Rockett Insights
Put Boomerang in Play for Better Lead Conversion
As all online advertisers know, getting the attention of their target audience is no easy task. Enticing those users to click on an ad and complete a lead is an even harder objective to realize. Doubleclick, the third party ad serving company, has developed a technology to help increase odds of lead conversions, called Boomerang.
How it works:
Boomerang is a technology produced by DoubleClick which helps target consumers who have visited a target site previously. The following is a brief explanation of how “Boomerang” works:
- Once the user has clicked on the site-of-interest, DoubleClick gives the user a unique ID. For instance, a user visits the BB&T Checking site and reads various materials pertaining to opening an account. DoubleClick gives this user a unique and identifiable ID which is saved in a cookie file. Then, instead of proceeding to open an account, the user abruptly leaves the site.
- This same user happens to be surfing the internet and clicks on a website advertising the BB&T Checking Accounts.
- Once the user clicks on a website that is part of the client’s advertising campaign, DoubleClick reads the user’s ID and recognizes that the user has previously visited the client’s website.
- DoubleClick then displays an ad to the consumer which entices the user back to the BB&T Checking Account page. Once such ad may read, “Free checks for one year if you open a checking account with us NOW.”
- This ad then draws the consumer back to the site they originally visited to finalize the purchase and/or commitment.
A few reasons why to give it a try:
- DoubleClick’s Boomerang technology helps clients target consumers who are already highly interested in their products/services, thereby reducing ad waste. Ads displayed to previous visitors can be behavior-targeted for the highest chance of click-through and ultimately a purchase and/or commitment. Such behavior-targeted ads may be “Free Shipping”, “No Annual Fees”, etc.
- Using this technology enables marketers to learn which types of ads as well as offers are the most effective.
- Boomerang technology also increases the potential for repeat-purchases. Targeting consumers who have already visited the site and have gone through with a purchase will yield higher returns on media spending than reaching out to unknown users.
How to get Boomerang:
Boomerang is an add-on feature for Doubleclick users; available only for a fee. To get Boomerang, contact Doubleclick.com or call 1-866-459-7606 for a sales team member.
Using the technology:
In order to serve another ad to users who have interacted with a site but have not converted, users must be added to a “user list” within Doubleclick the moment the user initially makes contact with a webpage after clicking on a banner. These users are saved in the user list by their unique cookie id.
Once the user is on a “user list,” every time that same user comes in contact with a site being used in a campaign that is utilizing Boomerang technology, Doubleclick reads their cookie, finds their unique ID, compares it to the IDs in the defined “user list” and if the ID is in the “user list,” Doubleclick then will serve that user another banner from the same campaign that contains different creative messaging. The creative messaging is key in utilizing Boomerang technology. The use of the “user lists” enables advertisers to create lists based on which pages users have visited or even how far into the site the user has interacted (aka different levels of behavioral targeting). Based on the user’s activity, which is defined in the creation of a “user list,” an ad can then be shown to that user (and other users who have performed the same activities) which contains messaging that is relevant to content on the pages they visited most heavily.
An example of this would be as follows:
- Nikki sees a Barnes and Nobles ad while reading news articles on Fox News.com.
- She clicks on the banner and is taken to a B&N landing page.
- Once on the B&N landing page, her cookie ID is stored in a “user list.”
- Nikki then decides to shop around the site, adding a few items to her shopping cart. But after seeing the shipping costs, declined to make a purchase and eventually exited the site. (The shopping cart page can also contain a Boomerang tag, and a user list can be created to only store users IDs once they interact with the shopping cart without converting.)
- A few days later, Nikki is back online looking for information regarding a recent illness. The site, WebMD, also happens to be on a network buy an advertiser had purchased for use in the Barnes and Noble online campaign. Once on the WebMD site, her cookie is read by Doubleclick and instantaneously, she is sent a Barnes and Noble ad.
- The Boomerang technology is not as simple as a retargeting pixel. This function allows advertisers to serve a second banner ad to a user that contains a relevant advertising message.
- In this example, on Web MD, she sees a Barnes and Noble ad with a “FREE SHIPPING NOW” offer. This banner was sent to Nikki because she was placed in a “user list” that was associated with the shopping cart page. Advertisers can then, by seeing her activity, reason that shipping costs may be a factor in her purchase decision and decide to create an offer to entice her back to the B&N site.
- If Nikki was to visit the Political Books section of the B&N, the second B&N ad she may see could possibly involve the title of the latest political bestseller.
So how is Boomerang Technology actually implemented? On a granular, technical level, Boomerang technology is created the same way an ordinary spotlight code is produced within Doubleclick. An image tag is placed on a page that an advertiser wants to monitor. This image tag contains a code which calls an invisible image from a predetermined URL. This action then records the cookie ID of the user and stores it in a “user list” database for later recall.
