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Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Criteo?

   Criteo was founded in France in 2005 by serial entrepreneur Jean-Baptiste (JB) Rudelle and technical experts Franck Le Ouay and Romain Niccoli, formerly working in research and development at Microsoft. The company is successfully helping the top e-commerce companies across the US and Europe to turn their website visitors into profitable customers through scalable performance retargeting solutions. Criteo currently has more than 1200 clients and 350 employees worldwide. More About Criteo.

2. What does Criteo do?

   Criteo is the world leader in personalised retargeting solutions. Our job is to find visitors who have left your website and bring them back via a dynamic personalised banner. Each banner is created in real time featuring specific product recommendations based on the viewers browsing history on your website. This highly targeted message allows you to easily convert your website visitors into loyal customers. More about personalised retargeting.

3. How does Criteo's personalised retargeting solution work?

   Take this as an example: A consumer visits your website to look at cameras. They will then leave your website and browse other websites, such as a news portal. Criteo will then detect the person (via an anonymous cookie) and display a personalised banner with a selection of cameras they viewed, and other cameras that may be relevant to their search. Once the shopper clicks on the banner, they will be redirected directly to the product page of the specific camera that person is interested in from your site. Learn more about how this targeted advertising works.

4. How does a banner get personalised?

   Personalised banners present the most relevant products to potential customers. Criteo provides the ultimate level of dynamic banner personalisation. Criteo banners are created in real time for each viewer and feature as many as 10 previously viewed products and relevant product recommendations – all based on Criteo's proprietary purchase-prediction technology. It has been proved that Criteo's personalised banners acquire 4 times the click-through rate (CTR) of other retargeted banners. More about personalised retargeting

5. What are the results of Criteo's retargeting technology?

   Due to the highly targeted audience (your previous website visitors) and the deep personalisation of the banners, Criteo's clients experience phenomenal ROI click-through and conversion rates. Studies show that consumer CTRs are 4 times higher than other retargeted and standard banners. More about retargeting ROI.

6. How much does it cost?

   Criteo works with its clients purely on a cost-per-click (CPC) business model. You pay only when a user clicks (PPC) on your banner and comes back to your site. Criteo assumes the risk by purchasing banner inventory on a wide range of premium websites on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis. We can afford to offer this win-win model thanks to our high performance technology. With Criteo display banners, you have all the advantage of CPC, while benefiting from the branding effect associated with graphical banners. More about PPC retargeting.

7. How does Criteo fit in with my marketing activity?

   Criteo personalised retargeting is complementary to your other acquisition tactics. These tactics, such as search and affiliate marketing, allow you to lead new users to your website. Since more than 90% of these visitors leave your website before making a transaction, Criteo is finishing the job by bringing these ready-to-buy shoppers back to your website to complete their transaction. In that sense, Criteo allows you to make your acquisition investments much more profitable. More about Criteo PPC performance.

8. I already have affiliates bringing me traffic, why would I use Criteo?

   Converting a user into a transaction during their first visit is an extraordinary event. On average, a user visits a website five times before making a purchase, even if they are a previous customer. Your most valuable prospects are those who just left your site. Personalised retargeting allows you to keep contact with those prospects. Furthermore Criteo allows the use of personalised retargeting without any risk, because you pay only for clicks (PPC) generated by customers coming back to your website. Criteo makes the money you invested into acquiring new customers even more profitable. More about Criteo PPC performance.

9. Why do I need personalised retargeting if my users are already coming back to my site?

   This is a legitimate question. Here is some feedback from our clients on the retargeting experience:

   • Prospects don't often spontaneously come back to the website. It's a shame but that's how it works. To generate re-visits and sales, personalised retargeting is necessary and extremely effective.
   • For super-qualified prospects, retargeting speeds up the process of finalising a sale that may have ended with a competitor.
   • Even when it doesn't generate clicks, frequent exposure to the personalised banners creates a very strong branding effect. We have measured that, for each click, this branding effect generates two extra visits. But you're only paying for clicks so you're benefiting from the exponential branding effect for free.

   More about Criteo PPC performance.

10. How do I set up a Criteo campaign?

    Set-up is very easy, quick and free. On average, it takes only two hours to integrate, and even less when we incorporate your current website analytics system. We also set up a call with your technical manager to review and assist the integration. For the banners: you simply give us your logo, brand guidelines and access to your catalogue feed – we will do the rest. For your catalogue feed, we use your XML flux. It's that easy. More about Criteo's full-service solution.

11. Who creates the banner? Who buys the media?

    Criteo's personalised retargeting solution is 100% full-service. Criteo offers a "one-stop-shop" retargeting campaign design and deployment, including: personalised banner design, media buying, ad serving, campaign optimisation, and real-time reporting. More about Criteo's full-service solution.

12. What size budget do I need to start a campaign?

    It's very flexible. We suggest starting with a test budget you feel comfortable with. Criteo's experienced account managers will help determine what the most optimal cost-per-click (CPC) will be for your business goals. The CPC can be adjusted up or down at any time. You have full control of your campaign. More about Criteo PPC performance.

13. What is the right cost-per-click (CPC)?

    To start, you can determine an initial cost-per-click (CPC) with your experienced account manager. Similar to paid search, Criteo's flexible solution allows you to optimise your CPC based on the volume you want to acquire and your goals in terms of conversions and cost of sales. Criteo advertisers have a secure interface that will allow you to monitor all aspects of your campaign in real time: impressions, clicks and sales generated by Criteo. You will always have full control over your CPC and campaign budget. More about Criteo PPC performance.

14. Can I carry out a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) campaign?

    We have found that the cost-per-click (CPC) model is the most effective for our clients. There are no questions or discrepancies about how pure CPC is calculated, unlike for other business models such as cost-per-acquisition (CPA). With CPA there may be discrepancies on calculation of sales and whether "view through" data is included. Criteo clients enjoy significantly high and stable conversion rates. As a matter of fact, more than 98% of our clients have renewed their contract after the test period. Once they see the results, they want more clicks! More about Criteo PPC performance.

15. How do I know it will work for me?

    We already work with more than 1200 advertisers in a variety of verticals (fashion, travel, consumer electronics, general retail and more) and we are seeing fantastic results and phenomenal ROI - with a 98% client retention rate. Since our solution is completely flexible with no minimum budgets or time commitments – you can try it and see for yourself. More about retargeting ROI.

16. Privacy: What guarantee do I have that you will not use my data and pass it on to one of my competitors?

    Visitor navigation history data from your website is collected only for your company's purposes. No data is shared with other clients. Criteo is very strict on this policy. Our account teams work under a very strict confidentiality clause. We have a reputation of the utmost integrity. Criteo works with the biggest e-commerce players worldwide – we would never risk our client relations. For more information you can access the Criteo Privacy Policy.

17. Privacy: Should I be afraid that my users will see me as "Big Brother"?

    Criteo respects the privacy of all consumers and prides itself on implementing the strictest privacy policy. Criteo uses only cookie information (not the IP which is considered as personal information) and does not collect any personally identifiable information (PII). Criteo is extremely forthright with the ability for consumers to opt out of retargeted advertising if they so desire. This option is available through the Criteo website and directly from the actual banners. For more information you can access the Criteo Privacy Policy.