We all remember playing the game “Would You Rather,” so here’s an digital automotive marketing version of the infamous question: Would you rather: a) have six different people visit your site one time b) have one person visit your website six times?

If you said B you would be correct! Why, because that person is obviously more interested and lower down the purchase funnel. They are ready to buy.

All web visitors are not created equal, and while it is fun and flattering to think of many different unique visitors coming to your site, we all agree the real goal is engagement, not mere impressions.

This is where remarketing comes in. You know the kind I’m talking about: Whether it’s Walmart or Overstock.com, once you’ve looked around their site you get tagged with a cookie and these ads seem to follow you everywhere you go: your Yahoo email, ESPN, MSN, everywhere! Here’s a great example of just how powerful this technology really is. Last week I had a dealer email me wanting to know why his ads were showing up on ESPN.com in California. (He’s in Connecticut). Well, it just so happens that a website visitor had been to the dealership site recently, and then he moved on to looking at the MLB scores on ESPN.com. There, the magic of remarketing kicked in and the visitor saw the dealer’s Remarketing ad. The visitor was so amazed that he took a screen shot and emailed the dealer and said “Pretty Cool!” He’s right, it is pretty cool. Repeat visitors are more valuable than unique visitors, and remarketing ads, aka “reminder ads” that follow visitors through their internet travels, are a revolutionary way to bridge the gap between a unique visitor and an engaged shopper.

As I got deeper into the conversation with the dealer and were reviewing his analytics, it turned out that a good portion of his leads were coming just from the remarketing. But that’s really what you should expect, lower funnels visitors, those who keep coming back to your site, should be more likely to contact the dealership.

Are you part of the remarketing revolution? See how remarketing impacts real consumer journeys here: http://www.cobalt.com/consumerjourney.

Article by Matt Tedesco.