Advertisers who retarget their ads to consumers based on prior visits to their Web site achieve a 1,046 percent boost in searches for the brand, according to comScore research. Upscale apparel and accessories retailers looking to get the most bang for their buck when advertising seasonal items should consider a retargeting strategy. Consumers who search for brand names online are lower in the marketing funnel and closer to purchasing decisions. “If a consumer has already gone to that luxury retailer’s site and demonstrated some level of interest in the brand, that could be a strong opportunity to get advertising in front of that consumer,” said Andrew Lipsman, senior director of industry analysis at comScore, Reston, VA. “Especially if it’s a luxury good, it may be something people don’t need, but they want. “That’s the type of item somebody goes shopping for online, puts it in the cart, but doesn’t buy it now,” he said. “Retargeting could be a good strategy to keep that brand top-of-mind.” ComScore conducted the survey with ad network ValueClick Media, analyzing 103 campaigns from 39 advertisers across seven industries between July 2009 and March 2010. High costs, high rewards The comScore research looked at six types of online ad targeting strategies. The three most likely to be relevant to luxury brands are audience targeting, premium pricing and retargeting, per comScore. “Luxury brands usually [target] more narrow segments so they may want to look at strategies that can have enough reach to get consumers in their target market, but also capable of generating high lift,” Mr. Lipsman said. Audience targeting pushes ads to consumers who have not yet visited the advertiser’s site, but have indicated interest or had interactions with similar products and content. Meanwhile, premium pricing is a strategy by which advertisers place high-visibility ad units with premium publishers. The study analyzed each ad’s ability to generate lift in site visitation and search queries using trademarked terms belonging to the advertiser. Premium pricing, audience targeting and retargeting had the lowest reach of any of the placement strategies. Premium strategies achieved only 21 percent the reach of a run-of-network strategy – which places ads anywhere on an ad network. Audience targeting and retargeting both indexed at 30 percent against run-of-network campaigns. Additionally, premium pricing had the second highest cost-index of any of the strategies, nearly 15 times more expensive than a run-of-network strategy. Meanwhile, retargeting had an index of 373 against run-of-network campaigns compared to 329 for audience-targeted efforts. However, for luxury brands that are likely targeting much more specific audience segments, the shortfalls could be worth the potential payout. While retargeted ads created the biggest jump in branded search, audience targeting also yieleded a 514 percent increase and premium placement boosted queries more than 300 percent. Retargeting achieved an average 727-percent lift in site visitation within four weeks of ad exposure, versus 358 percent for audience targeting and 302 percent for premium plans. Strategy synergy High-end apparel and accessories retailers should look to strategies such as retargeting since they can reach consumers who have already exhibited interested in a brand and could be converted to a sale more quickly. However, what about luxury brands in sectors where the sales cycle is condirably longer – automakers for example? Premium placement and audience targeting could be more effective there. Still, the more likely scenario is that advertisers will find a combination of different strategies most effective. “For individual retailers it will be balance of which strategy meets its needs,” Mr. Lipsman said. “Our finding is that multiple placement strategies can be beneficial, creating synergy and getting the best of different worlds. “Usually there is going to be some mix of strategies that helps retailers optimize spend and maximize reach and lift while hopefully minimizing cost relative to that,” he said. Final Take Peter Finocchiaro, editorial assistant at Luxury Daily, New York