What Is Remarketing? How to Bring Back Prospects Who Didn’t Buy

Every day, many channels bring people to your website: search engines (Google, Bing, and others), social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and more), a website that mentions your products or services, or simply a recommendation from a friend. But visiting your site doesn’t mean they reached the checkout. How do you get them to come back and buy? With remarketing campaigns!

Sometimes it takes very little for a visitor to leave without buying. Maybe they didn’t have their credit card handy, their lunch break just ended, their show came back on right at checkout, or they were running late to pick up the kids from school. Even after all your hard work to bring prospects to your website, they might never come back, for reasons that have nothing to do with you. Fortunately, there’s a way to bring them back: remarketing.

What Is Remarketing?

In short, remarketing is an advertising strategy that targets people who have already visited your website. You’ll also hear it called retargeting. Here’s how it works:

1. A potential customer visits your website.
2. They move on to other sites (news sites, blogs, social media, and so on) and see your ads in different formats (display banners, videos, and more).
3. The ads catch their attention, and they come back to your site.

The Benefits of Remarketing

Remarketing offers businesses plenty of advantages. Here are a few of them.

1. Send a Targeted Message Based on Visitor Behavior

One of the main benefits of remarketing is the ability to show personalized ads based on what each visitor did on your site. Here’s a concrete example: a prospect added a product to their cart but didn’t complete the order. You can show them an attractive, personalized message that encourages them to come back and finish the purchase.

2. Segment Your Visitors Into Different Lists

To make sure people see ads that are relevant to them, you can segment your visitors into different lists:

• People who abandoned a cart
• People who viewed a specific product category
• People who viewed a specific product
• People who spent a certain amount of time on your site

Thanks to this segmentation, you can show prospects personalized messages based on what they did on your site. For ideas, see our list of Google Ads remarketing lists.

3. Reach People Who Are Already Interested

Remarketing has another advantage: it targets only people who have already shown interest in your products or services. In other words, they’re just a small step away from becoming customers. So don’t hesitate to highlight benefits they may have missed, such as free shipping or a limited-time discount.

4. Gain Visibility Across Millions of Sites and Apps

Remarketing ads can appear on millions of websites and apps in Google’s network, as well as on social media. That means you can stay in front of prospects throughout their journey online.

Google Ads, Meta, and Email Remarketing

There are several types of remarketing, and they work even better together: remarketing in Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), on Meta’s platforms (Facebook and Instagram), and by email.

• Google Ads remarketing is the most widely used, because it can show your ads across the Google Display Network, YouTube, and Search. You need the Google tag installed on your site (the same tag used for Google Ads conversion tracking), and a list must reach a minimum size before your ads can serve.
• Meta remarketing is also very effective because your ads appear directly in prospects’ Facebook and Instagram feeds. You need the Meta Pixel on your site, and here too your audience needs a minimum size before ads can run.
• Email remarketing works a little differently: it brings people back to your brand, your website, or the product they left behind with a follow-up email. Getting that email opened is half the battle, so see how to improve email open rates.

One more point for U.S. businesses: remarketing relies on tracking tags and personal data, so make sure your privacy policy, cookie or opt-out settings, and marketing emails follow the CAN-SPAM Act and state privacy laws such as the CCPA/CPRA. This isn’t legal advice; check with your attorney.

Ready to Win Back Your Prospects?

Want to learn more about remarketing, bring lost prospects back, or strengthen your brand image? Référenceur is a French-speaking digital marketing agency based in Belgium and Luxembourg that sets up and manages remarketing campaigns, as part of our PPC agency services, for U.S. businesses remotely, through video calls, shared screens, and monthly reporting. Request a free assessment.