RLSA Campaigns: A Second Chance to Reach Customers

Remarketing Lists for Search Ads or RLSA is a type of campaign that can be very useful to those of us in the SEM field. This type of campaign is essentially a variation on the Retargeting campaigns that many of us already run. These campaigns run off of the remarketing list that is created by Google when we place a specific piece of code on one of our client’s website. This piece of code will place a cookie in the browser of the user who has visited your site, and they will be added to Google’s remarketing list. The way we normally use that list is to show that user a display banner when they visit one of the many sites that are on Google’s display network. However, RLSA campaigns offer us an alternative method of using these remarketing lists. RLSA campaigns also focus on the users who have previously visited the site, but they do this when the user is searching for your keywords on the standard search network. When a prior visitor searches for your keywords, then the RLSA campaign basically gives you a second shot to attract the customer. The RLSA campaign allows us to try some different strategies then we would for most searchers. We know that this person has already been to our site, so we can use different strategies to try to bring them back: Bidding Higher—This is a very simple way to make sure the user sees your ad again. For example, we could put a 25% increase on the RLSA campaign bids to make sure our ad shows at the top of the search engine results page, and we are fresh in the minds of the potential customer. Bid on Broader Keywords — We can add keywords that we would normally think were too broad to include in our campaigns. They have already been to the site, so we can safely assume that they are someone interested in what we have to offer. If our client is a specific brand of auto dealer, then we can bid on broader keywords like “used cars” or even broader “cars” to make sure they are seeing our ad and thinking about our brand. Change the Ad Copy—This is another good strategy for RLSA campaigns. We might try enticing them with phrases like “You Missed A Big Deal” or “Come Back For Our Latest Offers.” Another option would be to put specific incentives in the ad copy that they might have missed on the site. This would be the time to put in any new deals that have come up recently and make our ad look sweeter to the customer. Don’t use this strategy: For those of us in the SEM field, these are pretty basic changes that we regularly make to a campaign. The point of RLSA campaigns is that you are given a second chance to show your ad to a customer. You have another chance to switch up your strategy and come from another angle. Don’t blow it!