Everybody loves remarketing on Google Ads.

There are few who would argue against the efficacy of remarketing to do anything from give you a second shot at a sale or blow past cart abandonment.

But most people using remarketing are using it in its most basic form: targeting all website visitors using the display network.

t’s easy to set up in just minutes and can net some decent results, so, why not?

But there is one type of remarketing list that most people aren’t using:

Remarketing lists for search ads, otherwise known as RLSAs.

What are remarketing lists for search ads?

Remarketing lists for search ads (RLSAs) lets you change your search ads for people who have visited your website before.

It’s a more advanced level of targeting which gives you a second chance to get those visitors to do what you want them to do.

This is not display remarketing.

You won’t be following people around with display ads on other websites they’re visiting.

RLSAs work when the person is searching for your keywords in Google. ?

The name really doesn’t help this confusion, but unfortunately there’s nothing we can do about that.

How it works

The foundation of RLSA begins when a user visits your site. Upon arrival, a cookie adds them to your remarketing list and, if you have at least 1,000 visitors in the past 30 days, you can use this information to activate an RLSA campaign. (You can also alter the time frame from which to draw users, or the pages they’ve visited and which to target.)

Aside from the remarketing list, the other factor in RLSA campaigns is the search keywords. Whatever keywords you decide to bid on, the end result is that whenever someone on your remarketing list searches one of these keywords, your RLSA ad will be triggered.

Three ways RLSA are used:

Increase your bids

You can choose to increase your bids for people who have visited your website recently. You might want to increase your bid by 25%, for example, to give you a better chance of beating your competitors.

Show different ads

You could tailor your ads to show specifically for people who have already been to your website and added products to their shopping basket.

You know they’ll likely already know about your product and brand – so try making this information more prominent.

Bid on different keywords

You know you’ll be bidding on a select group of people only.

They will have already been to your website, so you know they’re likely to be in the market for what you sell.

Short conclusion

Typical remarketing lists are good, but they are just that: typical.

They can get you results for a little while, but nowhere near what you could achieve using RLSAs.

With increased ad blocking technology, display ads are less engaging and users and far less receptive to them.

RLSAs have the benefit of targeting your remarketing list where they enjoy searching; directly on Google’s search network.