Last Updated on: 27th September 2023, 01:55 pm
The sales journey is a long, sometimes complicated process, regardless of your particular niche. It’s important to maintain contact with your customers, and guide them through every stage of their journey. Retargeting technology is a powerful tool to forge these regular connections, but there’s one moment in particular where it outperforms: the Zero Moment of Truth.
Today, we’ll discuss what the Zero Moment of Truth is, and how you can use retargeting technology to maximize its impact.
Table of Contents:
- What Is the Zero Moment of Truth?
- Retargeting is a powerful tool to connect with users at the ZMOT
- Effective retargeting needs cutting-edge technology
- Maximize the Zero Moment of Truth with RTB House retargeting today
What Is the Zero Moment of Truth?
The Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) is a term coined by Google in 2011 as a way to describe the moment when a customer is exposed to your brand and is now doing research about your product. This typically happens after a user has seen an advert or heard about your brand through another channel, and now wants to compare your product to others on the market in order to make a decision.
Why is the ZMOT so important?
Average conversion rates via search are 3.0%, compared to the conversion rate of social’s 1.0%. This is because when users search they do so with intent, specifically the intent to research the product. This process is covered by the ZMOT and is one of the most critical moments in the decision-making process. It’s when users actively seek out more information about your product and look for reviews and comparisons, as well as any potential sales or offers.
Crucially, it is also the moment when users are likely to be exposed to competing products, particularly when viewing comparison reviews. This means that brands who heavily focus on ZMOT, have an opportunity to convert users before their competition.
What channels do users access during the ZMOT?
81% of customers conduct research prior to making a purchase. This research takes a variety of forms, but 65% are interested in product comparison sites, and 93% will read reviews, either on an e-commerce site itself or on a specialized website.
This will usually take place on the open web, and is a brilliant opportunity for brands to connect with potential customers at a moment of high engagement. It also means that brands need to find ways to connect with users to research their product, or similar products, and this is where retargeting comes in.
Retargeting is a powerful tool to connect with users at the ZMOT
Retargeting is a way to reconnect with users who have shown interest in your products. It works by interpreting data to identify customers who have shown interest in your site. Sophisticated retargeting solutions can further determine what content to display to a user, based on their behavior.
This approach is particularly useful at the Zero Moment of Truth. Users are highly engaged and are already actively searching for your products. If you can show them content that showcases the best of your product, this can cultivate a positive journey for the customer, increasing the likelihood of conversion. It will also enable you to prevent competitors from attempting to poach customers out from under you with their own retargeting efforts!
To understand how this works, let’s take a look at three short examples:
Keeping a customer engaged during the research phase
Once a customer has encountered your product, it is essential to keep them engaged. Once they leave your website, you can use retargeting to constantly remind customers about the product, or similar products, that they have already seen on your website.
This approach enables you to keep constant communication with the customer and help guide them towards a purchase that they will love by providing them with relevant information. Particularly sophisticated retargeting methods can even pinpoint what elements of a product a customer is likely to be interested in, for example, energy efficiency, and highlight those in compelling creatives.
Alerting customers about a new promotion or offer in your store
Customers are always on the lookout for deals. Sometimes, they might leave your store without a purchase, simply because you weren’t running a promotion. If you know that someone was considering a product, retargeting is a great way to alert them about a sale.
This might be enough to tempt them over to your store and grab you a conversion that you would have missed otherwise.
Upselling a customer on useful accessories
An often overlooked aspect of retargeting is the ability to upsell customers on product bundles. The ZMOT is when customers are most open and curious about a product, and this is an opportunity to sell them other things that will enhance their overall experience.
For example, users who are purchasing swimwear might also be interested in purchasing snorkeling gear, particularly if the data shows that they are planning a beach holiday. Retargeting at the ZMOT can let you show users complementary products that might increase their overall purchase value.
Effective retargeting needs cutting-edge technology
Retargeting is only as powerful as the technology behind it. Particularly the technology that interprets the data needed to effectively identify high-potential customers, without compromising their privacy. That’s why RTB House is actively developing and using its proprietary Deep Learning solution in a retargeting context.
Deep Learning is useful in retargeting because it can understand complex, unstructured data from multiple sources. It can also learn from this data and provide more meaningful insights over time, without human input.
When we look at the ZMOT, this is useful for two reasons. The first is that data can help us more effectively target users when they are likely to be entering ZMOT. We can then determine what content that particular user is most interested in at that moment, and display it. In order to prevent flooding a user with adverts and causing ad fatigue, we use smart frequency capping solutions to limit the number of adverts shown.
Maximize the Zero Moment of Truth with RTB House retargeting today
Ready to make the most of the ZMOT? The RTB House team is standing by to help you. Contact us today, and we’ll begin the process of constructing a retargeting strategy that will help you to connect with users and drive conversions.
