Even with all its merits, the terminology used in digital marketing poses a particular, inherent challenge. The terms are always changing, and their meanings are often different from their colloquial use. They are often ambivalent and may look alike, which can baffle and dismay newbie marketers. For example, the terms “lead acquisition” and “lead generation” can be conflated since “acquisition” and “generation” have similar colloquial usage and meanings. However, for seasoned digital marketers, these words have decidedly different meanings. The same issue arises with the terms “remarketing” and “retargeting” for similar reasons. We also come across numerous examples of the term “PPC” being misused. In this article, we will explore these terms and hopefully clarify them for you.

What is PPC?

PPC is an acronym for Pay Per Click and alludes to paid advertising. PPC is an old and well-established form of marketing, as it yields salient benefits for many industries. As can be inferred from the name, PPC has two patent characteristics: One – It is paid marketing of any form; Two – The payments are decided on the basis of the number of clicks generated.Ipso facto, the contrast between this and the other two terms should be manifest. While PPC is a sweeping term for paid digital marketing, remarketing and retargeting are more definite.

Types of PPC Marketing

Google Adwords

Google Adwords is the most common form of PPC marketing. These are the ads we come across when we search queries on Google. They are usually placed above the organic search results on the search engine results pages (SERP). Google clearly demarcates these results as ads to maintain the transparency and integrity of the search results.

Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising is another popular, customary, and lucrative form of PPC marketing. This form of advertising can cover Facebook ads for consumers to LinkedIn ads aimed at businesses. Akin to Google Adwords, advertisers pay for these on the basis of the clicks they generate. While Adwords targets search queries for specific keywords, social media ads focus on specific audiences determined by the advertisers.

Display Advertising

Display ads are the type of paid ads that you must have surely come across on the internet. These are the ad banners pasted across sites all over the internet, leading to the advertisers’ websites. They can be text-based, image-based, or both. These ads can be annoying and off-putting for quite a few users and hence have lower click-through rates, making them less appealing to advertisers. The main objective of these ads is to raise brand awareness.

What is Retargeting?

“Retargeting” comes under the aegis of PPC itself. Essentially, as implied by the name, it entails retargeting potential customers to increase conversion rates. This is principally done through snippets of code called pixels, which allow digital marketers to track users across the web through cookies.

The process is quite straightforward:

1. A potential customer visits your website.
2. They exit the website without making a purchase.
3. They then visit other sites where they are targeted with your ads.

Hence, “retargeting” uses other sorts of PPC, such as display ads, to retarget visitors who weren’t converted the first time.

What is Remarketing?

In general parlance, the term “Remarketing” conveys a broad definition. This definition involves the “remarketing of a product or service to an existing lead.” Likewise, according to common parlance, the term “retargeting” also seems to have a similar meaning. Both these terms seem to target existing customers. So, can these terms be used interchangeably?

Quite simply, NO! Remarketing, though similar-sounding, distinctly refers to targeted marketing via the avenue of email. Unlike retargeting, which employs user tracking and PPC ads to retarget visitors, remarketing customarily uses follow-up emails to spur leads to convert.

Finally, How Do PPC, Remarketing, and Retargeting Differ?

To summarize the points discussed above and consolidate their differences into a concise list:

PPC entails an array of paid marketing practices whose cost depends on the number of clicks generated by the ads.

Retargeting is a class of PPC that uses browser cookies to track users across the web and retargets ads according to their activity.

Remarketing is essentially a type of email marketing that uses follow-up emails to prompt the user to make purchases.

Understanding these distinctions is crucial for any digital marketer, whether you’re working with a packaging design agency in Bangalore, a branding agency in Bangalore, or website designers in Bangalore. Each strategy plays a unique role in the broader marketing ecosystem, helping to drive traffic, engage users, and ultimately convert leads into customers.