Remarketing (also called retargeting) is a digital advertising technique that shows targeted ads to users who have previously visited your website or interacted with your brand. When a user visits a page on your site, a tracking cookie or pixel is placed on their device. As they browse other websites, YouTube, or use Google Search, they see your ads — reminding them of your brand and encouraging them to return and convert. Remarketing audiences are among the highest-converting in digital advertising because they target people already familiar with your brand who have demonstrated purchase intent.
Most website visitors do not convert on their first visit — research suggests that 96-98% of first-time visitors leave without taking a desired action. Remarketing captures this otherwise-lost traffic by maintaining brand visibility during the decision-making period after the initial visit. A user who viewed your product page but did not purchase, or who read your service description but did not enquire, is significantly more likely to convert than a cold audience seeing your ad for the first time.
Types of remarketing campaigns
- Standard remarketing — show ads to all previous site visitors across the Google Display Network or Search
- Dynamic remarketing — automatically show ads featuring the specific products or services a user viewed on your site
- Search remarketing (RLSA) — adjust bids or show different ads to previous visitors when they search on Google
- Video remarketing — show YouTube ads to users who have interacted with your YouTube channel or videos
- Customer match — upload customer email lists to target existing customers or prospects with similar attributes
- Similar audiences — target new users with similar profiles to your remarketing lists (remarketing-based lookalike)
- Email remarketing — use Gmail Ads to reach contacts from your CRM email database
Remarketing campaigns consistently outperform cold prospecting campaigns on conversion rate and ROAS. Typical benchmarks: remarketing campaigns see 2-5x higher conversion rates than equivalent prospecting campaigns, lower CPAs, and higher ROAS. The reason is straightforward — the audience has already self-selected interest in your product or service; they just need an additional nudge to return and convert. Dynamic remarketing (showing the exact product viewed) typically outperforms standard remarketing across all metrics.
The optimal remarketing window (how long after a site visit users remain in your remarketing audience) depends on your typical purchase cycle. Products with short decision cycles (food delivery, immediate service bookings) may use 7-day windows. Considered purchases (B2B software, major home improvements) benefit from 30-90 day windows. Default Google Ads remarketing windows are 30 days. Avoid windows longer than your realistic purchase cycle — showing ads to users who visited 180 days ago and long since chose a competitor wastes budget.