With retargeting campaigns, it’s possible to repeatedly hit the same users to move them up the conversion funnel until they become loyal customers. In the rest of this article, we’ll look at what exactly retargeting is and how to use it to benefit your brand and business.

What is retargeting?

Retargeting (also known as remarketing) is a digital marketing technique that is based on returning advertising impact to users who have already interacted with a brand. The most common example is users who have already visited a website, but this is not the only possibility: it is also possible to remarket to users who have already opened a brand’s emails, for example.

How does retargeting work?

For retargeting to work properly, two elements must be present and properly configured: cookies and lists. Cookies are small pieces of information sent by a website and stored in the user’s browser, so that the website can view your previous activity.
The fact that they are stored in the browser implies a series of limitations that prevent from having all the information about a user: you can use different browsers (or several users share the same one). Currently, more and more progress is being made to overcome these limitations and allow advertising that works across different devices.

How to set up retargeting

In order for retargeting to bring you good results, it is necessary to use this marketing strategy through multiple channels.

Display advertising

When visiting certain websites, the user sees banners from your brand, perhaps with personalized messages based on the products or services they are interested in.

Advertising on social networks

Social network advertising interfaces, such as Facebook Ads, allow you to use the information you already have about users to target ads only to those who have already interacted with your brand.

E-mail marketing

For example, retargeting can work via personalized mailings to users who have already purchased from your site.

What are the benefits of retargeting?

For brands, retargeting has many benefits:

  • A very high return on investment (ROI), as campaigns target a limited but potentially very interested audience. According to some sources, the ROI of these campaigns is about 300%
  • A possibility to do a very specific branding, because you can deepen the brand knowledge of the users who have already been in contact with you;
  • Great segmentation possibilities, as you can target ads to specific user behaviors
  • Reinforcement at all stages of the conversion funnel, because you can hit the user repeatedly along the way.