audiences for average repeat customers would be slightly different.

Remarketing Audiences for Average Repeat Customers

Following are the examples of remarketing audiences, made up of average repeat customers who are most likely to convert in subsequent sessions if correctly re-targeted:

Remarketing Category- Checkout Abandonment

1. Repeat customers who abandoned the checkout of a particular high priced product.
2. Repeat customers who abandoned the checkout of a particular low priced product.
3. Repeat customers who abandoned the checkout of a particular product.
4. Repeat customers who abandoned the checkout of a particular high priced product category.
5. Repeat customers who abandoned the checkout of a particular low priced product category.
6. Repeat customers who abandoned the checkout of a particular product category.
7. Repeat customers who started the checkout process but abandon it.
8. Repeat customers who clicked on an internal / external promotion campaign but didn’t make a purchase.
9. Repeat customers who abandoned the checkout because of some website error during the checkout.
10. Repeat customers who searched for a product on the website but didn’t make a purchase.
11. Repeat customers who watched a product video on the website but didn’t make a purchase

Remarketing Category- Basket Abandonment

1. Repeat customers who added a particular high priced product to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process.
2. Repeat customers who added a particular low priced product to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process.
3. Repeat customers who added a particular product to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process.
4. Repeat customers who added any product of a particular high priced product category to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process.
5. Repeat customers who added any product of a particular low priced product category to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process.
6. Repeat customers who added a product of a particular product category to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process.
7. Repeat customers who added a product to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process.
8. Repeat customers who clicked on an internal / external promotion campaign but didn’t start the checkout process.
9. Repeat customers who searched for a product on the website but didn’t start the checkout process.
10. Repeat customers who watched a product video on the website but didn’t start the checkout process.

Remarketing Category- Shopping Abandonment

1. Repeat customers who viewed a particular high priced product but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
2. Repeat customers who viewed a particular low priced product but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
3. Repeat customers who viewed a particular product but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
4. Repeat customers who viewed any product of a particular high priced product category but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
5. Repeat customers who viewed any product of a particular low priced product category but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
6. Repeat customers who viewed any product of a particular product category but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
7. Repeat customers who viewed a product but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
8. Repeat customers who viewed a particular high priced product category but didn’t click on any product link.
9. Repeat customers who viewed a particular low priced product category but didn’t click on any product link.
10. Repeat customers who viewed a particular product category but didn’t click on any product link.
11. Repeat customers who viewed a product category page but didn’t click on any product link.
12. Repeat customers who viewed an internal /external promotion campaign but didn’t click on it.
13. Repeat customers who searched for a product on the website but didn’t add any product to the shopping cart.
14. Repeat customers who searched for a product on the website but didn’t get any search results.
15. Repeat customers who watched a product video on the website but didn’t add any product to the shopping cart.
16. Repeat customers who added a product to the wish list.

Remarketing Category- General

1. Repeat Customers in general
2. Repeat Customers of a particular product
3. Repeat Customers of a product category
4. Repeat Customers who spent more than the average order value (High Value Loyal customers)
5. Repeat Customers who spent less than the average order value (Low Value Loyal customers).
6. Repeat Customers who viewed a particular product detail page but didn’t make a purchase
7. Repeat Customers who viewed a particular product category page but didn’t make a purchase
8. Repeat customers who used the coupon code during the checkout.
9. Repeat customers who always use coupon codes during checkout.
10. Repeat customers who have stopped making purchase from your website.
11. Repeat customers who searched for a product on the website

TIP: Also you can have remarketing audiences for new customers.

But remarketing audiences for prospects is slightly different.

