Retargeting Benchmark 2013

Content
Part 1: Topic Overview
Part 2: Reasons to Implement
Part 3: Value Drivers
Part 4: Challenges
Part 5: Performance Metrics
Part 6: Success Story
Part 7: Vendor Landscape
Sidebars
Survey Stats
Benchmark KPIs
Core Technologies
Gleanster Numbers
Vendor Quick Reference Guide
Entire content © 2013 Gleanster, LLC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited.
Note: This document is intended for individual
use. Electronic distribution via email or by
posting on a personal website is in violation of
the terms of use.
Q1 2013
Gleansight
Retargeting has emerged as an effective way to improve results from Web
marketing. Originally limited to serving Web banner ads to people who
had previously visited a company’s Web site, it has now been expanded
to include messages based on search terms, content viewed elsewhere
on the web, and other online/offline behaviors. What these activities all
share is insight into a person’s intent, which forms the basis for targeted
advertising. Intent-based personalization and targeting is more effective
than targeting based on demographics or the location an ad displays,
older and still more common approaches. The trade-off is that intent
is harder to identify, so audiences for retargeting messages are much
smaller than those available using less refined methods. As a result,
marketers must use a mix of methods to generate enough response.
Growth of retargeting faces other
obstacles as well. One is the
“creepiness” factor: some marketers
fear that customers will be annoyed by
messages based on information they did
not intentionally provide. This concern
is probably overrated and can largely
be overcome by sending ads that do not
explicitly reference customer-specific
information. Government requirements
for “do not track” options could reduce
retargeting’s effectiveness but their final
form, if any, remains to be seen. A more
concrete obstacle is revenue attribution
methods that understate the impact
of retargeted messages: by definition,
retargeted ads are served after the first
interaction with a potential buyer, and
Retargeting

Gleansight: Retargeting 2
the terms of use.
many act as intermediate reminders
that precede an actual purchase. Thus,
both first- and last-touch attribution fail
to capture retargeting’s full contribution.
A final barrier is many marketers’
unfamiliarity with retargeting techniques,
which prevents them from even testing
them.
Despite these issues, retargeting has
been proven to offer higher response
and lower cost-per-click than traditional
Web advertising. Initial success in
e-commerce, retail, education, and
travel marketing has been duplicated
in other industries selling to both
consumers and businesses. Those
results ensure that marketers will
continue to explore and adopt it at an
increasing rate. This study will help you
to understand the opportunity and use
retargeting to its full advantage.

the terms of use.
Retargeting systems perform three
basic functions: behavior capture,
targeting, and ad serving. Behavior
capture includes tagging individuals
by dropping cookies on their computer
and associating these cookies with
specific events or interests. Targeting
determines which messages will be
sent to which individuals. In addition
to interests, targeting may take into
account the price an advertiser is willing
to pay for the message and how much
other advertisers would pay for the
same opportunity.
Ad serving includes
identifying tagged
individuals when
they appear on a
Web site, selecting
a message, and
delivering the
message to the
Web site for display.
Retargeting vendors may build their
own network of Web sites to display
messages, buy inventory from external
ad networks, or do both. Vendors
also differ in how much of the program
set-up, administration, and optimization
marketers do for themselves. Options
range from full self-service, as in
Google Ad Network “Remarketing”
(Google’s term for retargeting), to fully
outsourced.
Retargeting methods fall into two broad
categories.
1. Site-based retargeting uses data
gathered on a company’s own Web
site, such as pages viewed and
products purchased. Anonymous
visitors are tracked via cookies until
they identify themselves by logging
in or making an actual purchase.
Site-based retargeting can capture
very detailed information about
each visitor, which in turn allows
for precisely targeted messages.
In some cases, the site-based ad
is dynamically adjusted based on
specific products the visitor has
previously considered
or purchased. This
is sometimes called
product retargeting.
Other types of
company-based
retargeting may use
cookies dropped by
an email message,
social media content,
or promotion landing
pages. These are fundamentally
similar to site-based retargeting
in starting with a direct interaction
between the visitor and the company.
2. Search-based retargeting works
uses data from search engine queries
as the basis for targeting. Because
search-based retargeting does not
require direct interaction with a
company’s content, it can reach a
much larger audience than site-based
retargeting. Search-based retargeting
can also connect with prospects
earlier in the buying cycle, including
people who are not yet aware of the
advertiser.
Survey Stats
The research findings featured in
this Gleansight benchmark report
are derived from the Q4 2012
Gleanster survey on Retargeting.
• Total survey responses: 234
• Qualified survey responses: 146
• Company size: <$1M (3%); $1
- 10M (17%); $10-100M (41%);
$100M - $1B (25%); >$1B (14%)
• Geography: North America
(95%); Europe (4%); Other (1%)
• Industries: Retail (18%); CPG
(11%); Manufacturing (8%);
Financial Services (5%);
Travel & Hospitality (5%);
Entertainment (4%); Other (49%)
• Job levels: C-level (17%); SVP/
VP (23%); Director (37%);
Manager & Staff (23%)
Sample survey respondents:
EVP, StorkGifts
Manager, Microsoft
Owner, Leather Gloves Online
Director, Expedia
VP of Marketing, Blue Jeans Network
CMO, TireBuyer.com
EVP, Body Bath Shop
Manager, Bloomingdales
CMO, Paciolan
Director, Symantec
Part 1: Topic Overview
This study defines retargeting as Web ads delivered outside a company’s
own site and based on a customer or prospect’s previous behavior. This
excludes practices such as emails reminding customers of abandoned
shopping carts and product recommendations made within a Web site based
on previous purchases, which are also sometimes labeled as retargeting.
The narrower focus allows a deeper examination of the chosen topic.
Retargeting systems
perform three basic
functions: behavior
capture, targeting,
and ad serving.”
“

the terms of use.
Benchmark KPIs
Gleanster uses 2-3 key performance
indicators (KPIs) to distinguish “Top
Performers” from all other companies
(“Everyone Else”) within a given data
set, thereby establishing a basis
for benchmarking best practices.
By definition, Top Performers are
comprised of the top quartile of
qualified survey respondents (QSRs).
The KPIs used for distinguishing
Top Performers focus on
performance metrics that speak
to year-over-year improvement in
relevant, measurable areas. Not
all KPIs are weighted equally.
The KPIs used for this Gleansight are:
• Year-over-year increase in revenue
• Average Click-Through Rate
• *Use of Retargeting
To learn more about Gleanster’s
research methodology,
please click here or email
research@gleanster.com.
Both site- and search-based retargeting
can be purchased either on the number
of impressions (cost per thousand,
or CPM) or the number of responses
(cost per click, or CPC). The CPM
model is best suited to brand marketers,
who are more interested in repeated
exposure than generating immediate
action. Direct marketers, who carefully
monitor their cost per sale, often prefer
the CPC model. Some retargeting
plans also offer a cost per action
model, where advertisers pay only for
specified conversion events such as
providing contact information or making
a purchase. Even when marketers pay
on CPM or CPC, they often evaluate
their retargeting programs in terms of
cost per action.

