Retargeting

Retargeting (also called remarketing) is a form of online advertising that shows ads specifically to people who already visited a website, using a tracking pixel placed on the site to follow them across other platforms and bring them back to convert. It works because most visitors leave without converting on their first visit, retargeting keeps the brand in front of them afterwards instead of letting that traffic go to waste.

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What is retargeting?

Retargeting relies on a small piece of tracking code, a pixel, installed on a website. When a visitor lands on a page, the pixel drops a cookie or records an identifier that lets ad platforms recognise that visitor later, on social media, other websites, or search results, and show them an ad related to what they viewed. It's different from cold prospecting, which targets people who have never interacted with the brand: retargeting only reaches an audience that has already shown intent by visiting.

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How a retargeting pixel works

A minimal retargeting pixel snippet, added to every page of a site, looks like this:

<script>
  !function(f,b,e,v){...}(window, document,'script',
  'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
  fbq('init', 'PIXEL_ID');
  fbq('track', 'PageView');
</script>

Once fired, the pixel adds the visitor to an audience list on the ad platform. That list can then be targeted with a dedicated campaign, and refined by what the visitor did: viewed a product page, added something to a cart, or visited a pricing page, each triggering a different ad and message.

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Types of retargeting

• Site retargeting: ads shown to anyone who visited the site, the simplest and broadest form.
• Dynamic retargeting: ads showing the exact product or page a visitor viewed, common in ecommerce.
• List / CRM retargeting: ads targeted at an uploaded list of known contacts, such as an email database, rather than site visitors.
• Social retargeting: ads shown specifically on social platforms to people who engaged with a page or previous ad.

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Retargeting vs prospecting

The two campaign types serve different stages of the funnel and shouldn't be measured against each other the same way:

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Best practices and common pitfalls

• Cap frequency: showing the same ad too many times to the same person creates fatigue and can hurt brand perception instead of helping.
• Exclude people who already converted, showing a checkout ad to someone who already bought is wasted spend and can feel intrusive.
• Segment by intent: a visitor who only read a blog post shouldn't see the same aggressive offer as one who abandoned a cart.
• Refresh ad creative regularly, the same retargeting ad repeated for weeks loses effectiveness fast.
• Retargeting only works with visible consent: without accepted advertising cookies, the pixel can't legally track the visitor.

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Why retargeting matters alongside SEO

Organic and content-driven traffic from SEO often converts on a delay, a visitor reads a definitional article or a comparison, then leaves without acting immediately. Retargeting is what recovers that interest: it keeps the brand visible to visitors who found the site organically but didn't convert on the first visit, turning informational search traffic into a second, more commercial touchpoint later.

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Retargeting at BeBranded

At BeBranded, we set up retargeting campaigns to recover the traffic our SEO and content work already brings in, turning visitors who didn't convert on their first visit into a second, better-targeted opportunity. This work is part of our SEO & GEO service.