Remarketing 101: Bringing Visitors Back to Your Website

The typical website converts 2-3% of visitors. That means 97-98% leave without taking action.

They were interested enough to visit. Something stopped them from converting. Maybe they were researching. Maybe they got distracted. Maybe they needed time to decide.

Remarketing keeps your business visible to these visitors as they browse other sites, giving you another chance to convert them.

What Is Remarketing?

Remarketing (also called retargeting) shows ads to people who have previously visited your website. When someone visits your site, a cookie is placed in their browser. Later, when they visit other websites in the advertising network, your ads can be shown to them.

You have likely experienced this: visit an e-commerce site, then see that product following you around the internet. That is remarketing.

Why Remarketing Works

Familiarity Builds Trust

Users who have visited your site already know your brand. Remarketing ads do not need to introduce you from scratch. They can focus on moving prospects further toward conversion.

Targeting Qualified Audiences

Everyone in a remarketing audience has demonstrated interest by visiting your site. Compare this to cold advertising where you are guessing who might be interested.

Multiple Touchpoints

Most purchases require multiple touchpoints. Remarketing provides those touchpoints efficiently, staying visible throughout the decision-making process.

Cost Efficiency

Remarketing typically costs less per conversion than cold traffic campaigns:

• Smaller, more qualified audience
• Higher click-through rates
• Higher conversion rates

Setting Up Google Remarketing

Install the Remarketing Tag

Google Ads requires tracking code on your website:

1. In Google Ads, go to Tools & Settings > Audience Manager > Your data sources
2. Set up your Google Ads tag
3. Install the tag on all pages of your website (or use Google Tag Manager)

The tag collects visitors into remarketing lists.

Create Remarketing Lists

Lists segment your audience by behaviour:

All visitors: Everyone who visited your site Product viewers: People who viewed specific products Cart abandoners: People who added to cart but did not purchase Past purchasers: Previous customers Page-specific visitors: People who viewed certain pages Duration-based: Visitors from last 30, 60, or 90 days

Start with broad lists. Create more specific lists as you gather data.

Minimum List Size

Google requires minimum 100 active users for Display remarketing and 1,000 for Search remarketing. Smaller businesses may need to wait to build list size.

Types of Remarketing Campaigns

Display Remarketing

Ads appear on websites across the Google Display Network (millions of sites). These are the “following you around” ads.

Best for:

• Brand awareness during consideration phase
• Reaching large audiences
• Visual products and services

Formats:

• Responsive display ads (recommended)
• Image ads
• Rich media ads

Search Remarketing (RLSA)

Remarketing Lists for Search Ads let you adjust search campaigns for past visitors:

• Bid higher when past visitors search
• Show different ads to past visitors
• Target broader keywords for past visitors (they have qualified themselves)

Best for:

• High-intent searches
• Competitive keywords
• Conversion focus

Dynamic Remarketing

Show ads featuring the specific products or services visitors viewed. An e-commerce visitor who looked at a blue jacket sees an ad for that exact jacket.

Best for:

• E-commerce with product catalogues
• Travel and hospitality
• Real estate listings

Requires product feed setup.

Video Remarketing

Target people who have watched your YouTube videos or visited your channel with ads across Google networks.

Best for:

• Brand building
• Video content strategies
• Awareness campaigns

Customer Match

Upload your customer email list. Google matches these to logged-in users and shows them ads.

Best for:

• Cross-selling to existing customers
• Loyalty campaigns
• Similar audience targeting

Building Effective Remarketing Campaigns

Segment Your Audiences

Different visitors need different messages:

Recent visitors (0-3 days): High intent, fresh memory. Straightforward reminder ads work.

Older visitors (30-60 days): Memory has faded. May need to re-establish value proposition.

Cart abandoners: Address potential objections. Offer incentives if appropriate.

Past customers: Promote new products, upgrades, or repeat purchases.

Specific page visitors: Tailor message to their demonstrated interests.

Craft Appropriate Messaging

Remarketing ad copy should differ from cold ads:

Acknowledge the relationship: “Still looking for…” or “Ready to get started?”

Address objections: If price is a concern, highlight value or payment options.

Create urgency: Limited time offers can prompt action.

Offer incentive: Discount codes or free shipping for returning visitors.

Show social proof: Reviews and testimonials reinforce credibility.

Frequency Capping

Seeing the same ad 50 times is annoying and hurts your brand. Set frequency caps:

• Display campaigns: 3-7 impressions per user per day
• Consider weekly caps as well
• Monitor frequency in reports

Ad Rotation and Freshness

Rotate multiple ad versions:

• Prevents ad fatigue
• Tests different messages
• Keeps experience fresh

Update ads periodically. The same creative for months becomes invisible.