the terms of use.
Because retargeting systems can
store very detailed information about
each visitor, they may also permit
messaging that is precisely tailored to
each individual. This improves both
advertising effectiveness and the
over-all brand experience.
Increase Revenue. Retargeting
expands the audience for your ads
and helps convert a higher percentage
of visitors to customers. Both factors
create more revenue. In addition,
because retargeting will probably
replace other, less effective ad targeting
methods, it should result in higher return
on ad budgets, either allowing a smaller
spend to create the same revenue or the
same spend to yield a revenue increase.
Increased new customer acquisition.
Both site- and search-based retargeting
can help to acquire new customers.
Site-based retargeting uses cookies
to tag anonymous visitors and then
recontact them as they visit other
sites. Search-based retargeting can
reach prospects whose behavior
seems appropriate even though they
have never visited the company’s own
Web site. Both applications allow the
company to reach and capture more
new customers than they would with
traditional Web advertising.
Increased marketing ROI. Retargeting
improves marketing ROI by identifying
highly responsive audiences, sending
those audiences precisely targeted
messages, and allowing use of lower
cost ad impressions. The result is both
higher response and lower investment.
Converting these benefits into an
actual ROI calculation requires a way
Part 2: Reasons to Implement
Retargeting was originally used to recontact potential customers who
had visited a Web site but not made a purchase. This provided a
direct boost to sales at a lower acquisition cost than other, less focused
advertising. The emergence of search retargeting has extended the
reach to include prospects in earlier stages of the purchase cycle,
since ads can be based on general search terms and be sent to people
who have yet visited the advertiser’s own site. Since the ads can be
served on any Web site within the retargeting vendor’s network, the
inventory of available impressions is higher and the cost per contact
is potentially reduced. The net result, again, is more cost effective
advertising as marketers reach a targeted audience for less.
* According to Top Performers, based on 146 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q4 2012 survey on Retargeting.
**According to Everyone Else shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers
* According to Top Performers, based on 135 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q3 2011 Gleanster survey
95%90%86%
Most
Compelling
Reasons to
Implement*
Increase marketing ROI Increase new customer
acquisition
Increase revenue
29%**
** According to Everyone Else, shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers
43%**

the terms of use.
to relate responses to actual business
value. This can be difficult if analytical
techniques fail to credit retargeting
messages with a contribution towards
subsequent purchases through different
channels.
Raise brand awareness. The ability
of remarketing campaigns to reach
customers outside of the marketer’s own
Web site allows broader distribution of
brand awareness messages. Search-
based retargeting in particular can
expand awareness by concentrating
messages on individuals who have not
previously engaged with the company.
Techniques such as sequential
messages streams and individual-level
frequency caps can further increase the
effectiveness of brand promotions.
Increase cross-selling and up-selling
revenue. Retargeting can be used to
contact existing, identified customers as
well as anonymous prospects. Once a
customer has identified herself by filling
out a form or making a purchase, their
identity can be linked to the previously-
anonymous cookie. Selection rules
can then look up information about past
purchases and use this to offer related
products or upgrades. The system
can constantly check for updated
information, so it does not send offers
that are no longer relevant.
Reactivate recent customers.
TRetargeting can send messages to
recent customers based both on actual
purchases and on purchases they did
not make. Messages can highlight
a specific product, make a generic
reactivation offer, or simply remind the
consumer of the brand. Reactivation
messages may be based on behavior
information gathered from transactions,
emails, social networks, or other
sources, in addition to messages based
on Web site activity.
Lower marketing costs. The primary
cost savings from remarketing come
from more effective advertising, which
allows marketers to get the same
results for less money. Marketers
may also save money through lower
content creation costs, if they can create
fewer or simpler ads, and through
time savings from replacing more
elaborate acquisition campaigns with
simple-to-run remarketing campaigns.
Actual changes in labor will depend
on the degree of automation within the
remarketing system, which services they
perform for themselves or outsource,
and the effort they put into analytics.
Micro-target audiences with
personalized messaging. The
retargeting system can capture detailed
profiles of on-site behavior, and then
use these to target off-site messages.
This allows much more precise targeting
than the generic demographic or
contextual data that would otherwise be
used to guide Web advertising. The
degree of personalization within the ads
themselves must sometimes be limited
to avoid making customers feel that their
privacy has been invaded.
33%24%19%
Compelling
Reasons to
Implement*
Reactivate recent
customers
Increase cross-selling and
up-selling revenue
Raise brand
awareness
57%**

the terms of use.
Extend a more personalized brand
experience. Because retargeting
is based on individual behaviors, it
inherently allows a more personalized
experience than traditional advertising.
In addition, some retargeting systems
can deliver a sequence of messages
to each individual, allowing very tight
control over which messages they
receive. The systems do this by
keep track of which messages have
already been delivered to each person.
Messages can also vary based on
visitors’ response to past messages,
other behaviors, and the current Web
site or Web page contents.
Speed of implementation.
Deployment of retargeting is relatively
straightforward. Marketers must add a
snippet of tracking code to the company
Web site, either in shared footer or on
individual pages. There might be some
additional integration to capture and
classify specific details, but this should
not be a major project. They must also
provide ads or dynamic ad templates
and develop rules to match these ads to
visitor segments. Even some of these
steps may be automated in certain
systems. Set-up should be a matter
of hours or days, although preliminary
research and decision-making may
extend this considerably.
14%14%10%
Less
Compelling
Reasons to
Implement*
Extend a more personal
brand experience
Micro-target audiences with
personalized brand experience
Lower marketing costs

the terms of use.
Part 3: Value Drivers
Success of a retargeting campaign depends on a few simple conditions:
marketers must be able to tag members of the target audience and
later reach them on other Web sites; the audience must care enough
about the messages to respond; costs must be in line with results. But
meeting those conditions may be complicated. The system needs to
capture appropriate data and interpret it correctly. Segmentation and
selection rules must accurately reflect audience interests. Advertising
content must be effective and reach a large enough audience. Individuals
must not be contacted too often or at the wrong times. Vendor
technology and services must match the marketer’s needs.
93%89%57%
Most
Important
Value
Drivers*
Set measurable objectives
for each campaign
Continuous optimization
of campaigns
Measure ROI for
each campaign
54%**
Testing is one key to reaching these
goals. Other success factors include
effective program design, execution, and
result measurement. The retargeting
campaign must be developed in
the context of the company’s larger
marketing strategy, both to ensure it
has appropriate objectives and to allow
meaningful assessment of its results.
Measure ROI for each campaign.
Measuring ROI in general depends on
capturing accurate costs and revenues,
and in particular on having an attribution
methodology that accurately measures
the incremental impact of each program
on over-all results. Campaign ROI
requires further refinement, looking
at individual campaigns within the
retargeting program. This is essential
for optimal results, since campaign
performance can vary widely. Without
campaign-level analysis, unprofitable
campaigns will run undetected or, even
worse, the entire retargeting program
could be cancelled because the average
return is inadequate.
Continuous optimization of
campaigns. Each retargeting campaign
has many individual components,
including audience definition, selection
rules, ad locations, marketing
messages, frequency limits, and
cost targets. Each of these needs
to be monitored and adjusted as the
campaign proceeds. Without this
optimization, there is little chance of
retargeting reaching anything near its
full potential.
Set measurable objectives for each
campaign. Retargeting campaigns may
be designed to build brand awareness,
attract new customers, generate
incremental revenue, or meet other
targets. Marketers need to define these

