{"id":34884,"date":"2018-07-26T06:29:30","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T06:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lvh.me\/blog\/2018\/07\/26\/what-is-remarketing-and-how-does-it-work-types-and-examples\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T12:38:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T12:38:51","slug":"remarketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/blog\/2018\/07\/26\/remarketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Remarketing: what it is, how it works, types and examples"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you have, or want to build, a profitable business or professional activity online, \u201cconversion\u201d will be one of your business\u2019s top priorities. And don\u2019t let anyone sell you a pig in a poke.<\/p>\n\n

To turn visitors into customers, working on your pages\u2019 ranking in Google won\u2019t be enough. You\u2019ll also need to run remarketing actions, no ifs or buts.<\/p>\n\n

Those of us who work in SEO are more than used to seeing cases where traffic from new visitors brings very low conversion rates. Here I\u2019m relying on statistics that have a simple explanation:<\/p>\n\n

\u201cNot everyone who arrives for the first time makes a purchase decision.Even less so if you\u2019re not doing everything you should in terms of communication and website usability.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

While it\u2019s true that the Internet gives us all the tools we need to make a lot of money, you need the right knowledge and, above all, you need to know which path to follow. Keep in mind that:<\/p>\n\n

    \n
  1. Your website is a digital shop window and should therefore convey a faithful image of what your business stands for.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Your web content should include keywords based on what your target audience searches for.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Your whole online communication strategy has to take into account the different stages your visitors go through before they become your customers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    With this in mind, today I\u2019m going to talk to you about remarketing as a way to reconnect with your visitors and make the most of every euro you\u2019ve invested in SEO<\/a> or online advertising (among other things).<\/p>\n\n

    To do so, we\u2019ll look at what remarketing is, each and every one of its advantages, how you can apply it depending on the tools you use for online advertising and, finally, some success stories so you can see that all of this really works.<\/p>\n\n\n

    What is remarketing?<\/h2>\n\n

    Although the introduction has already given you a good idea, here I want to give you a more precise definition of what remarketing is:<\/p>\n\n

    \u201cRemarketing is a set of highly effective marketing actions or techniques whose goal is to encourage conversion. This is achieved by creating segmented ads for an audience that has already interacted with you once, for example through a website visit, a download or a subscription.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n

    Seen this way, there should be no doubt that segmentation is essential to getting results and should therefore be another of your priorities if you don\u2019t yet use it in your digital marketing strategy.<\/p>\n\n

    Something you should know, and that I\u2019m already applying myself to get my blog ready, is that from May this year things will change a little regarding how we must handle our users\u2019 emails and data.<\/p>\n\n

    And what do I mean by this?<\/strong> That in May the GDPR, the European Union\u2019s data protection regulation, comes into force, and one of its particular features affects us if we want to do remarketing legally:<\/p>\n\n

    \u201cUnder the GDPR, you can\u2019t run email remarketing actions to recover carts or announce offers unless the user has given their prior consent.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

    \"Illustration<\/figure>\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n

    Advantages of online remarketing<\/h2>\n\n

    Legal aspects aside, let\u2019s get back to the advantages of remarketing. The most obvious one has already been mentioned more than once: its main goal is none other than helping you get a better ROI from your visibility campaigns and, more specifically, from your online advertising.<\/p>\n\n

    But that\u2019s not all: as well as increasing your sales rate by turning more users into customers, you\u2019ll be able to do it at a lower cost.<\/p>\n\n

    That all sounds great, doesn\u2019t it? But\u2026 what if I told you that remarketing also has many other benefits based on segmentation?<\/p>\n\n

    By analyzing your visitors\u2019 behavior and applying this technique, you can strengthen things like:<\/p>\n\n

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    1. Brand recall in the digital consumer\u2019s mind.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Building a custom audience you can reach with the perfect offer.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. The ideal frequency for approaching users without \u201charassing\u201d them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    4. Optimizing KPIs such as CPC, cost per ad or cost per impression.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    5. Launching other complementary actions such as cross-selling.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
      \n

      Win back your visitors by email<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Collect their details with forms and get back in touch with them using Mailrelay newsletters and automations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
      Create a free account<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

      The difference between remarketing and retargeting<\/h2>\n\n

      In reality, there isn\u2019t much difference between these concepts when we talk about online actions, since remarketing also covers actions carried out offline.<\/p>\n\n

      So we could say that remarketing is a broader concept than retargeting, and that for our purposes either term would do.<\/p>\n\n

      If you search the Internet for a definition of retargeting, you\u2019ll find very similar descriptions that refer to its use for reaching specific users who have already shown some kind of activity, tracked through cookies, a tag or a pixel placed on a website.<\/p>\n\n

      \u201cOnline, retargeting or remarketing is equivalent to running online advertising segmented on the basis of data about potential customers.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

      In other words, both concepts refer to advertising aimed at a custom audience that already has some interest in a brand, product or service.<\/p>\n\n

      \"how<\/figure>\n\n

      <\/p>\n\n

      Today the two terms are used almost as synonyms. If there\u2019s one nuance to point out, it\u2019s this:<\/p>\n\n

      <\/th>Remarketing<\/th>Retargeting<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
      Origin of the term<\/td>Google Ads calls it remarketing<\/td>Used by Meta, LinkedIn and most platforms<\/td><\/tr>
      Scope<\/td>Any action to get back in touch: ads, email, SMS<\/td>Mainly ads for people who visited your website or app<\/td><\/tr>
      Most common channel<\/td>Ads and email<\/td>Ads on websites and social media<\/td><\/tr>
      Example<\/td>An email to someone who left a cart half-finished<\/td>An ad for the product you looked at yesterday<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n

