Advertising · Field experiment by an online travel firm: after users visited the firm's site and viewed hotels, an ad network randomized/served dynamic retargeted versus generic brand banner content while users browsed other websites; subsequent response was compared across stages/signals of the decision process.
When Does Retargeting Work? Information Specificity in Online Advertising
Journal of Marketing Research · 2013
Summary
Dynamic retargeting was, on average, less effective than generic brand advertising, but the disadvantage disappeared or reversed when browsing behavior indicated that consumers had developed specific preferences (for example, after visiting review sites). The implication is that retargeting content should match the consumer's decision stage and information specificity.
For your marketing
Possible founder application
Use this study as a bounded example related to when does retargeting work? information specificity in online advertising; evaluate whether its customers, intervention and outcome match your own context.
Reported result
What the study found
Dynamic retargeting was, on average, less effective than generic brand advertising, but the disadvantage disappeared or reversed when browsing behavior indicated that consumers had developed specific preferences (for example, after visiting review sites). The implication is that retargeting content should match the consumer's decision stage and information specificity.
Research question
What the authors investigated
What does when does retargeting work? information specificity in online advertising show about customer behavior or marketing outcomes?
Design
Field experiment by an online travel firm: after users visited the firm's site and viewed hotels, an ad network randomized/served dynamic retargeted versus generic brand banner content while users browsed other websites; subsequent response was compared across stages/signals of the decision process.
Sample and setting
Visitors to an online travel firm's website who had looked at hotel offerings, followed as they browsed elsewhere on the web; the article appears in Journal of Marketing Research 50(5), 561–576.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
The experiment is tied to one online travel firm, one ad network, and hotel-shopping behavior, so generalizability to SaaS, B2B, or other purchase cycles is uncertain. The design also compares the particular dynamic and generic creatives supplied in the campaign; it cannot isolate every possible personalization algorithm, and the observed outcomes do not by themselves establish long-run retention or lifetime value. Full-text methods and correction history were not independently checked.
Research sources
Study metadata and reported results were cross-checked against a direct publisher-page retrieval; detailed full-text methods were not reviewed.