the terms of use.
goals explicitly in a way that they can be
measured. The metric will not always
be financial, since some goals have only
a loose relationship with actual revenue.
Unique creative. The amount of
content required for retargeting depends
on the number of segments. If many
versions are needed, marketers must
have a cost-effective way to create
the materials. This may be done
manually, with standard templates that
are adapted for each version, or with
dynamic content generators. Content
may include display ads, landing pages,
special offers, coupons, and other
materials. Top Performers indicate
the tone of content used in retargeting
campaigns can have a material impact
on the success of campaigns. In fact,
Top Performers frequently referenced
a need to adjust the creative engaging
and borderline humorous messaging
tends to drive the best click-through
performance..
Robustness of features in the tool.
Retargeting systems vary greatly in
scope and complexity. Some are
designed for self-service while others
are used primarily by the vendor’s
own staff. Some provide just basic
campaign set-up while others add
automated optimization, dynamic
content, self-tuning predictive models,
precise audience selection, semantic
analysis, message sequences, and
other capabilities. Marketers need to
assess their own requirements and find
a system that meets them. They may
choose to start with one type of system
and then move to another as their needs
evolve.
Integrate data and activities across
multiple systems. Retargeting
messages should be adjusted in
response to customer actions, such
as purchasing a product they had
previously considered. These actions
may take place in different systems,
whose data must be combined in
an integrated customer view. This
integration takes place outside the
retargeting system, but the results
must be stored in a location that is
immediately accessible. Failure to make
these adjustments may significantly
damage the customer’s relationship with
the company, reversing many benefits
gained from retargeting.
Coordinate offers across channels.
TAlthough retargeting messages are
directly tailored to specific individuals,
those same people will also receive
untargeted company messages through
other channels. The two sets of
messages need not be identical, but
nor should they conflict. To avoid this,
marketers must ensure that retargeting
messages are based on the same
brand platform as all other company
messages. This takes special attention
with system-generated dynamic
messages, which may be assembled
from components without being
individually reviewed.
43%29%29%
Important
Value
Drivers*
Integrate data and activities
across multiple systems
Robustness of
features in the tool
Create unique
creative
0%**
Types of Retargeting
Product targets users based
on a specific product and/or
displaying highly personalized
recommendations at a product level.
Demographic targets users
based on inferred information about
demographic factors--including
age, gender, and social class-
-and creates specific audience
groups to facilitate ad targeting.
Geographic targets users
by country or region.
Contextual (search retargeting)
targets users based on digital
content. Audience segments are
created using a topic, keyword,
URL, or other page parameters to
customize offers for each user.
Behavioral (site retargeting)
targets users based on specific
actions including keywords, pages
visited, or engagement with certain
objects on the web page.
Site List targeting enables advertisers
to specify the sites or sets of sites
on which to serve advertisements.

the terms of use.
14%14%11%
Less
Important
Value
Drivers*
Integration with:
email, mobile, social
Establish minimum investment
threshold to realize a return
Coordinate offers
across channels
Integration with email, mobile, social.
Retargeting programs can capture
behaviors that originate in media other
than a Web page. Pixels embedded in
emails can drop cookies even before
a user clicks through to the specified
landing page. Mobile programs can
capture responses and link them to
known customer identities. Social
retargeting may be based on shared
messages that also drop cookies, or
use the social network’s own identity-
tracking mechanisms. Retargeting
messages can be delivered within
whatever media can be linked to the
original customer identity: this may
reside only within the original media or
be available across several media.
Establish minimum investment
threshold to realize a return. Many
retargeting systems require a minimum
number of impressions to function
effectively. This quantity may not be
available for a particular retargeting
message if few people take the targeted
action, or if those people are not found
on other Web sites that can display the
ads. Marketers also need a minimum
volume to cover fixed costs for program
creative and set-up.
Reuse existing creative. One way
to reduce program costs is to reuse
existing creative, often with slight
modifications for different products or
offers. Making this work effectively
requires that the creative itself be
constructed in formats that allow easy
modification. Sharing components
across multiple programs also expands
the benefit received from testing,
since winning designs can be applied
to several programs simultaneously.
However, marketers should also validate
that the winning design for one program
is in fact the best design for others.
Establish a sufficient timeline to
test benefits. Marketers will need to
gain experience with retargeting before
they know how best to use it. Initial
tests may not be profitable but could
lay the foundation for future success.
Marketers should plan to fund several
money-losing research projects before
they can accurately assess the relative
value of retargeting compared with other
marketing programs.

the terms of use.
Part 4: Challenges
Although retargeting has proven successful in many organizations,
a new deployment still faces challenges. Marketers must first fund
an adequate budget for initial set-up and tests. They must then
educate themselves on how the programs work, define clear success
measures, and find a suitable attribution technique They need to
select a vendor and integrate with corporate systems. They need to
design the initial programs, create appropriate content, overcome any
regulatory or privacy issues, and ensure the audience is large enough
to be worthwhile. Once they achieve initial success, they’ll need to
justify shifting operational funds into retargeting from other programs.
77%71%48%
Most
Challenging
Aspects*
Consumer privacy
concerns
Adequate attribution
methodology
Managing potential
brand fatigue
18%**
Overcoming these challenges requires
a clear understanding of the process,
adequate commitment to initial
projects, clear planning, disciplined
execution, and management support.
Marketers should learn from others’
success and rely as necessary on
external resources, including vendors
and consultants, to help manage the
process.
Managing potential brand fatigue.
Repeated retargeting messages could
easily annoy a prospect, and would
have diminishing returns even if they
didn’t. Retargeting systems prevent this
by setting caps on how many times the
same person sees the same message,
how close in time the messages are
presented, and how long after the
initial event the person remains active.
These rules are controlled by the
marketer and can be adjusted based on
the situation: people stay in the market
for some products much longer than
others.
Adequate attribution methodology.
Accurately measuring the impact
of individual marketing programs is
always difficult. Retargeting faces
specific challenges because its
advertising messages may be seen
without generating an explicit response.
Marketers can best overcome this
limit through formal split testing, which
divides a pool of similar customers
into two groups, sends retargeting
messages to only one group, and
compares their long-term performance.
Fortunately, retargeting lends itself to
this sort of testing more easily than
many other marketing techniques.
Additionally, new generations of
retargeting platforms are starting to
address this challenge by tracking
Other Key Features
Unique features in some
Retargeting platforms include:
Frequency Caps. Frequency is
the number of times a specific ad is
displayed to a user in a given period
of time. Frequency caps allow users
to limit the number times a user
sees a particular advertisement
to help manage brand fatigue.
Split tests. Similar to website a/b
testing and multi-variant testing,
users can run multiple retargeting
campaigns and determine the optimal
message, frequency, and reach.
Recency optimization. Sometimes the
flow of data across retargeting platforms
and ad networks leads to delays in the
timeliness of information used to trigger
campaigns. For some keywords, there’s
no point in triggering an impression if
users rarely convert after a set period
of time. The ability to manage and
monitor recency of search criteria
is unique to a handful of vendors.
Customer data uploads. Internal
customer data can be loaded to a
retargeting solution and used to
target key prospects and customers
without an initial website visit from
these individuals. Customer data
can also be used in conjunction with
data management platforms to locate
new audiences or optimize existing
campaigns based on past success.

the terms of use.
engagement all the way to the final sale.
Some retargeting solution providers
even offer pricing that is exclusively
based on measurable lift in sales.
Consumer privacy concerns. Most
consumers realize that their Web
behaviors are tracked to some degree.
But companies must still be sensitive
to consumers’ personal attitudes and
to general public opinion. Retargeting
programs should collect the minimum
data necessary, inform consumers of
data collection practices, and provide
opt-out where feasible. Advertising
should display specific information
sparingly: targeting can be based
on recorded behaviors without that
information in the resulting ad.
Adequate audience reach and data. A
company may simply not have enough
volume for the remarketing program it
wants to test. In this case, it may be
possible to design a broader program
that will include more people, to run
the program over a longer period, or
to include more customer sources
such as email and social messages.
If the problem is too few advertising
opportunities for the retargeting
messages, a different retargeting
vendor may have a larger advertising
inventory, or there may be options to run
ads on a broader range of Web sites.
Budget constraints. A new retargeting
program needs an adequate budget to
meet minimum volume requirements
and to cover fixed costs for training,
set-up, and content creation. If
adequate funds are not immediately
available, marketers may be able to try
alternative retargeting methods that
require lower initial investment. Given
the generally high success rate of
retargeting, most departments should
be able to find a way to fund at least a
small initial test.
Generating appropriate content.
Retargeting programs need compelling
content to entice customers to return for
another look, or even to just stand out
in the general fog of online advertising.
Marketers may find this hard to create,
especially in the early stages when they
have no previous experience with what
works. Aggressive early testing can
help fill this gap, along with advice from
vendors, agencies, and consultants who
can draw on experience elsewhere.
Accurately personalizing messages.
Most retargeting programs rely
heavily on cookies to track individual
customers. Cookies are not a perfect
mechanism, since they can be deleted
and they identify a computer, which
may be shared by several users. The
cookies in turn may be linked with other
data, such as the name provided with
a purchase made on the computer.
This linkage could also be wrong. The
more specific the information used by
a retargeting program, the more likely
an error. Marketers can minimize this
problem by avoiding unnecessary
personalization.
48%42%42%
Challenging
Aspects*
Generating appropriate
content
Budget contraints Adequate audience
reach and data
18%**
71%**

