AdRoll Prospecting is a high funnel product used to find new users to target and add to your retargeting audience lists. AdRoll Prospecting is like AdWords similar audiences in that both use previous site visitors to determine new users based on shared behaviors. If AdRoll retargeting web and/or Facebook campaigns have been successful for your business or clients’ businesses, Prospecting can help grow your accounts and lift conversion volume.

How AdRoll Prospecting Works

1) AdRoll collects site visitor data through their pixel
2) AdRoll finds new users with similar behaviors using IntentMap™

According to AdRoll, IntentMap™ is “one of the largest data sets available today.” 1.2 billion digital profiles are used when finding new users who look like and behave like your existing site users. Below are a few examples of how new users are collected.

  • Geography
  • Advertiser domain
  • Visitor behavior on your site including searches, browsing and purchases
  • Your site’s vertical

3.  Advertisers can target the new audience through AdRoll web or Facebook campaigns

What To Expect

Since AdRoll Prospecting is a high funnel strategy to gain new site visitors, it’s important to have realistic performance expectations and relay those to your team or clients. Conversion rates will probably be lower than direct remarketing AdRoll web or Facebook campaigns. The goal of prospecting campaigns is to drive new audiences to your site, increase brand awareness, and fill your retargeting audience lists.

Instead of direct conversion volume, use the below metrics to determine the success of your prospecting campaigns.

  • Engaged Visitors: Includes new users who viewed 3+ pages
  • Assisted Conversions: Conversions that occurred in instances when a Prospecting ad was clicked and the visitor converted at a later time.
  • Total Conversions: This includes any conversions from retargeting web or Facebook campaigns where the visitor clicked on a Prospecting ad.

Increase Potential For Conversions

If you are hesitant to invest in a high funnel strategy, use AdRoll Prospecting to only find new users based on their similarity to your previous converters. Advertisers are able to use either customer email lists or converting audience lists to narrow the scope of Prospecting. Theoretically, this type of targeting should have a higher potential for conversions since you are reaching audiences with similar online behaviors to your current customers or previous leads.

Test It

At Hanapin, we typically adhere to the 70/20/10 rule. 70% for tried and true PPC strategies, 20% for tests likely to turn around a strong return and 10% of spend for testing more experimental strategies.

The 70-20-10 rule for PPC strategy

I would categorize AdRoll Prospecting as experimental since high return is not expected right away. Eventually, these new audiences will be included in your regular retargeting audience lists, which have higher potential for return. Again, if you are working with a limited testing budget, using customer email lists or previous converting audiences should improve ROI.

Advertisers are required to run a retargeting campaign before launching AdRoll Prospecting to allow the algorithm to better understand how current users and converters look and act. The second step is to opt-in to the IntentMap.

To set up AdRoll Prospecting, reach out to your AdRoll sales rep or account manager. If you are managing a client’s account, you are able to opt-in on your client’s behalf as long as you have access to the account. Find out more here!