Retargeting (also called 'remarketing' on Google) is showing ads to people who already had some interaction with your brand — visited a product page, added to cart, abandoned a checkout, or signed up to your newsletter. They're the warmest paid audience available, which is why retargeting consistently outperforms cold prospecting on every conversion-rate metric.
How it works
You define an audience based on a behaviour: 'everyone who viewed product X in the last 30 days', 'everyone who added to cart but didn't purchase in the last 7 days'. The platform tracks those users via the Meta Pixel or GA4 + Google Ads Tag, and serves your ads back to that segment.
Typical ranges
- Retargeting ROAS is usually 3–5× better than cold prospecting on the same offer
- Retargeting CPMs are usually 2–3× higher (smaller audience, more competition)
- Cart abandonment retargeting converts 4–8× higher than generic site retargeting
- Retargeting frequency above ~7 impressions per user per week starts producing ad fatigue — see frequency cap
Common misuses
- Treating retargeting as 'easy ROAS' and over-spending on it. Retargeting is a finishing tool — it doesn't fill the top of the funnel.
- Showing the same ad creative for weeks to a tiny audience — guaranteed ad fatigue
- iOS 14.5+ has shrunk Meta retargeting audiences by 40–80% for most accounts; first-party data (newsletter list, customer list, server-side conversion API) backfills what the pixel lost