the terms of use.
Note: While Gleanster strives to
include all of the most relevant and
noteworthy solution providers in the
Vendor Landscape section, the list
is by no means comprehensive in
nature. Omissions may occur due to
lack of sufficient market presence,
as judged by the Gleanster research
analyst team. Space constraints may
necessitate some amount of paring
of even those vendors that do have
sufficient market presence. Simple
oversights may also happen on
occasion. To submit information about
a solution provider, please complete
the Solution Provider Information
Form. To schedule a vendor briefing,
please email research@gleanster.
com. Vendor descriptions are taken
verbatim from company websites
or from vendor-submitted profile
information. Gleanster Skinny (GS)
commentaries are based on vendor
briefings, customer interviews and
Gleansight research findings as well
as on company press releases and
various other information sources.
Integration with other marketing
programs. Retargeting programs
sometimes generate revenue by
themselves, but they more often feed
customers into existing programs
for acquisition, upsell, and cross
sell. These programs must capture
information necessary to identify
customers who were influenced by the
retargeting program. Otherwise, even a
successful retargeting program may not
appear profitable.
Lack of staff knowledge. Although
retargeting is not especially difficult, it
does require learning a new process
and systems. This takes time which
marketers could easily spend on other,
more pressing projects. Unless a staff
member has already done retargeting
in a previous job, someone in the
marketing department will need to set
aside time to learn about remarketing.
Management will have to make this a
priority or it probably won’t happen.
Regulatory constraints. Apart from
special situations such as health-related
data, personally identifiable information,
and data about children, there are
few legal rules that directly constrain
retargeting. However, marketers must
still be certain to explore the precise
rules that do apply to their situation
and to comply fully. They should also
take care to understand exactly where
and how collected data is stored within
the retargeting system itself, since
there may be hidden repositories with
unexpected contents.
Justifying value compared to level
of effort. Setting up and running a
retargeting program takes a certain
amount of staff time, even for highly
automated systems. A small,
time-intensive retargeting program may
generate less value than spending the
same time on another marketing project.
This could be true even if the retargeting
program had a higher ROI. Marketers
who are concerned about the time
investment can outsource more of their
retargeting work to a vendor or agency,
although this may raise the program’s
out-of-pocket cost.
Adequate systems and technology.
Most of work in retargeting is done
by vendor systems, which are well
proven to be adequate. However,
these much interact with the company
Web site and possibly with other
corporate systems. Some companies
may have problems setting up those
connections or extracting usable data,
especially if their systems are old or
highly customized. There could also
be problems with analytical systems to
evaluate results. These problems don’t
have easy solutions, but none are fatal
to a successful retargeting program.
36%36%18%
Less
Challenging
Aspects*
Lack of staff
knowledge
Integration with other
marketing programs
Accurately
personalizing messages

the terms of use.
Part 5: Performance Metrics
Retargeting programs can be measured like other Web advertising,
using click rates, cost per click, cost per action, and site visits. But those
measures are designed primarily for programs intended to drive Web
traffic. Retargeting programs may other goals, such as increasing brand
awareness, encouraging future site visits, or expanding lifetime value.
Those goals require other measures that use information gathered outside
of the retargeting transaction itself: brand attitudes are usually based
on surveys, while lifetime site visits and purchases are tracked in Web
analytics and accounting systems. This information must then be tied
to retargeting program participants, ideally in the context of a controlled
test that compares performance of participants to otherwise-similar
non-participants. If controlled tests are not available, measures may need
to employ attribution techniques that estimate the indirect influence of
retargeting contacts. .
Marketers also need measures
related to program execution, such as
staff time, creative costs, and other
non-media expenses. These help
determine whether retargeting is the
best use for limited staff resources.
Because retargeting may raise privacy
issues, marketers should also keep
an eye on customer complaints and
opt-outs.
Click-through conversions. This is
the percentage of people who click on
an ad who later complete a specified
conversion action, such as filling out a
form or making a purchase. It makes
most sense when marketers pay per
click, since it can be combined with
the cost per click to calculate a cost
per conversion. This, in turn, can be
combined with the value per conversion
to calculate a profit per click (value –
cost) or Return on Investment (value /
cost, or, more properly, profit / cost).
View-through conversions. This is
the percentage of people who view an
ad who later complete the conversion
action. Unlike cost-through conversion,
it captures conversions from people
who do not click on the ad itself. This
identifies additional value created by the
retargeting program, but may overstate
the value since other marketing
programs may have also contributed to
the subsequent conversion. “Fractional
attribution” techniques attempt to assign
the correct share of the value to each
program that touches a customer,
although doing this accurately is very
challenging.
Cost per conversion. This is a
fundamental measure for most
retargeting programs. It is most
effective where the conversion action
is a direct measure of the program
goal, such as revenue in a revenue-
generating program or new customer
registration in an acquisition program.
The measure makes less sense for
programs with goals that cannot be
measured by a conversion action, such
as brand awareness.
ROI on marketing spend. Return on
investment is properly calculated as a
ratio of profit to expense, although it
is often calculated as the revenue-to-
expense ratio instead. Either way, the
real challenge is the same as with other
revenue figures: determining how much
What does that mean?
Definitions and jargon for measuring
the success of retargeting efforts.
CPA. Cost-Per-Acquisition is essentially
performance based advertising. The
solution provider assumes all the
risk, and you only pay when someone
actually completes a transaction.
CPC. Cost-Per-Click is a common
metric for pricing from vendors. You pay
every time a user clicks one of your ads.
CPE. Cost-Per-Engagement means
advertisers pay when a user engages
with the ad, (such as a mouse rollover
or playing a video). This emerged as a
way of tracking physical engagement
with a product recommendation
beyond a mere impression.
CPM. Cost per 1,000 impressions
(M is the roman numeral for
1,000). This is a common pricing
model for retargeting vendors.
Click Through Rate (CTR). The
percentage of users who saw
an ad and actually clicked it.
Frequency. The rate a particular
user is exposed to specific
creative or campaign during a
designated period of time.
Impression. The display of a single
piece of creative to a web site user. An
individual page can generate more than
one impression if there is more than
one ad space available on the page.

the terms of use.
revenue to attribute to the marketing
program.
Revenue from retargeting spend.
This applies to all types of retargeting
programs intended to generate direct
revenue, as opposed to programs
aimed at influencing brand attributes.
The specific meaning will depend on
how revenue is calculated: it might
include only immediate purchases
by new customers who enter through
retargeting, or all purchases by all
customers ever touched by retargeting,
or something in between. When
using this figure, marketers need to
understand how it was generated and
ensure it is suitable for the intended
purpose.
Number of leads generated. This is a
key measure for acquisition programs.
There may be additional stages before
a lead becomes a paying customer,
but those occur after the lead has
first been attracted by the retargeting
program. Like all other response-
based measures, the number of leads
generated only credits the retargeting
program for actions captured through
the program’s own content. Responses
the program may have influenced,
but did not capture directly, are lost.
This measure also focuses strictly on
new customers, so it does not give
the retargeting program credit for any
increase in activity it causes among
existing customers.
Stage-to-stage conversion rates.
Stage conversion rates measure the
movement of prospects through the
buying cycle, typically in a progression
of attitudes such as awareness, interest,
consideration, and action. Breaking
the process into stages makes it easier
to measure the impact of programs
that are aimed at particular transitions,
such as moving a prospect from being
interested in a product to considering
it a viable purchase option. Search
retargeting programs often aim at
the initial stages of this process,
making prospects aware of a product
92%88%80%
Most
Common
Metrics*
Cost per
conversion
View-through
conversions
Click-through
conversions
64%**
64%**
78%73%66%
Common
Metrics*
Precentage of target
audience reached
Revenue from
retargeting spend
ROI on marketing
spend
57%**
57%**

