Remarketing, explained properly.
Remarketing is the practice of showing ads specifically to people who have already interacted with your business, typically by visiting your website or using your app. Because these audiences already know you, remarketing campaigns convert at much higher rates and at lower costs than acquisition campaigns.
What is remarketing?
Remarketing (also called retargeting) is a PPC strategy where you show ads specifically to people who have already visited your website. The process involves placing a tracking tag on your site so Google builds an audience of previous visitors, then targeting them with ads on the [Display Network](/ppc-glossary/display-network), YouTube, or Google Search.
Why remarketing works so well
Remarketing audiences are your warmest non-converted prospects. They already know you exist. They have shown interest. Conversion rates are typically much higher than cold-audience campaigns.
Types of remarketing
- **Standard remarketing:** show ads to all previous website visitors. - **Dynamic remarketing:** show ads featuring specific products or pages viewed. - **Customer list remarketing:** upload email addresses to target existing customers. - **Search remarketing (RLSA):** adjust bids for previous visitors searching Google.
How remarketing works
Add the Google Ads tag or Google Tag Manager to your website. Visitors are added to remarketing audiences, then targeted with relevant ads.
Common remarketing strategies
- Cart abandonment - Page-level remarketing - Time-based segmentation - Customer match - Similar audiences
Frequency capping
Without frequency caps, remarketing ads can become intrusive, following users too aggressively. Set frequency caps to limit impressions per week.
Where remarketing runs
Remarketing campaigns can run across the Google Display Network (banner ads on websites), YouTube (video ads), Gmail (Sponsored Promotions), and Search (text ads triggered by remarketing audience layers, called RLSA).
Take this further
Remarketing campaigns typically convert 3 to 10 times better than acquisition campaigns at lower CPCs. Ready to apply this to your own account? [Book a free discovery call](/discovery-call), or explore our [PPC packages](/services/ppc-packages).
Remarketing: common questions.
How big does my remarketing audience need to be?
For Display and YouTube, a minimum of 100 active users is required for the audience to be eligible. For Search remarketing (RLSA), the minimum is 1,000 users.
How long should remarketing audience membership last?
The default is 30 days and the maximum is 540 days. The choice depends on your decision cycle. Ecommerce typically uses 7 to 30 days, while B2B uses 90 to 180 days.
Are remarketing ads creepy?
They can be when overdone. Modern best practice is to cap frequency at 3 to 5 impressions per user per day, refresh ad creative every two weeks, and exclude users who have already converted.
Is remarketing affected by privacy regulations?
Yes. GDPR in the EU and similar laws require explicit user consent before adding cookies for remarketing.
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