Most visitors leave a website without buying anything or sending an inquiry. Remarketing – showing ads again to people who have already visited you – reminds them not to pass you by. But that doesn’t mean it pays off for everyone, every time. In this article, you’ll learn when to invest in it, how to set it up so it doesn’t annoy people, and how to tell whether it’s actually making money.
Remarketing in a nutshell
When someone visits your website, the ad system remembers them (with their cookie consent) and adds them to an audience. Later, you can show them ads on Google, YouTube, Facebook or Instagram. You’ll often hear the term retargeting too – in practice, it’s the same thing. You’ll find a more detailed explanation in our article How remarketing works.
When remarketing pays off
You have enough traffic
Remarketing only works with people who have already come to your site. If only a few dozen people visit your website each month, the audience will be too small – ad systems have a minimum list size below which they won’t show ads at all. In that case, focus on getting people to your website first.
Your customers take longer to decide
A more expensive product, a custom service or a B2B project – people compare offers and talk it over at home or with colleagues. Remarketing keeps you in front of them while they decide. For example, when someone looks at an offer for a timber-frame house, a few days later you can show them testimonials and an invitation to a site visit.
You run an online store with abandoned carts
Someone who added products to their cart and left is the most interested of all your visitors. A reminder of a specific product is one of the most straightforward forms of advertising. If you have the customer’s email address, combine the ad with an email reminder.
Your customers buy repeatedly
Cosmetics, pet food, coffee, filters or spare parts – when a customer is running low, a well-timed ad can trigger the next purchase before they go to a competitor.
You pay for traffic from other ads
If you’re already investing in Google or Meta ads, remarketing helps make sure people who didn’t buy right away don’t get lost. The money you put into that first visit then has a better chance of coming back.
When remarketing is more of a waste
- Your website gets minimal traffic and the audience never fills up.
- You offer a one-off service people need immediately and only once in many years, such as towing.
- People leave because of a problem on your website – slow loading, unclear pricing, a complicated cart. Ads won’t fix that, so fix your website first.
- You don’t have conversion tracking set up, so you can’t tell whether remarketing brings in anything.
If you suspect the problem is your website, read our article 5 invisible reasons why visitors leave your website without buying.
How to set up remarketing so it works
- Sort out cookie consent. Remarketing works with visitor data, so you need their consent and a properly set up cookie banner. Without it, you risk GDPR trouble and your audience will be needlessly small.
- Segment your audience by interest. Show one ad to someone who only saw the homepage and another to someone who had products in their cart.
- Exclude people who have already bought, unless you want to offer them something else. Nothing is more annoying than an ad for something you’ve already bought.
- Set audience membership duration to match how long people take to decide. For everyday goods, days to weeks are enough; for more expensive services, even several months.
- Cap the frequency. An ad that follows people at every turn hurts your brand more than it helps.
- Create ads for specific situations. Remind people of the product, show reviews, address concerns (shipping, warranty, installments). Don’t lead with a discount – many people will buy without one.
- Use multiple platforms. Google and Meta each have their own remarketing, and each one catches people in a different situation.
Example: remarketing for a smaller online store
Imagine an online store selling coffee and accessories. A sensible setup could look like this:
- Abandoned cart – people from the last few days see an ad with the product they had in their cart, along with shipping information.
- Product views – people from the last few weeks see the best-selling coffees and customer reviews.
- Existing customers – after a while, when they’re probably running out of coffee, they get an offer to restock or try a new variety.
- Exclusion – anyone who bought a few days ago doesn’t see ads for the same thing.
Each audience has its own ad and goal. That way, you know exactly which part of your remarketing makes money and which needs adjusting.
What to measure and how to evaluate it
- Cost per acquisition (CPA) – how much one order or inquiry from remarketing costs you.
- ROAS – how many euros in revenue each euro spent on ads brings in. You can calculate it quickly with our ROAS calculator.
- Conversion rate of your remarketing campaigns compared to your other campaigns.
- Frequency – how many times, on average, one person has seen your ad.
Watch out for one trap: remarketing loves to take credit for purchases that would have happened anyway. If you want to know its real contribution, temporarily exclude part of the audience from the ads and compare whether that group buys less.
Frequently asked questions
What budget do I need for remarketing?
Usually smaller than for attracting new visitors, because the audience is limited. Your budget depends on the size of the audience and how often you want to show them ads.
Is remarketing the same as retargeting?
In practice, yes. Google uses the word remarketing, other platforms use retargeting. It makes no difference to how it works or the results.
How long should someone see remarketing ads?
Roughly as long as they usually take to decide. For everyday goods, days to a few weeks; for more expensive services, even months – always with a reasonably capped frequency.
Does remarketing work without cookie consent?
You can’t add people who haven’t consented to advertising cookies to a remarketing audience. That’s why a clear cookie banner is worth having. You can also reach existing customers by email if they’ve given you consent.
Remarketing that makes money
Want to know whether remarketing pays off for you? We’ll look at your traffic and campaigns and suggest a setup that makes sense – in an account that’s yours. See how we do Google Ads.