the terms of use.
or interested in exploring it. Site
retargeting programs are more focused
on driving customers to action. As with
revenue, it can be hard to measure the
impact of a particular marketing program
on stage conversions.
Time spent on site. This is an
engagement measure, used to
determine how interested site visitors
are in the company or its products.
It provides insight into the quality
of traffic a program generates,
supplementing figures on the volume
such as the number of clicks or
visitors. Engagement may predict
future behavior, such as purchases
and lifetime value. and can thus help
to estimate the long-term value of a
retargeting program.
Percentage of target audience
reached. This measures how many
people who took the original target
activity will later be reached through
retargeting messages. It helps
marketers to understand the factors
influencing program results. If the
proportion is small, even a highly
attractive program may not generate
enough volume to be worth the effort.
Lifetime value of customers acquired
through retargeting. Lifetime value
includes the sum value of all past and
future transactions. Since the future
value is an estimate, the figure is always
somewhat uncertain. It is used to
set allowable acquisition costs and to
compare the quality of customers from
different sources. The usual challenges
apply of identifying truly incremental
results – in this case, finding which
people would not have become
customers without the retargeting
program. This measure ignores any
increase in lifetime value that retargeting
may cause among current customers.
NUMBERS
65
Percentage of Top
Performers (compared to
13% of Everyone Else)
using retargeting.
32
Percentage of all respondents
allocating >$50,000 to
retargeting annually.
44
Percentage of Top
Performers engaging in
retargeting for the stated
purpose of “General
Branding & Awareness”
26
Percentage of B2C companies
engaged in retargeting
to personalize products
after online shopping
cart abandonments.
45
Percentage of All
Respondents indicating
they have not engaged
in retargeting because
“it’s unclear how
retargeting works”
16
Percentage of Top Performers
offering “special offerings and
discounts” via retargeting.
30%28%23%
Less
Common
Metrics*
Cost per order Time spent on site Stage-to-stage
conversion rates

the terms of use.
Part 6: Success Stories
KinderCare Learning Centers is an American operator of for-profit
child care and early childhood education facilities founded in 1969
and currently owned by Knowledge Universe. The company provides
educational programs for children from six weeks to 12 years old.
Some 200,000 children are enrolled in more than 1,600 early childhood
education community centers, over 600 before-and-after school
programs, and over 100 employer-sponsored centers in 39 states.
The Challenge
Kindercare need a way to make their
display impressions more effective. With
thousands of locations and many different
program options, it was difficult for one
piece of creative to speak effectively to the
wide array of user needs. The retargeting
display campaign had to also hit specific
cost-per-inquiry targets.
The Solution
KinderCare engaged retargeting and
ulta-relevant messaging combining
site behavior and a media buying
strategy utilizing hyper granular data.
The creative was customized with
geo-specific service offerings, and site
behavioral information was dynamically
informed, created and served in
real-tim.
The Results
A control-exposed study was conducted
to identify lift- an attribution percentage
that helped inform and optimize the
media-buying portion of the campaign.
The campaign resulted in 1,700 inquiries
at one sixth the target cost. The
dynamic ads delivered a lift of 50% in
click-through rates and nearly 30% in
conversion rates. The exposed group
had 116% lift in conversion rate over
the control group – 54% of overall
conversion could be attributed to the
retargeting campaign.
Note: The original version of these Success
Stories may have been prepared—and
previously published—by an enabling
solution provider. If so, it is edited and
reproduced here by permission. While
reasonable efforts have been made to verify
the accuracy of the information contained
herein through independent fact-checking,
Gleanster disclaims liability for any content
that was developed and submitted by third
parties. Success Stories are selected
based solely on the merits of the content as
judged by Gleanster’s Research Oversight
Committee. Vendors are not charged a fee
for inclusion and no preference is given to
vendors based on their ability to purchase
other Gleanster products or services.
Any questions or concerns regarding this
particular Success Story–or Gleanster’s
selection criteria or policies, in general–
should be directed to successstories@
gleanster.com. Case studies may be
submitted for publishing consideration
usingtheSuccessStoriesSubmissionForm.
Michigan State University, widely considered to be one of americas Public
Ivy universities, is also a sports powerhouse with over 25 varsity squads.
The Challenge
Michigan State University Athletics
wanted to boost season ticket sales
and increase renewals among their
loyal fans. Additionally, they wanted to
maintain engagement throughout the
season and create excitement around
each game.
The Solution
Michigan State University implemented
a granular retargeting campaign to
engage first time ticket purchasers
and past season ticket holders.
High intent site visitors who had
frequented the ticketing prices, game
schedule, or seating page were served
custom ad units. They also created a
re-engagement campaign to target past
ticket and season pass purchasers that
incentivized them to purchase a new
season pass or luxury seating.
The Results
The campaign generated a $340 return
for every dollar spent on retargeting
generating a 0.179% click-through rate.

the terms of use.
Part 7: Vendor Landscape
In Section 1, we noted that there are mainly two types of retargeting: site
retargeting and search retargeting. However, there are some nuances
to the solution landscape and the respective product/service offerings
that are important to understand before investing in retargeting.
Retargeting largely started about a decade ago when ecommerce sites
combined cookie technology and behavioral targeting in complex predictive
algorithms to offer more relevant and personalized user experiences online.
Today there are about two dozen different vendors that provide retargeting
solutions, but small subsets of this landscape actually compete head-to-head
with comparable offerings. In fact, in many cases vendors cite a general lack
of competition when on-boarding new customers – a clear indication that the
“retargeting industry” is still largely in an innovative and early adopter stage
of growth.
Vendor & Solution Showcases
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View the Interactive
Retargeting
Vendor Landscape
First, let’s review some industry-specific
jargon that you might run into.
Site retargeting: The vendor inserts
a tracking pixel on your website.
This is used to track site visitors and
display retargeting ads on specific web
properties after visitors have left your
website.
Search retargeting: The vendor
aggregates or purchases search data
that is then used to target and optimize
retargeting campaigns for specific
audiences. For example, search
retargeting could effectively target
users who recently searched for hotels
in New York on Google.com. These
users have expressed intent and would
therefore be likely targets for relevant
product recommendations in retargeting
campaigns based on search terms.
Ad exchanges & demand-side
platforms (DSPs): Reach and the
number of advertisers a vendor
has relationships with impact the
effectiveness of retargeting campaigns.
These relationships allow the vendor
to serve retargeting ads across web
properties a site visitor is likely to visit,
such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo!,
AOL, etc. A demand-side platform
(DSP) is a system that allows buyers of
digital advertising to manage multiple ad
exchanges and data exchanges in one
interface. DSPs work like paid search,
allowing users to optimize retargeting
purchases based on key performance
indicators such as cost per click (CPC)
or cost per acquisition (CPA).
Data management platforms (DMPs):
Some vendors provide a central “data
management” repository of aggregated
customer data. Data is sourced through
third-party relationships, search
engines, CRM systems, and proprietary
algorithms to provide an additional layer
of information to optimize retargeting
ad spend. This data is layered on top of
targeting criteria and ad spend to create
more effective campaigns.

the terms of use.
Today, there are four main criteria that
differentiate retargeting offerings:
Pricing models. In most cases,
retargeting is based on a cost-per-click
(CPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM)
model similar to a traditional paid search
campaign. However some vendors
offer cost-per-acquisition (CPA) pricing
whereby the vendor only gets paid
when they contribute to a closed sale.
Today, the vast majority of retargeting
vendors look to onboard clients with
over 100,000 unique website visits per
month because they can confidently
drive measurable value for these
organizations. However, there are also
more accessible products that can be
acquired for as little as $100-$500 in
ad spend per month and deliver some
impressive results.
Customer focus. Retargeting has largely
gained traction in the consumer goods,
retail, and ecommerce industries. In
fact, over half of the solution providers
in the space exclusively target large
enterprise retail and ecommerce clients
with over 100,000 unique visits to the
website each month. That said, there
are lots of great opportunities and ways
to leverage retargeting in every industry
regardless of your company size.
Product features. Retargeting vendors
largely differentiate with platform
analytics, usability, and audience reach.
The two most common offerings include
search and site retargeting. Retargeting
is also possible via email, social, and
mobile, and not all solution providers
can address these channels.
Customer support. Retargeting comes
in three flavors: self-service, full-service,
and hybrid models. Self-service
offerings usually give users access
to a platform where they can manage
ad budget, upload creative, and view
analytics around campaigns – akin
to a software-as-a-service model.
Full-service offerings typically come
with dedicated account executives.
Most solution providers with full-service
offerings even provide creative services
for an end-to-end solution from creative
to execution, measurement, and
optimization.

