Retargeting & Remarketing
Retargeting that adds sales instead of taking credit for them: segmented by intent, capped so it does not follow people around, and tested to prove it is doing anything at all.
Overview
Retargeting reports the best numbers in most accounts, and a large part of those numbers are borrowed. People who already visited your site, already put something in a basket and already intended to buy are the easiest conversions to claim and the hardest to have actually caused.
The useful version is narrow and tested. Segment by what someone actually did, exclude recent purchasers, cap frequency hard, and run a holdout so you know how much of the reported return is real. Very often the answer is that the top segment is genuinely incremental and the broad one is not.
Who this is for
- Advertisers whose retargeting reports a suspiciously high return
- E-commerce businesses with basket abandonment and no structured recovery
- Companies whose customers complain about being followed by their ads
How we approach retargeting & remarketing
The specific pieces of work a typical engagement covers. Scope is agreed up front — nothing here is a surprise line item later.
Intent-based segmentation
Someone who read one article and someone who abandoned a full basket are different people. Treating them as one audience wastes the second and annoys the first.
Exclusion rules
Recent purchasers, active customers and job applicants excluded. Advertising a product to someone who bought it yesterday is the most visible form of waste there is.
Frequency capping and decay
Hard caps with declining pressure over time, so a visitor from five weeks ago is not still seeing the same advertisement.
Cart and form recovery
Sequenced messaging for abandoned baskets and part-completed forms, coordinated with email so the two are not repeating each other.
Creative sequencing
A different message at each stage. Repeating the same product image is the fastest way to make retargeting feel like surveillance.
Incrementality testing
A holdout that never sees the retargeting, which is the only way to find out what it added rather than what it claimed.
From first call to measured result
The same sequence every time, so you always know what happens next.
Segment
Build audiences from real behaviour, with exclusions and time windows set deliberately rather than left at platform defaults.
Cap
Set frequency limits and decay schedules, then check the actual delivered frequency rather than trusting the setting.
Sequence
Different creative by segment and by stage, coordinated with your email programme.
Test
Run a holdout for long enough to read, then keep the segments that proved incremental and cut the ones that did not.
Outcomes, not deliverables
A pile of artefacts isn't progress. These are the changes the work is meant to produce — and what we report against.
Known incremental value
A holdout turns retargeting from the channel everyone suspects into one with a defensible number.
Less wasted spend
Excluding purchasers and capping frequency usually cuts spend without cutting sales, because the removed impressions were doing nothing.
Advertising that is not creepy
Decay and sequencing stop the pattern that makes customers actively dislike a brand.
Real recovery revenue
Basket and form recovery, coordinated with email, is where the genuinely incremental money in retargeting usually sits.
Common questions about Retargeting & Remarketing
The things people ask before they get in touch. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
Our retargeting shows a huge return. Is that real?
Partly, usually. Retargeting audiences are people already intending to buy, so attribution assigns them generously. A holdout test typically shows real incremental value in the high-intent segments and very little in the broad ones. We would rather find that out than keep reporting a number nobody trusts.
How long should we retarget someone for?
It depends on the purchase cycle. Seven to fourteen days for most e-commerce, longer for considered purchases. Beyond the natural decision window you are paying to remind someone who already decided against it.
How many times should someone see a retargeting ad?
A handful over the window, with declining pressure. Uncapped retargeting is where the reputational damage happens, and the marginal impressions convert almost nobody.
Should retargeting and email say the same thing?
Coordinated, not duplicated. If the abandoned basket email has already gone out, the ad should carry the next message rather than repeat the first one.
Thinking about Retargeting & Remarketing?
Tell us what you are trying to change. If we are not the right fit we will say so, and point you somewhere better.
Looking at the wider picture?
Retargeting & Remarketing usually sits alongside other work in Performance Marketing & Paid Media. Browse the full area to see what it connects to.