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A retargeting strategy is a plan for showing ads to people who already know you but haven’t bought yet: site visitors, people who watched your videos, people who added to cart. Re-engaging people who already showed interest often costs less per result than reaching strangers, because the hard part, getting noticed, already happened. Judge it against your actual outcomes, though, not against the platform’s numbers alone. Some of the people who buy after seeing a retargeting ad would have bought anyway, so reported retargeting conversions aren’t necessarily extra sales.
Done badly, it’s the same ad chasing the same people around the internet for a month. This post is the simple version I’d set up first: three groups of people, one message for each, and clear rules for when to stop.
Key takeaways
- Most online carts are abandoned. Baymard’s average across 50 studies (a list I read in October 2026) puts cart abandonment at about 70%, and some of that is people just browsing (Baymard Institute).
- Group people by how close they got to buying, and say something different to each group.
- Retargeting can cost less per result, but not every attributed sale is an extra one. Keep it small and short. If it’s most of your spend, you have a traffic problem, not a retargeting problem.
Why retargeting works
Very few people buy the first time they see you. They’re busy, they want to compare, or they just weren’t ready. Baymard’s list of reasons shoppers give for leaving a checkout is mostly practical: extra costs, slow delivery, not trusting the site, being forced to make an account (Baymard Institute).
That’s useful. It means a good retargeting ad doesn’t need to shout. It needs to answer the reason they left.
- Saw an ad or postWarm: knows the name
- Visited the siteInterested: looked closer
- Added to cart or enquiredHot: nearly bought
- BoughtCustomer: different message
The three groups to start with
You build these as custom audiences from your pixel, video views and page engagement. Keep it to three groups until you have enough traffic to split further.
| Group | Who’s in it | What they need to hear | Window to start with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warm | Watched a video, engaged with a post or ad | Who you are and why you’re different | Longer (weeks) |
| Interested | Visited product or service pages | The specific product, proof it works, the offer | Medium |
| Hot | Added to cart, started checkout, started a form | The objection that stopped them: cost, delivery, trust, timing | Short (days) |
Leave past buyers out of these groups. They need their own message: a refill, an upgrade, a referral ask. Showing them “Still thinking about it?” after they bought looks careless.
What to say to each group
Warm: give them a reason to look closer
These people know your name, not much more. Show them a different angle from the ad they first saw: a quick demonstration, a customer review (a real one), or the problem you solve said in plain words. The hooks post has openings that work for this.
Interested: answer “is this right for me?”
They looked at a product or service and left. Show them the same product with something new: what’s included, how it works, who it’s for, a real review. If you have more than a few products, a catalogue ad that shows the item they viewed does this automatically.
Hot: remove the reason they left
These people nearly bought. Don’t repeat the ad that brought them in. Answer the objection. If it’s cost, show the total price clearly and what’s included. If it’s trust, show reviews, the returns policy and a real address. If it’s timing, show delivery dates. The same thinking drives abandoned cart emails, and the two should say the same thing.
How long to keep showing ads, and how often
Retargeting audiences are small, so frequency climbs fast. The same person seeing your ad many times in a week starts to tune it out, and then gets annoyed. That’s creative fatigue on a small audience, and it happens quicker here than anywhere else.
Three rules I’d start with:
- Windows match the buying cycle. A quick, cheap purchase gets a short window. A considered purchase gets a longer one.
- Rotate the creative. Two or three ads per group, swapped out when frequency rises and results fall.
- Stop at purchase. Exclude buyers from every retargeting audience so you never pay to sell to someone twice by mistake.
How much budget to give it
Retargeting can only reach people you already brought in. If ten people visit your site a day, your hot audience is tiny no matter how much you spend on it. Extra budget just shows the same ad more often.
That’s why retargeting usually gets a small slice of spend, and most of the budget goes to reaching new people. If you’re unsure how to split it, the Facebook ads budget post walks through test and growth budgets. If retargeting looks like your best campaign by far, be careful: some of those people would have bought anyway. Check total sales, not just the retargeting ROAS.
An example, so you can picture it
This is an illustration, not a client story.
An online store selling kitchen knives gets steady traffic but sees lots of carts left behind. It sets up three audiences. Warm video viewers see a short sharpening demo. Product page visitors see a review ad with the full set and what’s included. Cart abandoners, for a short window, see an ad that shows the total price with shipping and the returns policy, because the store’s own checkout survey says shipping cost is the top reason people leave. Buyers are excluded everywhere and get a separate care-guide ad a month later.
Common mistakes
- One audience, one ad. Everyone who ever visited sees the same ad for months. Split by how close they got.
- Forgetting to exclude buyers. It wastes money and makes the brand look disorganised.
- Windows that are too long. Someone who visited three months ago and didn’t come back isn’t hot any more.
- Counting every retargeting sale as extra. Some would have happened anyway. Look at the whole account, and use the metrics that matter.
- Retargeting instead of fixing the page. If most visitors leave, more ads won’t fix the page they keep leaving. Start with why ads aren’t converting.
Where this fits
Retargeting is a support act. It works when the main campaigns bring in the right people and the site gives them a reason to stay. In a Growth Diagnostic, I look at the whole path, ads, page and follow-up, so you know which part to fix first. If people visit and don’t buy, book a call.
Sources
- Baymard Institute. “Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics.” baymard.com
Questions people ask
What is a retargeting strategy?
A retargeting strategy is a plan for showing ads to people who already interacted with you, such as site visitors, video viewers or people who added to cart, but haven't bought yet. It sets who sees which message, for how long, and when to stop.
How long should a retargeting window be?
Match it to how long people take to decide. A low-cost product might need a week or two. A big purchase or a service might need a month or more. Start with windows that match your buying cycle and shorten them if frequency climbs and results fall.
How much of my budget should go to retargeting?
Usually a small share. Retargeting audiences are only as big as the traffic you already have, so they fill up fast. If retargeting is most of your spend, the real problem is usually not enough new people seeing you.
Is retargeting allowed in Canada?
Yes, with the usual privacy rules for your site: tell visitors in your privacy policy that you use advertising pixels and cookies. Retargeting emails are different. They fall under Canada's anti-spam law, so you need consent and an unsubscribe.