Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) Guide

By Ted Parry 11 November 2018 4 minute read
Remarketing Lists for Search Ads
Intro Remarketing as a standalone channel is still one of the most effective out there. Instead of acquiring traffic that has never heard of you before, you’re essentially ‘re-buying’ the user’s engagement. Due to the previous visitors being familiar with you, they are much more likely to buy, and might be in a better position to. This means that if you invest in remarketing properly, it can reap some extremely nice rewards. It’s particularly effective in e-commerce.Below are some key benefits:Similar Audiences Benefits
Segments Now that I have sold remarketing to you (hopefully), I will move onto showcase some of the segments you should be utilising to really maximise this channel.
Some segments will be more effective than others which is why I have split them out:Buyer Segments Your previous buyers can be some of the most profitable segments. This is especially true if you have an item that has repeat purchase value. Converted (Any) – Bought a product / service. Converted (Specific Category) – Bought a product in a specific category.
Engagement SegmentsWhen it comes to engagement segments I would always recommend reviewing what your current analytics stats are telling you. Work out your benchmark average and then work backwards off that. Visited More Than # Pages – Targeting previous visitors that have visited more pages than the average. Spent More Than # Mins on Site – Targeting visitors that have spent more mins on site than the average.
Visitor SegmentsHomepage – Any visitor of the homepage. Category – Any visitor of a specific category page, if you’re running an e-commerce website then this would be a top-level category (e.g. lighting or bedding). If your website gets a vast amount of traffic, then this can be segmented further. Blog – Any visitor to your blog. This can be segmented further based on individual blogs, if it has a lot of traffic and is relevant to the keyword.
Abandonment Segments
The abandonment segments are any segments that involve the user getting part way through the journey, nearing completion and then leaving. These prospects are primed for conversion, as they have shown intent but potentially got distracted or searched for a voucher etc. Basket Abandoners – This is any user that has got to the basket section of your website and then left. Checkout Abandoners – This is to retarget to users who have got as far as the checkout and then abandoned. Contact Abandoners – If a visitor has been on the contact page and then left, it shows intent and one that could be capitalised on with remarketing.
Negative Segments
Negative segments are those which you implement to ensure you aren’t showing to users who have shown little to no interest in your website. This can also prevent you from showing against users who may have accidentally clicked your ad. Low Time on Site – Simply any user that has spent a limited amount of time on the website 5-10 seconds would be considered a limited amount of time. Bounced Users – Any user that has been on the website and only visited that one page, and left. As a note if you are sending traffic to long form content / informative video content then it may not be advisable to use negative audiences in this instance. In most cases, especially for e-commerce brands, the view of just 1 page and leaving is generally a net negative.
Buyer Journey and Layering RecencyWhen setting up the segments you should look at considering the buyer journey and traffic levels. The more recent a visitor the ‘hotter’ they will be, meaning they will be much more likely to convert. This means you should be willing to bid more based on the recency of a visitor.If your buyers are likely to decide over a 6 month to year period for extremely high-ticket items (think cars, or houses) then your recency audiences should certainly factor this in. Normally when setting up audiences for my clients I look at:• 7 Days • 30 Days • 90 Days
Similar AudiencesFacebook lookalike audiences are all the rage at the minute due to all the targeting options available. However, that doesn’t mean you should forget about Google similar audiences 😉
Google has a lot of data to work with, thus based on your current list Google is able to find users who have similar search behaviour. So if you have a list of users that have landed on your ‘Office Chairs’ category on your site, Google will build a list of users similar to that in search behaviour. This means Google will find users who search for similar things, and thus expand your reach in a cost effective manner!
Similar audiences can be setup within the Google Ads interface or Google AdWords editor. The best way to utilise them is to overlay them with your current lists, if you start seeing better performance then you can up bids to what you think should be a reasonable level. As a note you need around 1,000 users cookied to make the most of it. So there you have it, a guide on remarketing list segmentation for Google ads.
This guide should point you in the right direction. Reach out if you need Google Ads Management.

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