How to collect customer data and how to make use of it in remarketing?

The very essence of remarketing is quite simple. In general, it covers all actions aimed at reaching those recipients who have already had contact with your brand. As technology progresses, remarketing has become much easier than ever. This is due to development, among others, of the method of obtaining and analysing customer data. How to interpret and use it in your business?

Where can data about website users be found

The undoubted issue is that a website is the most basic part of internet marketing. It gets users to it from social networks, Google search and many other sources. As its owner, you also have full control over the activities carried out, its appearance, as well as what user data you will use.

Where can you find customer data for your site? Google Analytics is the basic analytical tool. To use it, you must paste the appropriate line of code on your website, which you will find in your account. The information about your users that you will collect will be very useful. Particularly, you’ll find there:

• countries and even cities from which your site was accessed;

• the most frequently visited pages;

• average time spent browsing the site;

• user flow through pages;

• which pages are visited most often by users, e.g. from Facebook;

• and many other valuable information.

With Google Analytics, you’ll get to know your users much better. You will find out which content on your page they are interested in, which page they come from the most, and with the appropriate configuration of goals you will find out where conversions occurs. This data can be used to improve both your offer and your website, and thus improve sales results.

How to collect customer data for remarketing?

How to collect customer data for remarketing purposes remains a separate issue. You have certainly come across all those advertisements of websites that you have visited and which follow you, e.g. on news websites. All this is possible due to the fact that cookie files were saved in your browser and their role is, among others, to load pages faster when you return to the site. They are also used in marketing, because thanks to them you can reach users who have already been on your website. But how do you get this data?

What is Facebook Pixel?

One of the tools that will make the above possible is Facebook Pixel. Its installation is very simple. You just have to paste the appropriate code in the <header> section. The matter is much easier if you use WordPress, for example. Then just download the “Official Facebook Pixel”, paste the API code and that’s it – the integration will be done automatically.

What customer information will be saved in Facebook Pixel? Quite a lot, if you ensure the appropriate configuration, which is very simple. You can define groups of recipients who enter a specific subpage, click on a specific button or visit the desired number of subpages during one session, etc.

How to use Facebook Pixel?

This way, you can use saved audiences for remarketing campaigns that you set from your ad manager. So for example, if you want to reach people who have read an article about which shoes to choose for running, then in the second stage you can reach them with an advertisement on Facebook, in which you will offer them selected models of running shoes available in your range. Thanks to this solution, the advertisement will “follow” the potential customer, and thus will be more likely to eventually buy your products.

What is Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager works in a similar way. Thanks to it in specific groups you can also collect the data of people who were on your site, read an article or clicked the “Call us” button. Installing GTM on your website, like Pixel, requires pasting the appropriate code in the <header> section. Tag and container configuration remains a separate issue. If you don’t know how to do it I recommend you ask a specialist for help.

How to use data from Google Tag Manager?

It is worth knowing that although the GTM configuration is not the simplest configuration, it gives you very similar options as the Facebook Pixel. Thanks to it, you can not only reach customers who have already interacted with your site, but also segment them based on e.g. demographic (age, gender, education) or geographical (country, region or city). And all this information is much more accurate because it is associated with users’ Google accounts.

How does this work in practice? Once a person visits your site, your ads will “follow” them on various news portals or other websites that are a part of the Google partnership network (e.g. OLX, Interia or Onet). Usually these are advertising banners presenting your offer. There are basically two benefits of this type of remarketing: firstly, the user will be more likely to click on the banner and choose your offer right away, and secondly, your brand will be consolidated in the minds of consumers, which will increase the likelihood of shopping in the near future.

Dynamic acquisition of new users in Google

Another form of advertising based on data are campaigns in Google Ads called “Dynamic acquisition of new users.” Unlike remarketing ads, in this case you do not use your information about users, but only about products. Such advertisements are based on systems that combine user knowledge with product information. Thanks to this, Google’s algorithm will learn the behaviour of recipients, while attempting to predict what might interest them.

How to plan advertising campaigns?

Knowing how to benefit from user data in remarketing is one thing. Planning advertising campaigns is a completely different thing aiming to attract the right user profile to your site. In addition, there is the question of whether your website brings you a satisfactory conversion rate. To put it in simple words: are the users accessing your site performing the desired actions, i.e., do they use the quote form, call your company, and buy products in your shop?

How to prepare for an advertising campaign?

The first step you need to take is to become familiar with the behaviour and expectations of your customers. If you don’t have your own data regarding the above, read publicly available market research reports applicable for your industry. Reports on the behaviour of people browsing the Internet, such as which social media they use most often, are also useful. Usually, information about the size of the target group, shopping preferences and interests is also available there. In conjunction with the information you have in Google Analytics, you can learn many interesting things about your customers.

Ask yourself some key questions:

1. What are your customers interested in?

2. What age are your customers?

3. What is their education?

4. How do they use the Internet?

5. Which social group do they belong to?

Answers to these questions will give you a general picture about the desired group of future customers. On this basis, you’ll be able to choose the right advertising tools and the most optimum way to communicate with customers. You need to know that the language you speak to your customers is just as important as the user data you have.

Translation of Facebook ads

When dealing with language issues, you should also ensure good translations of Facebook ads. Provided that you intend to reach foreign customers. When analysing Facebook ads, you can easily see that there are basically two types of messages:

1. Long descriptions for which the authors use storytelling to talk about an interesting story to generate interest or need and to finally propose a solution.

2. Short descriptions in which advertisers briefly present what they do, what they offer and what benefits it brings to the customer.

Both forms are good, but are intended for different audiences. The decision on which you choose should be related to what data you have about your customers. Once you create or have someone create descriptions in your native language, it’s time to translate them. It is best in this case to order an additional proofreading service of a native speaker who will make sure that the advertising message is tailored to the country and culture of specific foreign recipients. Ultimately, the advertisement must sound as if it were written by a native citizen of a specific country.

Another issue is how to translate the Facebook ad itself. There are basically two methods. One of them is creating new ad groups and adding a foreign language description. The second method is much easier because you just have to press the “Add language” button in the ad configuration window, then choose the default language and add descriptions in other languages. Unfortunately, this feature is not available when setting up a campaign to acquire new Facebook page likes.

Translation of Google Ads

Translating Google Ads is a bit more challenging. Theoretically speaking, this tool has a lot of limitations when it comes to creating descriptions for your ads, because there is a limit of characters that you can put in the headline and the description.

You will face significantly more work when it comes to choosing the right keywords. Practice shows that literal translation of the phrases you use in your home country is not enough. First of all, this is because foreign users can search for completely different things on the web, and secondly, one word can be translated in several different ways and only one of them will be searched for by foreign customers.

How to collect customer data and use it in advertising?

There are at least several ways to collect customer data. Some information can be found in Google Analytics, but you have to keep in mind that apart from obtaining information about user behaviour on your website, you will not use it in any other way. For setting up advertising campaigns, you’ll need Facebook Pixel (if you’re thinking about Facebook ads) and Google Tag Manager (if you’re thinking about Google Ads). The basic action in both cases is the proper configuration of these tools so that user data can be utilised in remarketing campaigns. When thinking about foreign markets, you will also need a good translation of advertisements and this we will gladly help you with.

Other articles:

4 SEO Tips for Your Multilingual Website

5 More Tips on Making Your Website Multilingual

How to Improve Your Website’s Visibility

Translation of advertisements? We will take care of it!