the terms of use.
AdRoll
www.gleanster.com/vendors/adroll
“AdRoll is the most effective retargeting platform
in the world. We’re trusted by more companies
than anyone else. From small mom and pop
shops, to Fortune 100 companies, AdRoll has
more active customers than any other retargeting
platform. Our approach has been tested, and
proven thousands of times. In fact, 96% of all
companies that try AdRoll, stick with AdRoll.”
Gleanster Skinny: AdRoll was founded in
2007 with investment rounds totaling $4M.
AdRoll offers a comprehensive platform with both
contextual targeting and site retargeting. In 2012
the company reportedly reached profitability after
quadrupeling year-over-year revenue (a 414%
increase in revenue). AdRoll launched the beta
version of its retargeting service in 2009, but
now offers more comprehensive features like
LiquidAds for dynamic changes to brand ads, a
single smart pixel for audience segmentation,
and A/B test of ads and user groups.
ARroll claims to have tripled the number of
advertisers that it’s working with in 2012.
AdRoll is largely considered one of the industry
darlings because of their wide reaching network
of advertisers that form the foundation for
contextual retargeting as well as a pricing and
features that are accessable to all industries
and company sizes. The weekly minimum
investment in retargeting programs is $25.
Survey participants using AdRoll often report
previous experience with Google Remarketing
Note: As with all Gleanster research
findings, vendor rankings on the
FLASH charts are determined by the
experiences of industry practitioners
and not by Gleanster’s own analyst
assessment or opinion. The omission
of a particular vendor name from one
or more of the FLASH charts may be
due to a lack of sufficient data about
that vendor and may be no indication
of its performance relative to other
solution providers. Using a 1-5 point
rating scale, survey respondents are
asked to assess the solution provider(s)
they are currently using, or have had
the experience of using within the past
two (2) years, across four (4) different
dimensions: Ease of Deployment, Ease
of Use, Features and Functionality, and
Overall Value. To qualify for possible
inclusion on one or more FLASH
charts, vendors with less than $10M
in annual revenue must be rated by a
minimum of two (2) qualified survey
responses and vendors with more
than $10M in annual revenue must be
rated by a minimum of five (5) qualified
survey responses. A mean class
performance score is calculated for
each vendor. Top-scoring vendors are
then assigned to the FLASH charts on
a rank-order basis. Gleanster screens
all survey submissions that are used
as the basis for vendor rankings and
removes duplicate submissions from
the same client company (factoring
in only the highest scores). The final
rankings are not intended to provide
conclusive advice or recommendations
but to merely serve as a source of
directionally relevant data points. All
solution providers included in the
Vendor Landscape section are given
an opportunity to invite their customers
to participate in the survey at least six
(6) weeks in advance of publication.
Through no other means are solution
providers allowed to influence their
placement on these FLASH charts.
Good
Best
Ease of Deployment
Better
Marketing Automation Solution Providers
AdRoll
Chango
Criteo
Magnetic
Vendor Rankings FLASH chart © Gleanster, December 2011. Note: Vendor rankings are determined by the experiences of
industry practitioners, according to survey feedback, and not by the assessment or opinion of Gleanster analysts. The
omission of a particular vendor may be due to lack of sufficient data and may be no indication of that company’s
performance relative to other solution providers. Information on the research methodology used for vendor rankings is
available elsewhere in this Gleansight benchmark report and also in the FAQ section of the Gleanster website.
Google
mediaFORGE
Retargeter
Simpli.fi
Dotomi
Fetchback
Ease of Deployment
Retargeting Solution Providers
Vendor Rankings FLASH chart © Gleanster, March 2013. Note: Vendor rankings are determined by the experiences of
omission of a particular vendor may be due to lack of sufficient data and may be no indication of that company’s performance
relative to other solution providers. Information on the research methodology used for vendor rankings is available elsewhere
in this Gleansight benchmark report and also in the FAQ section of the Gleanster website.

the terms of use.
and cite they transitioned to AdRoll in search for
a more robust retargeting platform.
Atosho
www.gleanster.com/vendors/atosho
“Atosho is short for atomised shopping which is
the core of what we do. We are a market place
where retailers can offer their products through
a wide range of channel partner websites; we
are an advertising network that pushes relevant
products to visitors of thousand of websites. But
we don’t just display ads. We give the website
visitors the ability to purchase the products
directly at the website through what we call a
MicroShop. Being able to receive a payment on
a third party website – and on behalf of a third
party retailer – is something that only Atosho
offers.”
GS: Atosho, headquartered in Denmark and
launched in April 2012, doesn’t traditionally fit into
the retargeting vendor landscape. While capable
of site retargeting, Atosho is actually a platform
for creating a full plug-and-play widget to
showcase and sell products online (in a matter of
minutes). Atosho is a merchant portal sort of like
an online marketplace, but without a destination
site. Atosho works with a network of publishers
to dynamically personalize product offerings on
destination sites allowing companies of all sizes
benefit from targeted product exposure across
the web.
Buysight
www.gleanster.com/vendors/buysight
“Buysight gathers real-time shopping transaction
and activity data and transforms it into real-time
insight into what millions of consumers want to
buy across hundreds of product and service
categories.We transform data into actionable
knowledge, and use it to connect people
and advertisers in an automated, real-time
marketplace that unlocks significant value for
both consumers and businesses.”
GS: Alsamarketing is a fairly new entrant to
theBuysight was founded in 2008 under the
Permuto brand – which was later rebranded
to Buysight. In December 2012, Buysight
was acquired by AOL’s Advertising.com
Group. Buysight is exclusively focused on
the mid-to-large sized online retail vertical.
Unlike most retargeting solutions, Buysight is
not a self-service platform. Buysight offers a
full-service product level retargeting offering
including creative development, campaign
management, and a sophisticated back-end
technology. Clients are typically retail
organizations with sales greater than $10M or
unique site visits greater than 100,000 a month.
Chango
www.gleanster.com/vendors/chango
“Chango is a real-time marketing technology
company with an advanced platform and
full-service solutions for brands & agencies.
We have a team of seasoned technology and
media entrepreneurs who worked hard building
technology to be able to deliver the kinds of
results that we see.”
GS: Chango received $4.25M in Series B
funding in the beginning of 2011 and continues
to demonstrate a strong track record for client
satisfaction. Chango delivers targeted ads
to your site based on search targeted traffic
coming to your website from search engines.
Chango offers traditional search retargeting
capabilities whereby a single pixel is placed on
the confirmation page or homepage- not every
individual page on a site. Unlike traditional ad
networks, Chango buys ads through real-time
bidding, a new technique / technology that is
allows marketers to layer data on top of their
media buys. Chango has access to billions of
search terms and ad impressions, and utilizes
machine learning techniques to combine data
from different sources and deliver more efficient
and better-targeted campaigns.
Chango exclusively focuses on the retail industry,
and differentiates with a robust product level
retargeting offering as swell as a programmatic
retargeting solution that marries traditional
demand-side platform capabilities with a data
management platform that consolidates online
and offline data for more effective targeting.
Criteo
www.gleanster.com/vendors/criteo
“Criteo has grown to become the world’s
leading pay-per-click (PPC) performance
display advertising solution. Criteo’s advanced
technology enables online e-commerce sites

