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Why I Moved From AdRoll to Perfect Audience

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Why I Moved From AdRoll to Perfect Audience

#1
This week, I decided to move our ad retargeting business from AdRoll to Perfect Audience for a number of reasons, which I will explain:

1) Better Results A few weeks ago, I wrote a post describing the differences between AdRoll and Perfect Audience in terms of performance. Both performed well, but PA performed better, and for less cost.

2) Clearer Billing Practices One thing that frustrated me about AdRoll was their vague billing methods, especially when you are running multiple campaigns for multiple customers. AdRoll would build up a "reseve" in our account, even though the campaigns weren't exhausting it. Perfect Audience sends a very clear, detailed summary of the billing each week by campaign, showing what was used the prior week, and what they need to replenish the campaign to get it to the weekly amount.

3) Easier UI Both systems have similar UI in terms of the setup, but PA is the winner here. I like their UTM tag builder, and the way I can differentiate between clients in what I would call "agency mode."

4) Receptive to Customers I thought that PA did a fantastic job of reaching out to customers and getting feedback. I gave them a few ideas that seemed to get their interest, and I like dealing with companies who value my opinion.

As I said earlier, both systems are great platforms, but I prefer to use Perfect Audience for the reasons above.

Re: Why I Moved From AdRoll to Perfect Audience

#3
This is us :) http://perfectaudience.com

Really terrific to see folks appreciating the time we spent slaving over the billing system and trying to make it not completely suck.

If anyone on HN is curious about retargeting, especially on Facebook, where low CPMs are plentiful, drop on by!

Re: Why I Moved From AdRoll to Perfect Audience

#4
Retargeting as a concept is so counterintuitive.

User X visited your site and bounced. Now you need to show an ad to convince him to come back.

If this is a solution to visitors bouncing, this seems to be going about it incorrectly. You should give them a good reason to stay on your site in the first place. If this is a solution to visitor retention - as in people leaving because they used your site and forgot about it - then you need to provide them a reminder that you exist as well as some ongoing value proposition.

I guess if this is delivering ROI though then I'm totally wrong.

Re: Why I Moved From AdRoll to Perfect Audience

#5

Retargeting as a concept is so counterintuitive. User X visited your site and bounced. Now you need to show an ad to convince him to come back. If this is a solution to visitors bouncing, this seems to be going about it incorrectly. You should give them a good reason to stay on your site in the first place. If this is a solution to visitor retention - as in people leaving because they used your site and forgot about…

You're not far off at all. Think about how you use the web. Right now I personally have 9 tabs open in my browser and I'm flitting from task to task. Lots and lots of people browse that way.

Imagine you have an online store or a web service. You are working hard to drive traffic to your site, but only 5-6% might be "converting" in the desired way.

There's many reasons for this including outright lack of interest.

But for many, conversion doesn't happen because the time just wasn't right, or they got distracted, or life intervened. And seeing a reminder about that service a day or two later can be enough to bringing someone back to convert, when they're ready and clear-headed.

All that said, at end of day, it comes down to ROI. And with retargeting, folks are able to spend $1 and get $8-12 in sales back from that dollar. It works, and can work really, really well.

Happy to answer any other questions you might have!

Re: Why I Moved From AdRoll to Perfect Audience

#6

Retargeting as a concept is so counterintuitive. User X visited your site and bounced. Now you need to show an ad to convince him to come back. If this is a solution to visitors bouncing, this seems to be going about it incorrectly. You should give them a good reason to stay on your site in the first place. If this is a solution to visitor retention - as in people leaving because they used your site and forgot about…

It's also being used for branding. You see an ad for a service or product everywhere, and you'll think they're big.

Re: Why I Moved From AdRoll to Perfect Audience

#10

Retargeting as a concept is so counterintuitive. User X visited your site and bounced. Now you need to show an ad to convince him to come back. If this is a solution to visitors bouncing, this seems to be going about it incorrectly. You should give them a good reason to stay on your site in the first place. If this is a solution to visitor retention - as in people leaving because they used your site and forgot about…

It's also being used for branding. You see an ad for a service or product everywhere, and you'll think they're big.

This is almost always the first reaction from customers. They love that they are able be "everywhere" for relatively little money.
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