What is retargeting (and how is it different from remarketing)?
Retargeting or remarketing?
An ad-tech vendor that sells retargeting draws a line: retargeting for paid ads to anonymous visitors, remarketing for known contacts through owned channels such as email2. The same post says the two terms are often used interchangeably. It is one vendor's convention, not a strict definition. Google uses remarketing for its ad feature.
Our convention: retargeting means ads to people who already visited your site or app. We use remarketing only for Google's feature names, such as dynamic remarketing, or when we quote a source.
Why does retargeting need a hard look?
The audience already knows you. Many of them were close to buying. When one of them orders after seeing a retargeting ad, the platform credits the ad. That credit and the cause are different things.
Example (illustrative): A retargeting campaign is credited with 100 orders. Without the ads, 60 of those people would have ordered anyway. The ads caused 40. The credit was 100. The difference is incrementality: the extra sales caused by a marketing activity, over and above what would have happened without it.
Related is cannibalisation: paid activity taking credit for sales that would have arrived anyway by another route. For the full argument, read is retargeting incremental.
Our view: judge retargeting on the orders it adds, not the orders it is credited with.
Worked example
Easily confused with
Retargeting vs Remarketing
Google's name for the same kind of ads. Some vendors use it for email instead.
Retargeting vs Custom audience
A Meta targeting option that finds people you already have a connection with, using customer lists, website or app traffic, or engagement on Meta. It is one way to build a retargeting audience.
Retargeting vs Cart abandonment rate
The share of carts that do not turn into a purchase. Retargeting is one response to it, not the same measure.
Buzzword alert
"Retargeting is our best-performing channel"
Usually means: the platform credits it with the most revenue per euro, from people who already knew you.
Ask: are existing customers excluded from this audience?
"It recovers abandoned carts"
Usually means: some shoppers who left came back after an ad.
Ask: how long after the abandoned cart does the ad still get credit?
FAQ
Is retargeting the same as remarketing?
Mostly. Google uses remarketing for its feature. Some vendors reserve remarketing for email. We say retargeting for ads.
Does retargeting always work?
Not always. Some of the people it reaches would have bought anyway. A test against a group that sees no ads shows how many.
Sources
Let’s find what’s actually working.
Next step. Check what your retargeting return means for profit with the Is your ROAS real? calculator.