What Is Online Ad Retargeting, How Does It Work And Is It Too Creepy?
One of the more recent hot topics that has the online advertising community buzzing about is the idea of ad retargeting. Whether you’ve ever noticed or not, you’ve most likely been on the ‘retargeting end’ of one of these behavioral based campaigns, but don’t feel bad, it’s nothing too personal (and it’s only becoming more and more popular).
To better help explain what ad retargeting (or ‘remarketring’) is, let me give you a real world example of what this type of ad technology can do for advertisers, publishers and retailers:
- You go to Google and search for ‘new BMW convertible’, which leads you to land on this BMW page that tells you all about the new M6 convertible. Not a bad looking ride, eh?
- You take a look at the page for a while, but just like 98% of most web-surfers you don’t take any action on the page (email a dealership, download vehicle info, search for local dealers, etc.) and you take off to another page that you also found on search.
- Well, unknowingly to you (and most other online shoppers), BMW ‘dropped a cookie‘ on you, which basically means that they stored a little piece of data on your computer that says something like ‘this person is looking for a new BMW convertible’. This piece of data is small, but very powerful and can be used to follow your every move on the web for up to several days and even weeks.
- As you surf around other websites you may or may not notice that there is an increasingly odd amount of BMW ads that seem to be popping up everywhere. If you do notice these ads following you around, you might think that it’s just a coincidence, but believe me — it isn’t.
- The intended goal of these retargeted ads are to follow you around long enough to where you eventually make your way back to the original site that you visited so that you’ll make a purchase, download some information or any other action that they would like you, as a potential customer, to do.
Image credit: AdRoll.com
This is a fairly simple, yet accurate example of how a website could use retargeting as a way to increase their advertising ROI and as this idea continues to spread across the online advertising world (it’s still very under-utilized), you’re only going to be hearing more and more about it. Of course, like with most innovative targeting technologies, ad retargeting is getting it’s fair share of negative press and there are plenty of privacy issues that need to be figured out.
But, with major attention being given to it by major ad players such as Yahoo!, ad retargeting isn’t going away anytime soon. Is this good or bad for the overall online ad industry and the millions of people who will be served these retargeted ads? Only time will tell, but studies show that it seems to be working, so we had better get used to it for the time being.
More info about ad retargeting:
- A great video demo from FetchBack about how ad retargeting works
- Some potential pitfalls of buying ad retargeting from ClickZ
- An ad retargeting piece on imedia that was written in 2006 (yeah, 2006)
- A great explanation of how AdRoll does ad retargeting for their customers
If you have any other questions about ad retargeting, I’m sure that we can get you an answer. Just leave anything you have for us in the comments below.
The Discovery Of A Gem In Burlingame Sparks A New isocket Pez Tradition
I’m not sure why, but for some reason when John and I saw the Pez Museum as were walking back from lunch last week, it was something that I just couldn’t seem to get out of my head. So much, in fact, that I kept on thinking about ways that we could incorporate the newly discovered ultimate mecca of all things Pez into our company culture here at isocket.
You see, creating a fun and creative work environment is something that I plan on putting a lot of my own personal time into and is also something that both John and Zak feel is very important to the overall success of our business. I know that creating a great company culture isn’t all about doing not-so-ordinary things with museums that are dedicated to bite-sized candy, but it does give us some great stories to tell in the future.
With all of this in mind we decided to make a scheduled stop at the Pez Museum so that we could get some shots with the it’s biggest claim to fame — the world’s largest Pez dispenser ever made. We stopped by after a tasty team lunch to say goodbye to our super-intern Toh Hong Pang (HP) as he is heading back to his home country of Singapore here soon, so we thought that it was only appropriate he be the first recipient of the monster-sized Pez snowman.
Of course, the world’s largest dispenser of Pez doesn’t just give out those tiny, little candies. Instead, it dispenses a numbered and certified snowman Pez dispenser that properly commemorates the special moment. Here are some pics we took during our first (but not last) trip over to the museum, including the official Guinness Book of World Records certificate for being the biggest Pez dispenser in the entire world. Enjoy. 
