What Is Remarketing For Auto Dealers?

Jun 23, 2011 by Robert Anderson

Although retargeting/remarketing has been around for some time, it is now gaining traction as a proven strategy for online marketers.

The process is fairly simple. First, the user visits a website. Within that site’s HTML code is a tag that looks like this :

This tag will set a tiny text file called a ‘cookie’ on the users’ browser. This small file has a unique string that identifys that user, and it looks like this:

Not like this

The term ‘cookie’ is a Computer Science term that predates the Internet and is defined as “A piece of data held by an intermediary”. Lou Montulli, an engineer at Netscape, used this idea to improve the inherent ‘statelessness’ of web browsing.

Do you ever get tired of entering your password when visiting Facebook? What’s that you say? You don’t need to enter it every time? Well, you’re already reaping the benefits of cookies. They were created to enhance the user experience, not as a tool for “Big Brother” as some would lead you to believe.

Here’s where the privacy pundits get excited. Although there is potential for abuse, it’s important to note that with ethical use, there is no personal information exchanged between the user and the website. The cookie simply allows the website to identify the user as a visitor.

In a stroke of genius, online Ad Networks such as Google started using this process with intentions of improving user experience even further. With remarketing, ad networks identify key points in your browsing history, and are able to serve relevant ads to you.

Angels sing and advertisers rejoice

This progression has resulted in new opportunities for highly targeted ads based on previous browsing experience.

Are you looking for a new car but are having trouble deciding between the red one at dealership X and the blue one at dealership Y? Well, what if next time you were browsing your favorite sports site, you saw a coupon for $500 off of your next vehicle from dealership X? Would that help you decide?

Yeah, me too.