Retargeting tips: how it works and where it goes wrong

If you search Google's help pages for remarketing, you'll find it under a new name. Google says that what it used to call "remarketing" is now referred to as "your data", and that audience types are now called audience segments. So in Google Ads, retargeting lists live under your data segments.

Google describes the purpose as re-engaging people who have previously interacted with your brand or services. The main ways to use your data include:

• Website visitors. Show ads to past visitors as they browse sites and apps on the Display Network.
• Search. Show ads to past visitors as they do follow-up searches on Google after leaving your website.
• YouTube users. Reach people who interacted with your videos or channel.
• App users. Reach people who used your mobile app, once data collection is enabled for it.

Google also offers remarketing ads that feature the specific products or services people viewed on your site or app.

Google's case for using your data is timing. It says you can show ads to people who've previously interacted with your business right when they're searching elsewhere and are more likely to make a purchase.

The fastest way to sour a warm prospect is to show them the same ad over and over. Google offers frequency capping, which it defines as a feature that limits the number of times your Display or Video ads appear to the same person.

For Display campaigns, you can cap impressions per person per day, week or month, at the campaign, ad group or ad level. For Video campaigns, caps apply at the campaign level, to impressions, views or both. Google says that once a person reaches the cap, it stops showing them that campaign's ads. For Display caps, Google uses third-party cookies by default and, when those aren't available, first-party cookies to approximate impressions. Set a cap from day one.

If someone just became a customer, showing them an ad for the thing they bought wastes money and can feel careless. Exclude converters. Google notes that you can add exclusions for your data segments and custom segments, which makes it practical to keep recent buyers out of a campaign aimed at prospects. Set the exclusion window to match your buying cycle, such as the weeks after a purchase when a repeat sale is unlikely.

A person who read your pricing page is closer to a decision than someone who skimmed one blog post. Treat them differently. Build separate lists for high-intent pages, such as pricing, booking or contact pages, and write ads that answer the question those visitors likely had. For stores, product-based remarketing ads do part of this work by featuring the specific products people viewed. Google also offers engaged audiences, which it says automatically create a list of users who have engaged with your website and add it to your data segments.

Retargeting audiences can be small, so budgets behave in ways that surprise people. Google explains that on any given day, spend can exceed your average daily budget by up to 2 times, which it calls overdelivery. Over a month, though, you won't be charged more than your monthly charging limit: the average number of days in a month, 30.4, times your daily budget. Judge retargeting spend by the month, not by one busy day. Start each retargeting campaign with a modest daily budget, and watch the monthly total before you raise it.

Retargeting relies on knowing that someone visited your site, so be transparent about it. The FTC's online advertising guidance, in its note to app developers, says basic truth-in-advertising and privacy principles apply and stresses being transparent about your privacy practices. The same spirit applies to retargeting. Make sure your privacy policy explains your use of advertising cookies, and use any consent tools your markets require.

Tone matters too. An ad that reminds someone of a product is fine. An ad that makes them feel watched isn't. Keep retargeting copy general and helpful, and let the timing do the work. If a visitor declined advertising cookies, respect that choice, even if it shrinks your list.

1. Find remarketing under your data segments in Google Ads.
2. Set frequency caps before launch.
3. Exclude recent customers.
4. Build separate lists for high-intent pages.
5. Judge spend by the monthly limit.
6. Explain your advertising cookies in your privacy policy.
7. Refresh your ads every few weeks so the same people don't keep seeing the same creative.

Retargeting works best as a polite reminder. Keep it relevant, keep it limited, and stop when the person has already said yes.