the terms of use.
literally to “expand their search” marketing
campaigns - to re-engage with people who have
left their website.”
GS: Criteo has been doing re-targeting since
2009, and traditionally had roots as a product
recommendation engine. Criteo offers a
full-service retargeting offering that includes
creative development, a robust technology
platform, and CPC optimization. The company
primarily targets the retail organizations with
greater than 100,000 unique site visits per
month (the “Internet Retail Top 2000”). Criteo
is capable of dynamically segmenting website
visitor, based on their engagement (browsing
history, frequency of visits, number and type
of pages viewed, etc...). This is done to predict
and generate the most relevant campaign for
each audience in terms of segment, product
and frequency. Criteo is a well established
full-service retargeting provider with over
3,000 clients globally (with the majority in
the EMEA) Criteo is capable of applying
recommendations to retargeting campaigns
delivering higher performance than traditional
static advertisements.
Dotomi
www.gleanster.com/vendors/dotomi
“Dotomi is rethinking the way marketers manage
online display advertising with an approach we
call ‘Personalized Media’. Billions of messages
later we’ve proven that Personalized Media
works to create relevancy and big marketing
impacts. But we’ve just begun. In September
Good
Best
Ease of Use
Better
AdRoll
Google
Magnetic
Retargeter
Chango
Criteo
Dotomi
Fetchback
BuySight
mediaFORGE
Simpli.fi
Ease of Use
AdRoll
Atosho
Buysight
Chango
Criteo
Dotomi
FetchBack
Google
Magnetic
mediaFORGE
myThings
OwnerIQ
Perfect Audience
Retargeter
Rocketfuel
Simpli.fi
Steel House
Tell Apeart
TheTradeDesk
Triggit
Vizury
Quick Reference Guide

the terms of use.
2011 we became part of ValueClick, Inc., joining
one of the world’s largest integrated online
marketing companies. We have 200+ employees
at Dotomi who continually work to explore deeper
and deeper personalization strategies - blending
art and science to improve client programs.”
GS: Dotomi offers both full and self-service site
retargeting solutions that often include brand
strategy and creative development for large
retail clients. The company was acquired by
ValueClick in September 2011 for $80M. The
platform offers a variety of features including
A/B Testing, Creative Design/Creation,
Dynamic Creative Optimization and Frequency
Capping. Clients mainly include retail and travel
organizations. The Dotomi platform provides
data driven personalization and can pull in
anonymous data from web visitors to optimize
online display ads.
Fetchback
www.gleanster.com/vendors/fetchback
“FetchBack is a leading fully-managed, targeted
display company, specializing in retargeting.
We’ve been trail blazing the world of targeted
display since our inception in 2007 and it’s
been quite a ride! FetchBack was founded with
one objective in mind-to bring our customers
increased incremental conversions and
sky-high return on investment like never before.
FetchBackSite is our innovative retargeting
product. In the simplest terms, Site Retargeting
means putting messages in front of lost
prospects who’ve left your Web site in order
to attract them back and convert – finish the
purchase, sign up for the newsletter, or whatever
action you’re looking for. Some prefer the term
“remarketing” over “retargeting,” but we think
the latter better describes what we do: deliver a
specific message to a specific target customer.”
GS: FetchBack is a site retargeting company
founded in 2007. FetchBack was acquired
by GSI Commerce in 2010 which was later
acquired by eBay. GSI commerce also owns
e-Dialog, M3 Mobile, Perperjam Excachange,
and Clearsaleing. In addition to site retargeting,
FetchBack also offers intent targeting. When a
prospect performs an online search, they often
enter keywords displaying intent to purchase.
Using carefully selected, relevant keywords,
targeted ads are served to that prospect without
the necessity of an initial site visit, driving new
and incremental traffic to a website.
Google
www.gleanster.com/vendors/google
“Remarketing with Google Analytics lets you tap
into valuable insights about your website visitors
who show an interest in your products and
services -- for example, visitors who spend time
viewing specific pages or who put items in their
shopping cart. Once you’ve identified your target
audience, you can run ads across the Google
Display Network (GDN) that are tailored to that
audience.”
GS: Google Remarketing is a fast and affordable
way to target customers from predefined
remarketing lists. Users can access the
capability from within Google Analytics to select
from predefined remarketing lists, or customized
lists— based on Google Analytics metrics
such as pages viewed, visit duration, and goal
completions. The system will automatically
send customer lists to Google AdWords and run
targeted ads.
Google Remarketing is a great first step for
companies that are looking to boost the benefits
of traditional AdWords spend with remarketing.
Google customers frequently report double the
click-through rate on ads, with significantly lower
cost-per-click spend.”
Magnetic
www.gleanster.com/vendors/magnetic
“Billions of searches are happening around the
web each month creating valuable audience
data for brands. Marketers need a solution that
combines the intent and interest from search
with the scale and creative opportunities found
in display advertising. We are the first company
to focus 100% on search retargeting to help our
customers find and expand their audience with
superior efficiency.”
GS: Magnetic offers both search and site
retargeting.
mediaFORGE
www.gleanster.com/vendors/mediaforge
“mediaFORGE is an innovative retargeting
company with display extensions for prospecting,

the terms of use.
nurturing, retention, reacquisition and brand
loyalty. We know. There are a lot of retargeting
and display companies out there. So to make it
easy, we’re going to come right out and tell you
why we’re different: mediaFORGE is the only
retargeting and display company that bases
all aspects of its business around the value
of Consumer Engagement – the performance
metric comScore says has the highest correlation
with conversions, according to a 2012 study.”
GS: mediaFORGE was founded in 2005 with
roots developing digital widgets. After combining
widgets with digital banner ads, the company
came to a conclusion that there had to be a
better way to personalize and measure the
value of that personalization based on actual
interaction. Today they have a full-service
portfolio of technology and services that
deliver highly personalized retargeting. Today
mediaFORGE offers product level retargeting,
recommendations, audience segmentation
and gender targeting (a unique offering in the
retargeting space). The company primarily
works with apparel and retail organizations with
a minimum of 100,000 unique website visits each
month.
myThings
www.gleanster.com/vendors/mythings
“myThings specializes in driving incremental
sales across the entire sales funnel through
personalised retargeting, pretargeting and
look-alike targeting. Our proprietary, unique set
of optimization algorithms run with one goal in
Good
Best
Features and Functionality
Better
Fetchback
Retargeter
Simpli.fi
AdRoll
Chango
Magnetic
Criteo
Google
mediaFORGE
Features and Functionality