Landing Pages

Where do remarketing clicks go? Proper landing page optimisation is crucial for remarketing success.

General visitors: Homepage or relevant category page Product viewers: Back to the product they viewed Cart abandoners: Back to their cart (if possible) Service page visitors: That service page

Match the destination to the audience and ad message.

Remarketing Best Practices

Respect Privacy and Preferences

• Exclude converted customers (unless appropriate for repeat purchases)
• Exclude obviously uninterested visitors (bounced immediately)
• Comply with privacy regulations
• Consider user experience

Set Appropriate Membership Duration

How long should someone stay in your remarketing list?

Short cycles (7-30 days): Quick purchase decisions, urgent services Medium cycles (30-60 days): Considered purchases, professional services Long cycles (90-180 days): Major purchases, B2B decisions

Match duration to your typical sales cycle.

Bid Adjustments by Audience

Not all remarketing audiences are equal:

• Cart abandoners: Bid higher (very close to conversion)
• Recent visitors: Bid higher (fresher intent)
• Older visitors: Bid lower (weaker intent)
• Multiple visits: Bid higher (strong interest)

Use bid adjustments to weight your budget toward higher-value segments.

Exclusions

Exclude audiences that should not see remarketing:

• Recent converters (give them a break)
• Existing customers (unless running upsell campaigns)
• Employees (waste of budget)
• Poor-fit visitors (if identifiable)

Measuring Remarketing Performance

Key Metrics

View-through conversions: User saw ad, did not click, but converted later. Important for understanding full impact.

Click-through conversions: User clicked ad and converted.

Frequency: Average impressions per user. High frequency can indicate wasted budget or annoying users.

Cost per conversion: The ultimate efficiency measure.

Conversion rate: How often clicks become conversions.

Attribution Considerations

Remarketing appears in the path to conversion but may not be the final click. Consider:

• How remarketing assists other channels
• View-through conversion value
• Overall funnel contribution

Do not evaluate remarketing solely on last-click attribution.

Incrementality

The harder question: would these conversions have happened without remarketing?

Some portion would return anyway. Remarketing’s value is in incremental conversions it drives.

Testing methods:

• Geographic holdout tests
• On/off experiments
• Matched market tests

For smaller advertisers, directional data is often sufficient.

Common Remarketing Mistakes

Showing the Same Ad Forever

Users become blind to static ads. Rotate creative and update regularly.

Remarketing to Everyone Equally

A visitor who spent 30 seconds on your site is different from one who spent 10 minutes reading service pages. Segment and message differently.

Ignoring Frequency

Bombarding users with ads damages brand perception. Cap frequency.

Not Excluding Converters

Showing “Buy now!” ads to someone who just bought is wasteful and potentially annoying.

Generic Messaging

Remarketing ads should acknowledge the visitor’s history. Generic ads waste the targeting advantage.

Short Duration for Long Decisions

A B2B service with 6-month sales cycles should not use 7-day remarketing lists.

Remarketing Beyond Google

Facebook/Meta Remarketing

Facebook Pixel enables similar remarketing on Facebook and Instagram. Often works well alongside Google remarketing.

LinkedIn Remarketing

B2B businesses can remarket to website visitors on LinkedIn. Smaller audience but high-value for professional services.

Email Remarketing

Not display ads, but same principle. Abandoned cart emails are remarketing. Follow-up sequences are remarketing.

Cross-Channel Coordination

Consider how remarketing across channels works together:

• Google Display for broad reach
• Facebook for social engagement
• Email for direct communication

Consistent messaging across channels reinforces conversion.

Getting Started

If you are new to remarketing:

1. Install tracking (Google Ads tag or GA4 with linking)
2. Build your audience (wait for sufficient list size)
3. Start with all visitors list
4. Create simple, relevant ads
5. Set reasonable frequency caps
6. Monitor and optimise based on data
7. Segment audiences as you learn what works

Start simple. Add sophistication as you understand what works for your business.

The Opportunity

Most businesses spend significant money driving traffic to their website, then let 97%+ of those visitors disappear forever.

Remarketing lets you extend the value of that traffic investment. You have already paid to get them to your site. Remarketing is often the most cost-effective way to convert them.

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Need help with remarketing campaigns? Platform21 sets up and manages remarketing campaigns that convert previous visitors into customers. Get in touch or explore our Google Ads management to discuss your remarketing strategy.

Related Articles:

• Google Ads for Tradies: Getting Started Without Wasting Money
• Understanding Quality Score and Why It Affects Your Ad Costs
• Landing Page Mistakes That Kill Your Google Ads ROI