Retargeting: There Are No Dumb Questions, Just Dumb Strategies

Retargeting is a critical part of strategic marketing — and with good reason. On average, nearly 97% of visitors leave a website without having converted during their first visit. But customers that leave your site aren’t necessarily customers lost. The use of retargeting campaigns creates access to these interested audiences by keeping your brand top of mind and, hopefully, guiding them back to complete their journey.

But simply “doing retargeting” doesn’t always mean you’ll win the hearts of your customers. Understanding the fundamentals is key and the best way to ensure ongoing success.

What Exactly is Retargeting?

Retargeting is a digital advertising strategy that focuses on re-engaging users who have interacted with your brand but haven’t yet completed a desired action such as making a purchase or signing up. Traditionally, this was done using cookies or tracking pixels through mobile or desktop advertising, but new tactics like CTV/OTT retargeting and geotargeting through OOH ads are expanding the reach.

These strategies allow brands to serve personalized ads across streaming platforms or based on user location, creating more opportunities to remind users of their earlier interest and increasing conversion potential.

What are Common Retargeting Strategies?

Whether you want to reconnect with past visitors, engage with high-intent users or tailor your messaging based on specific behaviors, there are several ways to help boost your campaign performance. Below are some of the most effective retargeting techniques you can use to re-engage your audience and drive conversions.

Site-Based Retargeting

If your current advertising is driving users to your website but they aren't completing any of the actions you consider to be a conversion, site-based retargeting is a good place to start. By tracking these visitors and showing personalized ads on other sites, you can remind them of what they were considering. This reinforces your brand and encourages them to return, helping recover lost conversions and boost ROI.

List-Based Retargeting

If you are collecting customer data into a CRM system or email lists, you can use these to do list-based retargeting for users who opted in to receiving communication from you. This allows you to connect with people who have already engaged with your brand or made past purchases. This approach is great because it allows for highly personalized ads based on customer history.

Behavioral Retargeting

With behavioral retargeting, you can deliver ads based on specific user actions such as watching a video, downloading a document or adding items to their cart. This strategy helps you reach users with relevant content tailored to their intent and position in the customer journey. By segmenting audiences based on behaviors, you can create more personalized experiences and improve overall campaign performance.

When Should You Use Retargeting?

Retargeting helps re-engage visitors who’ve interacted with your site but haven’t yet completed a desired action, making it an essential tool for nudging them along the customer journey. Here are a few scenarios where retargeting shines:

Encouraging Sign-Ups or Account Creations: Users often browse a site but leave without creating an account or signing up for a newsletter. Retargeting allows you to prompt these visitors with ads that showcase the benefits of signing up, like gaining access to premium content, special offers or personalized services.

Re-engaging Warm Leads: For businesses focused on lead generation, retargeting can help bring back visitors who have previously engaged with your site but haven’t taken the next step such as filling out a form or scheduling a demo. Offering additional information or incentives can help move them forward.

Promoting Content and Events: Whether it’s an upcoming webinar, online event or valuable content (like a case study or video), retargeting can remind users who showed interest in your brand to take part. This is especially useful for driving attendance and engagement with content-heavy campaigns.

Driving App Downloads or Engagement: If your goal is to drive app installs or increase usage, retargeting can be used to prompt users who may have visited your site or landing page but haven’t yet downloaded or used the app. Highlighting key features or user benefits can encourage further action.

Pushing to Complete a Purchase: If a user browses products but leaves without completing a purchase, retargeting can remind them of the items they viewed, offering incentives like discounts or free shipping to entice them back.

Building Brand Awareness and Trust: For companies focused on long-term brand visibility, retargeting helps maintain familiarity with potential customers by serving consistent messaging over time. This is key for building trust and recognition, which are essential for users to convert later.

In these scenarios, retargeting ensures that visitors remain engaged with your brand, regardless of whether they’re ready to purchase, sign up or complete a form right away. By using tailored ads that reflect their specific interests or actions, you can significantly increase conversion rates.

Where Do You Set Up Retargeting Campaigns?

For most marketers, the best places to start are with Facebook and Google. As two of the most powerful platforms for retargeting, they offer robust tools to reach potential customers who have already engaged with your brand. When getting started, here are just a few ways to set up retargeting campaigns on each of these platforms effectively.

