In 2009, Arjun Dev Arora left Yahoo to start ReTargeter In the interview above, he explains what retargeting is and why it matters. He also talks about building his company culture, the shift in how people are buying advertising and social ad platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Most display ads have one thing in common: they’re boring. AdBlock (the chrome extension that disables ads) has over 3 million users. People are sick of irrelevant and distracting ads blocking them from seeing the content they came for.
But what if display ads were actually related to what you cared about? There’s been some progress. Google serves up ads based on what you’re searching for. Facebook uses what your friends like and information pulled from your profile to make its ads more worthwhile (and brings up privacy concerns in the process).
Many companies looking to purchase display ads still rely on general demographic data or choose a specific brand/advertising network to partner with. That has led to ads with very low click through rates. Just because you’re an 18-24 year old male browsing ESPN doesn’t mean you’re interested in Axe Body Spray.
Ad retargeting as a technology is nothing new. What matters is the price point. Previously something only large brands could afford, ReTargeter brings this service to small and medium businesses.
Privacy is always a concern with online advertising that tracks you in some way. While ReTargeter doesn’t collect any personal information, some still find it creepy when an ad knows you’ve visited a specific website.
Competitors to ReTargeter include Adroll and Google Adwords Remarketing
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TechCrunch first wrote about ReTargeter last October.
Disclaimer: I first learned about ReTargeter about 2 years ago and signed up a company I was working for at the time for their service. I gave them a testimonial around that time that’s on their site. I don’t have any financial ties with them.