HP makes isocket history with the first official Pez pic
Yes, it actually works…
The Kodak moment for HP
Getting up close and personal with some Pez
John strikes a pose
Zak cheeses it up real nice for the picture
Nick looks a little confused
Even John’s dad got into the Pez spirit!
In case you didn’t think that it was legit
A Huge Milestone For Any Silicon Valley Startup — Getting Some Sweet Swag
For any startup that ends up in this magical, yet sometimes odd place that we like to call Silicon Valley, there are some milestones that have somehow seemed to become standard fare. I’m not exactly sure where each of these milestones have specifically come from, but somehow, someway they have worked their way into a sort of implied checklist that new startups (like us) knock off one at a time as they begin to grow like crazy (which we are).
What made me think of these milestones was the fact that we just got in our first order of sweet swag — our t-shirts, which is always a HUGE moment for any startup. Yeah, I know, you’re probably thinking, they’re just t-shirts, right? Well, they are just t-shirts, but they’re also one of the first steps to ‘officially’ becoming part of the silicon valley startup scene.
If you’re not following me, let me give you a few examples of what I’m talking about. Here are some of the more common milestones that startups experience and more specifically how they relate to all of us here at isocket:
Some Common Silicon Valley Startup Milestones
- Coming up with an awesome idea and making the trek out to Silicon Valley to get it off the ground. Myself, as well as our two co-founders, Zak and John, all basically got the bug to make the trek out here to Silicon Valley to see what we’re really made of and now we’re a part of the select few who actually get the chance to do it. I liken this milestone to an aspiring actor making the move to Hollywood or the guy with dreams of becoming a financial tycoon deciding to head to Wall Street.
- Starting up the awesome idea in an apartment/dorm room and living off of ramen noodles, burritos, Chinese food (or any other dirt-cheap food product). This is the not-so-glorious part of moving out to Silicon Valley and is something that practically any successful web entrepreneur can relate to. You see, even though Silicon Valley is full of opportunity, it’s also really expensive to live here, which means that for many startups most of the initial work that is done takes place in an overpriced apartment and is fueled by lots of caffeine and really cheap food. For example, Zak and John put in over a year’s work into isocket from their shared apartment in Mountain View, CA, which was luckily located near a really cheap (and pretty tasty) Chinese food joint. They were actually still working from that apartment up until just a couple of months ago before moving into our sweet, new digs here in Burlingame.
- Getting funded for growth. This is one of the more major milestones and why a majority of the entrepreneurs make the move out here in the first place. Big ideas sometimes require some some help to get off the ground and there’s no better place to find that help than from the options that Silicon Valley has to offer. Of course, convincing investors that your idea is worth taking a look at (and taking a risk on) is never easy, but it’s something that a majority of hopeful startups have to put a lot of time and energy into. Me and the rest of the team here at isocket are fortunate enough to have some amazing investors who are all excited to see us begin to grow and that’s exactly what we plan on doing over these next few months.
- Getting some sweet swag. Yep, you guessed it — this is the next logical milestone for any Silicon Valley startup and one that we can now check off of our list. As we hear over and over from one of our friends and investors, the always entertaining Dave McClure, getting the word out about what we’re doing here at isocket is very, very important and getting these t-shirts is just the beginning of starting to do that. We also got hooked up with some great stickers from the guys over at StickerGiant.com (@stickergiant), which I’m now rockin’ on my new isocket-blue laptop. If you ever need to get some stickers printed, be sure to check them out first — it’s almost sickening how much they love the sticker business (in a good way, of course).
So, what’s next? you ask. Great question — the next really big milestone is to hire an amazing engineering team so that we can scale out isocket to what we envision it to be and if you happen to be (or know) an awesomely talented engineer who wants to become part of the journey, be sure to check out our jobs page asap.
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About isocket
isocket.com is a
really expensivecommission-free ad platform. We're aMidwestSilicon Valley startup working passionately to improve the advertising options available to you. -
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