Google Remarketing

MarinOne has a feature that allows you to take advantage of Google's remarketing (or retargeting) functionality for Search campaigns.

With this feature, you are able to achieve the following via MarinOne:

  • Add, remove, or edit remarketing lists via bulk upload at the group level.
  • Optimize your search campaigns (RLSAs) at the keyword level.
  • View cost metrics at the campaign, group, keyword and creative level.

To access this functionality, use the Audiences tab. 

Note: the creation of remarketing lists is carried out on the publisher's end and synced to MarinOne. You cannot create remarketing lists within MarinOne at this time. MarinOne will only sync in Google remarketing lists when they're applied at the group level 

Important note: When using MarinOne to assign remarketing lists to Google groups, note that if the group does not have a Target setting, it will automatically be set to Target & Bid. This is mostly applicable when you are assigning a list to a group that has never had remarketing lists associated with it. This is important to know, as it can cause a drop in traffic.

How To Assign A Remarketing List

We recommend that you copy existing campaigns or groups to a new campaign. The reason for this is you can then assign a remarketing list to the relevant groups and use a Target and Bid strategy.

Note: Remarketing lists should be assigned at the group level, not the campaign level. 

To add a remarketing list for one of your Google Search campaigns, simply follow these steps:

  1. Create a copy of the campaign you'd like to use with remarketing by exporting a report of your campaign, then bulk uploading a copy back into MarinOne. You should update the name to indicate which is which, but otherwise, it should be nearly identical. 
  2. In your bulk upload, assign a remarketing list to your group(s). See below for details on what to include in the bulk upload.
  3. Using a bulk upload once again, assign a the same remarketing list as an exclusion to your original group(s) (the ones that existed prior to creating a copy). This will ensure that you do not compete against yourself in the auction for those keywords.
  4. Create a Strategy for your RLSA campaigns and add the new groups to this Strategy.
  5. Set the Strategy to Traffic to have MarinOne begin pushing bids for these keywords.
  6. MarinOne will now optimize bids for the new campaign at the keyword level, to ensure the best bids are found for each keyword as per the people in your remarketing list. 

Note: If your remarketing list has been created in the publisher but has not been assigned to a Campaign or Group, it will not be synced into Marin.

Remarketing Lists For Display Campaigns

You can also use remarketing lists with Display campaigns. To add a remarketing list to a Display campaign, just follow the process outlined above. Again we recommend using the Target and Bid strategy.

Bulk Upload Columns

In order to assign your remarketing lists in bulk, you will need to include the following columns in your bulk sheet. Columns shown in [brackets] are optional.

  • Account
  • Campaign
  • Group
  • Remarketing List
  • [Status]
  • [Bid Adjustment]
  • [Max. CPC]
  • [Destination URL]

Note: Max. CPC and Destination URL are applicable for display groups only.

Remarketing List Exclusions

  • Account
  • Campaign
  • [Group]
  • Remarketing List
  • [Status]

Note: If you do not include Group, MarinOne will assume the assignment is at the campaign level when uploading exclusions. The Status column values can be either Excluded or Deleted; if not provided, the default is Excluded. Note that groups are required when adding lists.

Additional Notes

  • Note that the creation of remarketing lists is carried out on the publisher's end and synced to MarinOne. You cannot create the lists within MarinOne at this time. MarinOne will only sync in Google remarketing lists when they're applied at the group level 
  • You can sync down remarketing lists and view them in the grid.
  • Lists can be bulk uploaded via FTP using the prefix groupRetargetList_
  • Excluded remarketing lists can be managed in bulk only. They are visible in the Negatives grid.
  • Cost metrics are not available for remarketing lists.
  • Single/multi-edit is not available for remarketing lists at this time.
  • The nightly sync will not update your remarketing lists. To do so, you'll need to perform a manual sync.
    You need to wait overnight before you can bulk add/edit remarketing list assignments in MarinOne for a newly-created list. If you don't do this, the process will fail because MarinOne will not be able to recognize this new list.
  • MarinOne does not support bulk add/edit assignments for lists that share the same name (for example, if you have shared lists in your Google account such as All Visitors). You will need to do this within Google Ads.
  • Target and Bid causes Google to only show the ads when both the keyword and the remarketing list match. As opposed to Bid only where Google will show you ads when a keyword matches (regardless of whether the remarketing list matches). For more information on Target and Bid versus Bid only, please refer to this Google Support article.

 

Written by Marketing @ Marin Software

Last published at: June 28th, 2023