Meta Retargeting Campaigns

Meta provides a variety of tools that allow for precise retargeting based on user behavior. To maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns, focus on the following key areas:

Audience Segmentation: Facebook allows you to create finely tuned audience segments. This includes users who have visited your website, engaged with your content or interacted with your business but have not yet completed the desired actions.

Ad Formats: Test different ad formats, such as carousel ads, dynamic product ads or video ads. Trying various formats helps identify which resonates best with your audience.

By leveraging these tools and continuously testing ad variations, you can improve engagement and conversions.

Google Retargeting Campaigns

Google’s retargeting capabilities allow you to reach users across both the search and display networks. Here’s how you can set up successful campaigns:

Audience Lists: Create highly targeted audience lists in Google Analytics based on behaviors like time spent on a page or specific product views.

Ad Formats: Utilize Performance Max to display ads across Google’s inventory or use Responsive Display Ads for flexible, multi-platform targeting. Combining these formats with Search and YouTube ads can further refine your audience reach.

With careful audience segmentation and ad testing, Google’s platform offers powerful tools for keeping your brand visible to engaged users.

Programmatic Retargeting Campaigns

Programmatic platforms, such as The Trade Desk and MediaMath, allow for advanced retargeting across a variety of channels beyond just search and social. Key features include:

Cross-Device Targeting: Programmatic retargeting enables reaching users across multiple devices—desktop, mobile, CTV and even digital out-of-home (DOOH)—to provide a seamless, omnichannel experience.

Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO): Automatically tailor ad creative to individuals based on their past interactions, ensuring the right message hits at the right time.

Advanced Data Segmentation: Leverage data from first-party or third-party sources to build sophisticated audience segments, refining your retargeting efforts.

By using programmatic platforms, marketers can scale retargeting campaigns with precision and extend their reach beyond traditional channels, leading to greater ROI.

How Do You Optimize Retargeting Campaigns?

Once you’ve been running retargeting campaigns for a while, it’s possible that even the most well-crafted strategies can lose effectiveness over time. Especially when those campaigns are without ongoing optimization. Regularly refining your approach is essential to maintain relevance, improve performance and maximize ROI. Here’s how to ensure your campaigns deliver the best possible results:

Strong Audience Strategy: Develop and maintain a well-structured audience strategy by segmenting users based on behavior, intent and purchase stage. Refine your targeting regularly to avoid ad fatigue and ensure you’re reaching the most relevant potential customers.

Track the Right KPIs: Keep an eye on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as click-through rates, conversion rates and cost-per-click to assess campaign performance. If they’re falling below the benchmarks you and your teams have set, optimizations may be warranted.

A/B Testing: Regularly test different aspects of your retargeting campaigns such as ad formats, message or targeting parameters to identify what works best. Continuous testing ensures your campaigns remain effective over time.

Manage Budget Wisely: Ensure that your retargeting budget is spent effectively by focusing on high-performing audiences. If certain segments aren’t converting, shift more budget toward those that deliver better ROI.

What’s the Key to Effective Retargeting?

At the heart of successful retargeting efforts lies one thing: personalization. Tailoring ads to specific customer interactions creates a more engaging and relevant experience for users. Here are some ways to personalize retargeting campaigns:

Use Dynamic Ads: Serve ads that automatically adjust content based on the products or pages users have interacted with. For example, show ads that feature the exact product a customer viewed.

Set Custom Audiences: Segment your audience based on their behavior on your site. For instance, you can create one audience for users who viewed specific categories and another for those who abandoned their carts.

Tailor Your Messaging: Personalize your ad copy to address the specific concerns or interests of your audience. Offer a discount or highlight product features that matter to individual users who have looked at a product to increase the likelihood of a conversion.

Making retargeting work for your brand requires a thoughtful approach, from personalizing ads to optimizing your budget. With a clear strategy in place, retargeting can become one of the most valuable tools in your digital marketing arsenal, helping you reconnect with potential customers and drive conversions.

Need help optimizing your retargeting strategy? Swanson Russell’s media team specializes in connecting brands with the right audiences at the right time. Take a look at the work we’ve created, get to know our approach — then, contact us to see how we can help.