Since the time I published Retargeted Ads or Retarded Ads, I’ve come across many more retargeted ads exhibiting retarded behavior.
Take for example the ones from Cleartrip.
Well after I’d booked my tickets on its portal, I kept seeing its retargeted ads. I hinted to the OTA that it could try setting frequency caps on its campaign so that it doesn’t waste money or invite my ire by stupidly retargeting me even after I’ve converted. I got an apology from someone in Cleartrip and stopped seeing its retargeted ads. But the relief was fleeting. The moment I visited cleartrip.com the next time, the spate of retargeted ads started once again. This time, I took a different approach:
Politely asking @Cleartrip to stop its retargeted ads didn't work. I'm now binge-clicking all its ads until its ad budget dries up.
— GTM360 (@GTM360) May 20, 2016
Let’s see how it goes.
Cleartrip is not the only one. DNN, PropelGrowth and PunchOut2Go are some other brands I’ve come across that engage in a similarly-retarded manner of retargeting.
But these are all cases of unnecessary retargeting. While they momentarily irritate customers, I’m guessing they don’t do any serious damage to the brand.
I recently came across retargeting of a different type that has the potential to kill a brand. Technically it might be called Facebook Retargeting but it’s more like “shoot-yourself-in-the-foot retargeting”.
Apart from causing damage to the brand, this kind of retargeting exposes a fundamental flaw in the rationale behind retargeting. Which is that someone visits your website, has a positive experience, does not convert for whatever reason and should be reminded about your brand constantly.
After my experience, I tend to believe this belief is naive.
There’s this famous institute that provides coaching for entrance tests of NID, IDC, SID and other leading design universities of India.
I’d recently bought the institute’s kit for the NID studio test. When I opened the package, I found a DVD. I mumbled to myself about who uses DVD nowadays. I had a tough time finding a working DVD drive at home. At last I found one and inserted the DVD into it. The DVD ran automatically and reached a landing page, which said that there was “no movie in the language”. I couldn’t make any sense out of this error message. I ignored it and tried everything I could to make the DVD play. Nothing worked.
I then called the helpline number printed on the back of the DVD case.
The person who answered my call told me that I need to call another number since there was a printing mistake on the jacket. The customer support lady was hopeless. I then visited the company’s website and called the number mentioned there. The guy who came on the line promised to have a senior person call me back within 15 minutes. Nothing happened.
While I was peeved with the company, I moved on and soon forgot about the incident.
Until I was reminded about it by the company’s retargeted ad on my Facebook Newsfeed later that night.
I’m guessing that, when I’d visited the company’s website to find out its telephone number, a cookie was placed on my laptop, which triggered the retargeted ad.
The ad irritated me no end and brought back memories of my earlier interactions with the company. I vented by leaving a long and detailed comment about my lousy experience with the company on its FB Wall. You can see it on the left.
The next day, all hell broke loose. A couple of people from the company called me to inquire what prompted my caustic remarks and asked me what they could do to remedy the situation. I told them to simply fix all the issues I’d raised in my comment.
The problem was eventually sorted out amicably.
But, by then, enough damage was done to the brand. (I know this because I can’t find the post or my comment any longer on Facebook. I’m guessing the company deleted them when they got too hot beneath the collar for it to handle.). Blind retargeting was responsible for this damage.
Repeated incidents of such “shoot yourself in the foot” retargeting can sink a brand.
Advertisers need to realize that retargeted ads could be a double-edged sword and need to set up their retargeting campaigns with nuance. Instead of showing retargeted ads to all and sundry, they should analyze their clickstreams, chat scripts and call logs to identify people who should be excluded from their retargeting campaigns.
UPDATE DATED 30 NOVEMBER 2021:
Going by the following example, I’m happy to say that nuanced retargeting has now become a thing.
"Woz a time when I researched a brand for reporting, I’d get ads from it for months. Now, I don't." ~ @martechismktg .
* Then: Show ads b/c Awareness & Interest.
* Now: Stop ads b/c no Desire & Action.
Awesome use of Intent & AIDA funnel data in a retargeted ad campaign.— Ketharaman Swaminathan (@s_ketharaman) November 30, 2021