Most website visitors don’t convert the first time they land on your website. A whole lot happens at the first visit that doesn’t lead to a purchase: comparing providers, checking pricing, reading online reviews, getting distracted or leaving before completing a purchase or a booking.
That doesn’t always mean they’re not interested or won’t convert down the line. Often, it means they need a clear reminder or more time to make a decision.
This is where retargeting ads help.
Retargeting allows your business to reconnect with people who have already interacted with your brand; that includes your website, products, services, app, email or social media posts. Instead of advertising only to cold audiences, you’re allocating part of your ad budget to users who have already shown intent.
For business owners and decision makers, that matters because retargeting can help recover missed opportunities and move more prospects toward conversion.
In this blog, we’ll look at:
• How Retargeting Advertising Works
• 6 Types of Retargeting Campaigns Businesses Can Use
• What Does Retargeting Do for Your Campaign?
• 5 Retargeting Best Practices To Maximize Ad Spend
• Tailored Retargeting Ads To Drive More Conversions
How Retargeting Advertising Works
Retargeting is mainly a paid advertising method that shows relevant ads to people who have previously interacted with your business online. It uses audience signals to identify users who have already engaged with your brand.
Image: Ads being displayed at various placements (Source)
In a basic website-based setup, a tracking tag is placed on your site. When someone visits a page, the tag helps build an audience based on that activity. Your business can then show ads to that audience across platforms such as Google, Meta, LinkedIn, YouTube or display networks.
Modern retargeting also uses first-party data. First-party data is information your business collects directly from its audience, such as email subscribers, customer lists, purchase history, form submissions and website activity.
A strong retargeting strategy should answer four questions:
• Who should be retargeted?
• What action did they take?
• What message should they see next?
• When should they stop seeing ads?
Retargeting helps your business stay visible during a customer’s decision-making process, which may often take days or even months. It gives you another opportunity to speak to users who already know your brand, rather than relying solely on first impressions.
6 Types of Retargeting Campaigns Businesses Can Use
There are several types of retargeting businesses can use, depending on their audience, platform, budget and sales process. The right mix depends on where your customers spend time and what actions matter most to your business.
1. Retargeting Google Ads (Google Remarketing Ads)
Businesses can re-engage users across Google placements such as Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail and partner websites. For example, a user who visits a pricing page, views a product or starts a lead form may later see a relevant ad while browsing or searching again.
Image: Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory (Source)
Google remarketing ads can be especially useful for businesses with longer consideration cycles because they help keep your brand visible after the first visit.
2. Facebook Retargeting Ads
Facebook retargeting ads help businesses reach users across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Meta’s audience network. These campaigns may use website visits, product views, video engagement, lead form interactions, page engagement or customer lists.
Image: When you set up a retargeting ad on Facebook, your ad will be served across the Meta platform (Source)
For example, a local service provider can retarget people who visited a booking page but did not schedule an appointment. An eCommerce store can show ads featuring products a user previously viewed.
3. Social Media Retargeting
Social media retargeting extends beyond Meta. Businesses can retarget users across LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest and other social networks depending on their audience.
For business-to-business (B2B) companies, LinkedIn retargeting may help reconnect with users who visited industry pages or engaged with thought leadership content. For consumer brands, TikTok or Pinterest retargeting may support product discovery and purchase consideration.
Social media marketing services help businesses build stronger organic and paid social strategies that support visibility, engagement and conversion opportunities.
4. Email Retargeting
Image: Retargeting emails by Airbnb (Source)
Email retargeting uses known customer or subscriber data to re-engage people through email campaigns. This method usually depends on users sharing their email address through a form, purchase, newsletter signup or account registration.
An email retargeting campaign may remind users about a product they viewed, promote a related service, send a limited-time offer or follow up after a content download.
5. Abandoned Cart Retargeting
Image: Nike triggers a retargeted email after you’ve left some items in your cart (Source)
Abandoned cart retargeting helps eCommerce businesses reconnect with shoppers who added products to a cart but did not complete checkout.
These users often have strong purchase intent. An abandoned cart campaign may include product reminder ads, discount offers, free shipping messages, customer reviews or email reminders to bring shoppers back to checkout.
6. Dynamic and List-Based Retargeting
Dynamic retargeting shows users ads based on the exact products, services or pages they previously viewed. List-based retargeting uses customer data, such as email addresses or phone numbers, to build advertising audiences.
These options are useful for businesses with strong first-party data, larger product catalogs or longer sales cycles.
What Does Retargeting Do for You Campaign?
