What is remarketing?
Remarketing is a digital marketing technique that helps you reconnect with people who have already shown an interest in your brand. You target ads at people who have, for example, visited your website, clicked on a social media post or interacted with a previous ad message. The aim is to keep their interest and guide them towards a specific action, such as a purchase, a sign-up flow or another conversion.
In other words, you use remarketing to bridge the gap between curiosity and action. You remind potential customers of what they've previously looked at or engaged with, and you do it across the platforms they already use — from the Google Display Network to social media such as Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
How do you use remarketing?
You activate remarketing by placing a small piece of code, often called a tag or a pixel, on your website. The tag stores an anonymous cookie in the user's browser, which makes it possible to identify that they have visited a specific area of your site. When the user later moves around online, you can use platforms such as Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager or LinkedIn Campaign Manager to show targeted ads based on their previous behaviour.
This means you don't just reach people once, but continue the conversation with them. For example, you can show a product they previously added to their basket, or follow-up content that matches their interest. When you also link the strategy to social media marketing or content production, you can create consistency between the creative style and the ad messages the user sees across channels.
Why you should use remarketing
Remarketing is effective because it focuses on people who have already shown an interest in buying. Instead of spending budget on completely new audiences, you invest in retaining existing leads, who often have a shorter path to conversion. This both reduces waste and improves your ROI. At the same time, your communication becomes more relevant, because the messages are tailored to the user's previous interactions.
The technique works as a complement to broader channels such as SEO and branding, where the aim is typically to build visibility and trust. Remarketing takes over when the user already knows you, and helps you turn traffic into actual results. You do this by tailoring your ad content to support whichever stage of the customer journey the user has reached.
What types and variants are there?
- Display remarketing: Visual ads on display networks such as Google's, where you reach previous visitors with graphic messages.
- Search remarketing (RLSA): Search ads that change the bidding strategy, copy and message for users who already know your brand.
- Dynamic remarketing: Dynamic ads that automatically show the specific products the user has previously looked at.
- Email and SMS remarketing: Direct messages based on data from your CRM system, where you communicate with users you already have a relationship with.
- Cross-channel remarketing: Campaigns that connect data and messages across social platforms, search and display networks.
Although many people use the terms remarketing and retargeting interchangeably, some specialists see remarketing as a broader discipline that also includes direct communication such as email automation, while retargeting is often used for ads shown to anonymous visitors via cookies.
How do you use remarketing in practice?
You get the most out of remarketing when you work strategically with data and targeting. Start by building segments based on behaviour — for example, users who have visited a specific product area but haven't completed a purchase. Then design ads that respond to their particular challenge or next step. That could be a discount code, a product demo or an inspiring blog post.
You can also connect the campaigns to your existing data from Google Analytics or advertising tools such as HubSpot, so you get a complete overview of how audiences move between channels. When you combine remarketing with a well-thought-out content strategy and digital design, you create a far more consistent style across touchpoints and increase the likelihood of conversion.
A simple example:
What should you be aware of?
Balancing personalisation and frequency takes careful thought. If you show the same ads too often, it can cause fatigue in your audience and, at worst, push users away. That's why you should always work with frequency capping and exclusion lists, so your messages stay relevant. You should also test different messages and visual formats through A/B testing to find the combination that performs best.
At the same time, make sure you follow current consent rules and cookie policies, so your data collection is transparent. When you combine strategic planning, creative execution and ongoing performance analysis, you get the most out of remarketing as an integrated part of your overall digital strategy.