Remarketing Audiences for Prospects

Following are the examples of remarketing audiences, made up of prospects which are most likely to convert in subsequent sessions if correctly re-targeted:

Remarketing Category- Checkout Abandonment

1. Users who abandoned the checkout of a high priced product (high value prospects)
2. User who abandoned the checkout of a high priced product category. (high value prospects)
3. Users who abandoned the checkout of a low priced product (low value prospects)
4. User who abandoned the checkout of a low priced product category. (low value prospects)
5. Users who started the checkout process but abandon it.
6. Users who abandoned the checkout after entering an invalid coupon code.
7. Users who abandoned the checkout because of some website error during the checkout.
8. Users who searched for a product on the website but didn’t make a purchase.
9. Users who watched a product video on the website but didn’t make a purchase.
10. Users who added a product to the wish list but never purchased it.

Remarketing Category- Basket Abandonment

1. Users who added a high priced product to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process (high value prospects)
2. Users who added the product of a high priced product category to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process (high value prospects)
3. Users who added a low priced product to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process (low value prospects)
4. Users who added the product of a low priced product category to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process (low value prospects)
5. Users who added items more than the average order value, to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process (high value prospects).
6. Users who added items less than the average order value, to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process (low value prospects).
7. Users who added a particular product to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process
8. Users who added a product of a particular product category to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process
9. Users who added a product to the shopping cart but didn’t start the checkout process
10. Users who searched for a product on the website but didn’t start the checkout process
11. Users who watched a product video on the website but didn’t start the checkout process.

Remarketing Category- Shopping abandonment

1. Users who viewed a high priced product but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
2. Users who viewed a high priced product category but didn’t add any product to the shopping cart.
3. Users who viewed a product higher than the average order value but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
4. Users who viewed a product category higher than the average order value but didn’t add any product to the shopping cart.
5. Users who viewed a product but didn’t add it to the shopping cart.
6. User who viewed a particular high priced product category but didn’t click on any product link.
7. Users who viewed a particular low priced product category but didn’t click on any product link.
8. Users who viewed a particular product category but didn’t click on any product link.
9. Users who viewed a product category page but didn’t click on any product link.
10. Users who clicked on an internal promotion campaign but didn’t add any product to the shopping cart.
11. Users who searched for a product on the website but didn’t get any search results.
12. Users who watched a product video on the website but didn’t add the product to the shopping cart.

Remarketing Audience for Non-Ecommerce Websites

In the context of non-ecommerce, Remarketing audience is a list of users who abandoned a micro-conversion (like signup, viewing a key page, watching video, listening to podcast etc) on your website.

Following are the examples of remarketing audiences for non-ecommerce websites, which are most likely to convert in subsequent sessions if correctly re-targeted:

1. Users who viewed a internal promotion campaign but did not complete a micro conversion (like submitting a lead)
2. Users who viewed a internal promotion campaign but did not click on it.
3. Users who clicked on a internal promotion campaign but did not complete a micro conversion.
4. User who searched the website but did not complete a micro conversion.
5. User who viewed a campaign video but did not complete a micro conversion.
6. Users who abandoned the lead generation form.
7. Users who saw one of the key pages on your website like ‘contact us’ page, ‘Make donation’ page etc but did not complete micro conversion (like making a phone call).

Low Value Remarketing Audiences (DEAD traffic)

There is one more category of remarketing audience which is made up of list of users who visited your website but didn’t start any shopping activity on your website (in case of ecommerce website) or who didn’t complete any micro conversion (in case of non-ecommerce website).

These are low value remarketing audiences as they didn’t show any interest in completing a goal conversion on your website.

They are low value because their likelihood of converting is close to zero.

Just because someone visit your website once, doesn’t always automatically qualify him/her to become a part of your remarketing audience.

You should consider re-targeting these audiences only when you overall website traffic is too low.

Also remember that some of these users may not be your target audience at all (accidentally visited your website because of poor targeting) or may not even be humans. No, not aliens, just computer bots.

END OF THE LISTS.

I hope this lists helps you as much as it helped me. It opened my eyes to segments and all the audiences I can create from Google Analytics and made me love GA even more – and I thought it couldnt be possible, since I was a HUGE fan already at the time. Remember, this list can be improved upon if you apply some creativity.

If you have some questions, feel free to contact me and I will answer as soon as possible.