Definition
Retargeting means showing ads to people who have already interacted with your business, such as visiting your website, adding a product to the cart, watching your video or messaging your Instagram account. Google calls it remarketing. Because these people already know you, retargeting ads often turn into sales more easily than ads shown to strangers.
How it works
A tracking tool records the interaction: the Meta Pixel or Conversions API for website visits on Meta, the Google tag for Google Ads, or the platform itself for video views and profile engagement. You then build an audience from those people, for example 'visited the pricing page in the last 30 days but did not buy', and show them a specific ad. On Meta, website custom audiences can look back up to 180 days. Good retargeting matches the message to what the person did: a reminder for people who left items in the cart, reviews for people who viewed a product, or a new offer for past customers.
Example
Picture a furniture store in Bengaluru whose website gets many visitors to its ₹28,000 sofa range, but few buy on their first visit. It creates a Meta custom audience of people who viewed sofa pages in the last 14 days and did not purchase, and shows them a carousel of those sofas with customer photos, a free delivery note and a 'Visit our HSR Layout showroom' button. The budget stays small, around ₹400 a day, because the audience itself is small.
An illustration: the business and the rupee figures are made up to show how the idea works.
Common mistake
Showing the same ad to the same people for weeks, so they feel followed and start hiding your ads. Watch frequency, refresh the creative regularly, and exclude people who have already bought. Another mistake is retargeting without a clear privacy notice and consent on your website, which can create legal and trust problems.
Where you learn it
- Module 1: Digital Marketing Foundations
- Class: The Marketing Funnel: Awareness → Consideration → Conversion → Loyalty · read it free
- Module 6: Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram)
- Class: Pixel, Conversions API & Retargeting
Related terms
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