the terms of use.
mind: To produce the most relevant banner to a
specific user in real time, while controlling the
cost by matching it to the expected return on
investment.”
GS: myThings was founded in 2005 with roots
in online CPA. Today the company offers a
comprehensive stack of full and self-service
site retargeting solutions. The company use a
unique positioning they call “pretargeting” which
matches 3rd party search data with 1st and
2nd party site-side data to personalize dynamic
display ads to users who haven’t yet visited a
website. The company has a global presence
and primarily works with brands, retailers, and
ecommerce organizations.
OwnerIQ
www.gleanster.com/vendors/owneriq
“OwnerIQ is THE advertising network that
pioneered the concept of Ownership Targeting.
Powered by our unique partnerships with top
retailer, manufacturer and online publishers, we
enable advertisers to define and reach their ideal
online consumer based on the specific products
and brands they currently own or are actively
shopping for. This is the power of Ownership
Targeting.”
GS: OwernIQ works with retailers,
manufacturers, and publishers to drive
advertising revenue from websites and
ecommerce platforms. In addition, OwnerIQ
offers advertising solutions that are powerd
by a database of over 5,000 prodcuts and
7,000 brands to personalized campaigns and
recommendations based on products and brands
consumers actually own.
PerfectAudience
www.gleanster.com/vendors/perfectaudience
“We’re making Facebook retargeting and web
retargeting fast, effective, and affordable so
companies can grow with ease. Our vision is a
world where every person sees the perfect ads
at the perfect time and companies can easily
reach their ideal customer at scale. Our simple
but powerful tools give marketers everything
they need to retarget their lost customers across
Facebook and the web and track ROI from click
to conversion.”
GS: PerfectAudience has all the traditional
features of a site and search retargeting solution
with a specific emphasis on retargeting on
Facebook. The solution is ideal for organizations
that want to expand the reach of website
retargeting to Facebook’s 955M users.
Retargeter
www.gleanster.com/vendors/retargeter
“ReTargeter is a full-service display advertising
solution specializing in retargeting and audience
targeting. Our solutions can help you optimize
your marketing spend by serving targeted display
ads to the right people at the right times.”
GS: ReTargeter is a San Fransisco based
retargeting provider that was founded in 2009.
The service was initially developed for site
retargeting, but new features added in early 2012
offer social retargeting and email retargeting.
Pricing starts at $500 per month, but rapidly
accelerates from there making ReTargeter
one of the more pricier options on the market.
But, emerging research suggests a minimum
investment threshold north of $200 is necessary
to truly recognize a return on investment in
retargeting. ReTargeter is known to have
good customer service. ReTargeter could
be considered a top five provider for search
retargeting and is accessible to companies of
all sizes and industries. ReTargeter also has a
differentiating capability called CRM Retargeting
whereby a company can load a database of
email addresses to the system and ReTargeter
will locate them across the web and retarget to
them.
RocketFuel
www.gleanster.com/vendors/rocketfuel
“Rocket Fuel is the leading provider of artificial
intelligence advertising solutions that transform
digital-media campaigns into self-optimizing
engines that learn and adapt in real time, and
deliver outstanding results from awareness to
sales. Recently named #22 on the Forbes Most
Promising Companies in America list, over 700
of the world’s most successful marketers trust
Rocket Fuel to power their advertising across
display, video, mobile, and social media.”
GS: Rocket Fuel is a predictive analytics solution
designed to optimize site and social retargeting

the terms of use.
efforts. Rocket Fuel is a turnkey platform that
targets and optimizes messages no matter where
an audience sees them—whether it’s across
display, video, mobile, or your social-media
inventory. Rocket Fuel works with advertisers
and agencies to inject artificial intelligence, big
data, machine learning and decisions science to
score impressions.
Simpli.fi
www.gleanster.com/vendors/simpli-fi
““Simpli.fi is a completely customizable element
level marketing platform leveraging the power
of unstructured data for better performance
and deeper insights on display campaigns. Part
demand side platform, part data management
platform, and part supply side platform. We
simply do display differently. Our platform
provides you with immediate access to an
inventory of billions of impressions each month,
across hundreds of thousands of websites,
which you can then target on a keyword level
in a real-time bidding environment. Leverage
consumer intent search data to deliver the right
impression to the right consumer each time.
We offer search retargeting, site retargeting,
contextual targeting and demographic targeting
for display advertising campaigns.”
GS: Simpli.fi offers a comprehensive retargeting
platform with site and search retargeting
capabilities. Simpli.fi offers a unique approach
to targeted search which allows marketers to
Good
Best
Overall Value
Better
AdRoll
Criteo
Fetchback
Chango
Google
Retargeter
Simpli.fi
mediaFORGE
Overall Value

the terms of use.
micro-target internet search results the instant
an individual lands on a page selected from
the search results. Simpli.fi’s “instant search
regargeting” platform allows marketers to target
users in as little as 5 minutes after a page is
selected from search results. Traditional search
retargeting uses a recency window of anywhere
from a day to a month. What’s so cool about
that? The platform allows you to set separate
bids on keywords targeted in a campaign based
on users who are searching now and users that
have searched sometime in the past offering
increased targeting, campaign optimization,
and investment management. Simpli.fi is a
demand-side platform (DSP) which allows
buyers of digital advertising to manage multiple
ad exchange and data exchange accounts
through one interface. Real-time bidding for
displaying online ads takes place within the ad
exchanges, and by utilizing a Simpli.fi, marketers
can manage bids for banners and layer this with
pricing data to target their audiences. Typically,
Simpli.fi clients spend about $150-200 per day
on retargeting efforts – anything less makes it
difficult to demonstrate a real tangible return on
the effort.
SteelHouse
www.gleanster.com/vendors/steelhouse
“SteelHouse Retargeting combines the industry’s
best targeting system with a powerful ad creation
technology that serves visually stunning ads
across all devices. All Retargeting is NOT
created equal. Only SteelHouse Retargeting
is powered by an award-winning platform
that targets site visitors based on their buying
behaviors and shopping personalities.”
GS: SteelHouse offers full and self-service
retargeting solutions. Solutions include real-time
offers, across a variety of channels including
display, mobile, and video. The company
primarily works with brands, agencies, and
ecommerce marketers.
TellApart
www.gleanster.com/vendors/tellapart
“Retargeting is the process of showing
display ads to potential buyers who visited
but abandoned their shopping activity on your
e-commerce website. 95%+ of your visitors are
not buying… TellApart Transactional Retargeting
helps bring them back through the use of
dynamic, personalized banner ads which show
your products to the right visitors. Simply put, it
turns lost shoppers into return customers.”
GS: TellAparts is exclusively focused on
addressing the unique needs of large retail
organizations. The company was founded in
2009 by former Google product and engineering
executives. To date, TellApart has raised almost
$20M and boasts a prestigious list of globally
known brands and retailers as clients (many of
which are not publicly referencable). TellApart
has a robust transactional reporting offering that
targets shopping cart abandonment- a process
they call transactional retargeting. In fact,
TellApart only charges for the platform when
clients can physically track a purchase as a
direct result of online ad engagement.
Triggit
www.gleanster.com/vendors/triggit
“Triggit continues to be the most technologically
advanced DSP in the market, pushing the
envelope in areas ranging from integrated
data management through its own DMP, to the
development of built-in campaign attribution
technology that gives advertisers the first truly
accurate measure of overall display media ROI.
With access to over 10 billion impressions a day
from millions of sites across the web, Triggit uses
advanced algorithmic calculations to optimize
impression-based pricing and bidding, executing
real time buying decisions in less than 50
milliseconds.”
GS: Trigget is a demand-side platform for site
and CRM retargeting. Triggit was founded in
2005 Triggit was one of the first companies to
leverage real-time bidding exchanges when
they appeared in the fall of 2008, and one of
the first bidders integrated into the Google AdX
Exchange in the summer of 2009. The company
emphasizes the Facebook retargeting, which is
backed by a data management platform with built
in attribution management technology.
Vizury
www.gleanster.com/vendors/vizury
“Established in 2008, Vizury is privately held
and backed by leading VC firms from India,
Singapore and the Silicon Valley. Vizury

the terms of use.
is headquartered in Bangalore, India with
operations in China, Australia, South East Asia,
Japan and South America. Vizury’s customers
include Industry leaders like Makemytrip,
Cleartrip, Jet Airways, Jabong, Virgin Airlines,
Ctrip, Snapdeal and Zuji.”
GS: Vizury offers a full and self-service offering
for site retargeting. Vizury is largely used by
online retailers and boasts almost 2 billion
impressions per month Online Travel and
E-Commerce businesses amass large volumes
of digital data pertaining to their users daily
across disparate sources (e.g. Site Visitor data,
Clickstream data, Purchase history data, Social
Media data etc). Vizury harnesses this data for
display optimization and personalization.

the terms of use.
Lead Authors
Ian Michiels
Principal Analyst
David Raab
Contributing Analyst
A globally-recognized thought
leader, research analyst and
consultant on marketing technology,
Raab advises major consumer
and business marketers on
marketing processes, technology
and service vendors. He
established Raab Associates
in 1987. He holds an MBA from
the Harvard Business School.
Note: Research and analysis for the Vendor
Landscape section was conducted by Gleanster
research support staff.
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