What is Retargeting?
Retargeting / Remarketing
Definition
Retargeting (or remarketing) shows ads specifically to people who already visited your website, engaged with your profile or watched your video but didn't convert. Because the audience already knows you, retargeting clicks routinely convert several times better — and cost less — than cold traffic.
Mechanically, a pixel or server-side event tags visitors, building audiences you can re-reach on Meta, Google Display, YouTube and Search. Good retargeting is sequenced: cart abandoners see the product and an incentive, service-page visitors see proof and a consultation offer, past customers see cross-sells — each with frequency caps so you persuade rather than stalk.
Since iOS privacy changes, browser pixels alone miss a large share of visitors; the Conversions API (server-side tracking) restores much of that audience and measurement accuracy.
Example
1,000 people visit a pricing page; 30 enquire. A retargeting campaign shows the other 970 a case-study ad and a limited offer over the next 14 days, recovering 25 more enquiries at a third of the cold-traffic CPL.
Why it matters
95%+ of first-time visitors leave without acting. Retargeting is the cheapest second chance in marketing — small budgets, outsized returns.
In practice they're used interchangeably. Historically "remarketing" was Google's term (including email re-engagement) and "retargeting" meant ad-based re-reach; today both mean re-reaching known audiences with ads.
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