Your retargeting strategy should align with the user’s previous actions and current stage in the buyer journey. Here are common goals for retargeting campaigns:
1. Create Awareness
Show ads to people who visited your website but did not take the next step. You can use retargeting advertising to introduce products, promote offers or remind users about your brand.
2. Generate Conversions
Use social media retargeting, Facebook retargeting ads or retargeting Google Ads to encourage users to sign up, request a quote, download a resource or complete a purchase.
3. Reduce Cart Abandonment
Abandoned cart retargeting helps bring shoppers back after they leave items in their cart. Your ads or emails can highlight the product, offer an incentive or answer common purchase concerns.
4. Increase Customer Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value (CLTV) is the total amount a customer is expected to spend with your business over time. Retargeting can help encourage repeat purchases, upsells, cross-sells or re-engagement from past customers.
5 Retargeting Best Practices To Maximize Ad Spend
The right retargeting best practices help businesses reach interested users without wasting budget or causing ad fatigue. A strong campaign should be measurable and aligned with where the user is in the buyer journey.
1. Segment Audiences By Intent
Group users based on actions such as product views, service page visits, cart abandonment, form starts or past purchases. This helps you match each audience with a more relevant message.
2. Use Dynamic Ads and Remarketing Lists
Dynamic ads can show users the exact products or services they viewed, while remarketing lists help tailor campaigns based on previous website activity. These retargeting tools make ads more relevant and reduce wasted impressions.
3. Test and Optimize Creative
Review your images, copy, offers and calls-to-action (CTAs) regularly. CTA stands for call to action, the prompt that tells users what to do next. Testing different formats helps improve engagement and conversions.
4. Track Performance
Set up tracking for clicks, conversions, cost per click (CPC), form submissions, purchases and other key actions. Clear data helps you refine your retargeting strategy over time.
5. Control Frequency
Avoid showing the same ad too often. Frequency caps, audience exclusions and creative rotation help prevent ad fatigue and keep your retargeting campaigns useful to users.
Tailored Retargeting Ads To Drive More Conversions
Whether you want to try retargeting ads or improve your existing campaigns, Thrive Internet Marketing Agency can help.
When you partner with us, you can expect these benefits:
• Expertise and experience to create effective retargeting ads. We know what works and what doesn’t, helping you develop ads highly tailored to your specific audience.
• Access to a wealth of retargeting tools and data. We can track your website traffic, identify your most engaged visitors and target your ads to those people.
• Optimization of your retargeting campaigns for maximum performance. We have a high standard for analyzing results, adjusting your campaigns and helping you get the most out of your ad spend.
Thrive also offers pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, social media advertising and Amazon PPC services to help businesses build connected paid media strategies across channels.
So, if you’re ready to align your messaging and creatives to drive the next step in the conversion process through your ads, talk to our expert team at Thrive.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Retargeting Ads
WHAT ARE RETARGETING ADS?
Retargeting ads are paid placements shown to people who previously interacted with your website, app, content or online brand.
HOW DO RETARGETING CAMPAIGNS WORK?
Retargeting campaigns use audience signals such as website visits, customer lists, product views or platform engagement to show relevant follow-up ads.
WHAT IS RETARGETING IN DIGITAL MARKETING?
It is a paid media tactic that helps businesses re-engage users who showed interest but did not complete a desired action.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RETARGETING VS REMARKETING?
Retargeting vs remarketing usually distinguishes paid ad follow-ups from email or customer list re-engagement, though platforms often use both terms interchangeably.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN TYPES OF RETARGETING?
Common types of retargeting include website, search, display, video, social, email, dynamic product, list-based and abandoned cart campaigns.
HOW DOES RETARGETING GOOGLE ADS HELP BUSINESSES?
Google Remarketing Ads can reconnect with previous visitors across Search, Display, YouTube and other Google placements.
HOW DOES EMAIL RETARGETING SUPPORT CONVERSIONS?
Email retargeting helps businesses follow up with known contacts using personalized reminders, offers or product recommendations.
WHY IS ABANDONED CART RETARGETING IMPORTANT?
Abandoned cart retargeting helps recover potential sales from shoppers who added items to checkout but left before buying.
WHAT RETARGETING TOOLS DO BUSINESSES USE?
Common retargeting tools include Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Ads, customer relationship management platforms, email software and analytics tools.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RETARGETING VS. REMARKETING?
Retargeting vs. remarketing often separates paid ad follow-ups from email or customer-list re-engagement, though platforms may use both terms interchangeably.
