Press and News

FetchBack Appears in Business 2.0 “What's Next?” Section

As lucrative as Internet advertising can be, almost all of it is wasted. Companies are set to shell out a total of $19.9 billion for online ads this year, but just 2 percent of the Web surfers who are exposed to those ads will click on them (and even fewer will actually make a transaction). Until now, that paltry click-through rate has simply been accepted as the norm. But a company called FetchBack aims to turn things around with technology called ad retargeting.

[FetchBack Retargeting] works like this: Say you find yourself on the website of Discover Card, a FetchBack client. After a few seconds, you get bored and move on. Later in the day, while you’re browsing [the Internet] an ad for Discover Card pops up—encouraging you to visit the company’s site for a special deal. You decide not to. The next day, you’re sifting through your LinkedIn page, and another ad for Discover Card appears…That does the trick. You give in and click.

Retargeted advertising converts people who are already interested-you were visiting the Discover Card site for a reason, right?- into buyers. “We’re enabling companies to reconnect with a lost customer,” says Chad Little, CEO of FetchBack. “You’re much more likely to convert customers if you’re consistently in front of them.”

Little says the first 30 days after you window-shop for a product or service are crucial, as thoughts of the thing you might have owned are still buzzing in your head. Call it nonbuyer’s remorse…Retargeting “will become increasingly important as advertisers get smarter about optimizing online media buys,” says Shar VanBoskirk, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.

-By Susanna Hamner