How Does Retargeting Work? This popular digital marketing strategy, shows your ads based on previous interactions with your website. Retargeted ads aim to bring back website visitors who didn’t convert the first time. For example, Joe Consumer visits your e-commerce site but doesn’t buy anything, so an ad for your website appears while he’s browsing the web later, hopefully recapturing his interest.
Retargeting works by placing cookies on visitors’ browsers. When they leave to visit another site, automated bids vie for available ad space on that site.
Although e-commerce businesses are the most likely to use this strategy, they’re not alone. Colleges and universities often retarget to boost enrollment and donations, and it’s widely used in the entertainment industry to increase ticket and merchandise sales. In fact, if increasing conversions is your goal, your business might benefit from retargeting too.