How many potential buyers visit your website every day?   How many of them do you manage to collect email addresses from?  1% or 2%, 5% is you're doing really well. What happens to the people that don't respond to you?  Some of them will be time-wasters and end up not buying but others will purchase from your competitors. 

This problem is particularly acute in overseas property as the purchase process takes such a long time that when a buyer finally comes to make a decision the chances are they’ve forgotten about you even though they visited your website a few months earlier. 

Finding the buyers that got away

You usually get more than one shot at the cherry.  If you understand your target customers' online journey you can make sure you are highly visible in the paid and natural search results for phrases they search for and you can advertise on property portals they regularly use.  However, it’s a hit and miss exercise and hundreds if not thousands of buyers are slipping through your fingertips.

Google to the rescue

Google’s new foray into behavioural targeting will enable advertisers to target users who have already visited their website using new technology which has been dubbed a parasite cookie.

Using the Google Adwords platform you’ll be able to follow your “lost users” around in attempt to influence them into coming back to your website to make an enquiry. When one of these users visits a site that takes Google advertising, they’ll be shown your advert, presumably if your bid price meets a certain criteria.  This is highly significant, as since its acquisition of DoubleClick, Google has the largest  online distribution network on the planet.

It’s also possible that Google will give a relevancy boost to adverts on its search network from sites that a user has already visited.   Humans prefer the familiar and this would increase the perception of relevance of the paid search results.

Be careful which sites you visit

Have you ever visited a site that you wouldn’t want your friends or partner to find out about?  I have and some of them are excellent!

The big problem with is that people use the internet to search for solutions to problems and many of these issues are personal.  If you knew a third party advertising company was monitoring your search behaviour would you use the internet in a different way?  I would.  There will also be huge commercial pressure for Google to share this data.  Just think how the insurance industry could reduce risk and increase profits by knowing the sites you visit.

Google is attempting to solve one of the most pressing internet marketing problems of our time but in so doing is creating another one: violation of privacy.  Google argues that it’s ok because people will be able to opt out of this tracking.  For many though, particularly those in government, it will be seen as a step too far.