Cross-device retargeting is (finally) being launched by Google

Google is finally introducing cross-device retargeting for multiple devices.

This means losing re-visitors of your website for retargeting, while running adwords campaign, will soon become a thing of the past. This is great because Google  currently does not support cross-device retargeting. So basically, if a visitor comes to your site from his mobile phone, the advertiser will not be able to target that user on the desktop, unless of course the visitor also visits the same site from the desktop.

If that happens, then the user is listed twice, and the frequency capping and negative list exclusion is set on each device from which the site has been accessed. So, once cross-device retargeting is rolled out, marketers will be empowered. They will have more control over frequency capping, strategic message delivery and sequencing.

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Brad Bender, VP of display and video advertising at Google, announced this shift in a blog post  and is set to discuss it during Advertising Week in New York City on Monday.
“We’re introducing cross-device remarketing for Google Display Network and DoubleClick Bid Manager to help you reach the same user across devices, apps, and sites. You can now tell a single story to your audience and decide how frequently they see your ad across devices,” wrote Bender.
This is true even for users signed into a Google account on multiple devices as Google has relied on cookies and mobile IDs to gather users for re-marketing lists.
Google is taking a deterministic approach on Facebook. Cross-device re-marketing will be limited to signed-in users only. The attribution problem of tracking conversion activity that has touched multiple devices with metrics has been an issue for Google. But a Google/Ipsos study found that 60% of online conversions start on one device and end on another – the lack of past site visitors, thus losing out on potential customers.

Google has always been strict about marketers accessing signed-in users’ data for ad targeting. But recently, following Facebook’s lead, Google has stopped being stringent about it.

But more importantly, the cross-device remarketing comes 3 years after Google first showcased its cross-device conversion metric. Bender says the new capability will be rolling out globally over the next few months.

Let’s see how this plays out and hope that this leads to better conversion rates for the costly re-targeting ads. Do let us know your thoughts in comments.