WooCommerce adds AdRoll integration

WooCommerce is today adding another tool to its kit.

The company is announcing that the AdRoll ad/email retargeting platform is now integrated with WooCommerce. Last month, WooCommerce similarly added to its growing list of add-ons by announcing it was integrated with offline payments solution Square.

WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin from Automattic for that company’s popular WordPress publishing platform, with additional features available as premium add-ons. Created in 2011, it was acquired in the spring of last year by Automattic and claims to be employed by over 37 percent of all online stores.

In a post about the integration, AdRoll Product Manager Kelly Eng wrote:

“With this latest integration, you’ll be able to target every site visitor with dynamic product ads on the web, in a Facebook News Feed, and even in the inbox. […]

“With our new email retargeting product, SendRoll, marketers who connect AdRoll and WooCommerce can also fast-track their ability to send triggered emails to customers who leave their store without making a purchase.

“Originally, we couldn’t set up dynamic product ads for smaller advertisers because the overhead was just too high. Now, with e-commerce integrations like WooCommerce, we’re able to offer this powerful ad unit to customers without requiring any spend minimum.”

A small or medium-sized retailer employing WooCommerce and AdRoll can readily create dynamic ads for the web and Facebook that are targeted to site visitors, based on their browsing behavior and any relevant info in the retailer’s customer relationship management system. Here’s a screen to create dynamic ads in AdRoll:

For example, a visitor to a retailer’s site might look at a WooCommerce product page for a pair of sandals, and then put the sandals into the shopping cart but leave without buying. AdRoll can then send follow-up ads to the user on sites in the network of ad exchanges it uses, as well as on Facebook or in an email (See image at the top of this screen), about buying those abandoned sandals or about a complementary product, like a swimsuit.

If the user is positively identified across multiple devices by a login, the ads can follow her across devices. AdRoll maintains its own behavioral profiles of users. The ads are dynamically updated at any point with new pricing, image or description from the WooCommerce catalog.

WooCommerce said this is the first time it has partnered with a major adtech company in the US, as the other adtech relationships have been with European firms. Additionally, AdRoll is the first platform that allows WooCommerce clients to use dynamic product ads.

There is no charge to sign up or to integrate AdRoll into a retail site; pricing is a percentage of ad spend.

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.