What is retargeting?
Advertising again to people who visited your website before but have not yet converted.
More details
Most website visitors do not convert on their first visit. Retargeting gives you the chance to be visible again at the moment someone is ready to make a decision. Pixels recognise visitors on other platforms (Meta, Google Display), so you can show them specific messages.
For example…
A randomised field experiment with an online DIY store, published in the Journal of Marketing Research, shows that timing matters more than frequency. Retargeting late in the purchase process increased the likelihood of purchase by 18.6% to 31.6% and the profitability of the targeting by 28.2% to 37.8%. The same ads early in the process did not have that effect. The effect also varied by customer: for younger, newer customers and more expensive abandoned products, a different approach worked than for loyal customers buying cheaper items.
Source: journals.sagepub.comWhere it goes wrong
The classic mistake is chasing everyone who ever visited your site with the same ad for weeks on end. It irritates people and costs money. Exclude people who have already bought, cap the frequency and stop after a reasonable period.
More important still: timing matters more than repetition. Research in the Journal of Marketing Research shows that retargeting late in the purchase process raises the likelihood of purchase by tens of percent, while the same ads early in the process have no such effect. So set up your campaigns around the moment, not the number.
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