      Types of remarketing<\/h2>\n\n

      Depending on the channel and the information you use, there are several types of campaigns:<\/p>\n\n

      Type<\/th>How it works<\/th>Example<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
      Standard (display)<\/td>Ads on other websites for people who visited yours<\/td>A banner for your store on a news website<\/td><\/tr>
      Dynamic<\/td>The ad shows the specific products each person viewed<\/td>The sneakers you looked at, with their price<\/td><\/tr>
      Search<\/td>Different bids when a past visitor searches on Google<\/td>Your ad shows up first when they search for \u201chotel in Seville\u201d again<\/td><\/tr>
      Video<\/td>Ads for people who watched your videos<\/td>A YouTube ad for people who watched your tutorial<\/td><\/tr>
      On social media<\/td>Custom audiences on Meta, LinkedIn or TikTok<\/td>An Instagram ad for someone who visited your pricing page<\/td><\/tr>
      Email<\/td>Messages to contacts who are already on your list<\/td>The abandoned cart email<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n
      \"How<\/figure>\n\n

      How does online remarketing work?<\/h2>\n\n

      Although I\u2019ve already told you above about the benefits of remarketing, there\u2019s something I haven\u2019t mentioned yet: the different online advertising tools we have give us more and more options for running segmented actions like these.<\/p>\n\n

      That\u2019s why, so you understand how all this works, in this section we\u2019ll look at the most widely used online tools for remarketing, along with some real examples of success stories.<\/p>\n\n

      Remarketing tools and uses<\/h3>\n\n

      Remarketing lets us take another \u201cshot\u201d at people who have already visited us, through ads. And this is possible thanks to very popular tools such as Google AdWords<\/a> and social media, but also through an email marketing<\/a> strategy (having asked for explicit consent).<\/p>\n\n

      While Google AdWords isn\u2019t the only tool developed for this purpose, it was one of the pioneers, as it was designed for:<\/p>\n\n

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      1. Display remarketing, for users who have already visited a website.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      2. Dynamic remarketing, for people who abandoned a cart and\/or viewed a particular product.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      3. Remarketing for searches on specific keywords.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      4. Remarketing based on YouTube video views.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      5. Remarketing to reach audiences similar to the one that has already interacted with you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

        Currently, in Google AdWords you\u2019ll find the \u201cRemarketing\u201d option after selecting the type of audience for your ad group in the \u201cAudiences\u201d > \u201cEdit audiences\u201d section.<\/p>\n\n

        \"Setting<\/figure>\n\n

        <\/p>\n\n

        We\u2019ve also gradually seen social networks themselves add these kinds of options to their platforms for creating social ads. For example, we can launch remarketing campaigns using:<\/p>\n\n

          \n
        1. Google AdWords ads.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        2. Facebook Ads dynamic ads.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        3. Twitter Ads tailored audiences.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

          With any of these options, you can create your ads based on different goals and the type of user you\u2019re targeting. For example:<\/p>\n\n

            \n
          1. To promote your flagship product or service to people who have already visited your website.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          2. To close sales with people who were about to buy during certain seasons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          3. To promote products to people who have already subscribed to a newsletter.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          4. To boost the number of upgrades or in-app purchases among users who have already downloaded your app.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

            In addition, specifically for ecommerce, where remarketing is a highly effective technique, you can build lists based on:<\/p>\n\n

              \n
            1. Users who have viewed certain product details in the catalog.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            2. Users who have added products to or removed them from the cart.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            3. Users who have applied discount coupons.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

              A good practical example of ecommerce remarketing would be a campaign built around cart tracking that combines Google AdWords and Google Analytics. This lets us:<\/p>\n\n

                \n
              1. Analyze and understand the returns rate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              2. Detect what\u2019s going wrong on our website.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              3. Act on the conversion funnel with effective practices.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

                If an online store isn\u2019t running remarketing campaigns, every user who browses it (whether or not they become a customer) will never hear from it again once their visit is over.<\/p>\n\n

                However, thanks to online remarketing and cookies stored in browsers, these users can keep seeing ads related to offers that interest them, which considerably increases the chances of them buying again.<\/p>\n\n

                So, for all this to be possible, the online store must have installed the corresponding HTML code or tag to register those cookies.<\/p>\n\n

                Finally, so I don\u2019t go on too long, I\u2019ll just mention that Facebook Ads and Twitter Ads also get their slice of the pie in all this.<\/p>\n\n

                For example, in Power Editor on the Facebook Ads platform, in the \u201cAudiences\u201d section, you can already find the different options for creating a custom audience.<\/p>\n\n

                \"Facebook<\/figure>\n\n

                <\/p>\n\n

                \"Options<\/figure>\n\n

                <\/p>\n\n

                Briefly, here are some particular features of remarketing with:<\/p>\n\n

                Facebook custom audiences and dynamic ads<\/strong>. For these you\u2019ll need to add a pixel to your destination site or install the Facebook SDK in your app. You may also need to get to know Meta Business Suite and its product catalog in depth.<\/p>\n\n

                X (formerly Twitter) tailored audiences<\/strong>. For these you\u2019ll need to set up tracking for a list of Twitter users who visit your website by adding a conversion tag to your site. These lists let you send personalized messages in your Twitter Ads remarketing campaigns.<\/p>\n\n

                \"remarketing<\/figure>\n\n

                <\/p>\n\n

                Related posts:<\/p>\n\n