What is retargeting?

Retargeting needs a record of who interacted with you. On Meta's platforms, that record is a custom audience. Meta lets you build custom audiences from your own sources, such as website visitors tracked by the Meta pixel, app activity or an uploaded customer list, and from engagement on its apps, such as people who watched your videos, engaged with your Instagram professional account or interacted with your Facebook Page.

You then pick that audience when you create an ad. Most other major ad platforms offer similar audiences built from website visitors, engagement or customer lists, using their own tracking code.

Match the message to what the person already did:

• Visited a product or service page: show that product, answer a common question or mention delivery or booking times.
• Watched most of a video: show the next step, such as a booking offer or a customer story.
• Engaged with your Instagram or Facebook: invite them to an event, a launch or a first-visit offer.
• Past customers (from a customer list, with the right consent): announce a new range or a refill reminder.
• Exclude people who already bought, so you don't pay to show them the same thing.

Retargeting relies on tracking and personal data, so privacy law applies. Privacy laws in many places, including the UK and EU, generally require people's consent before advertising cookies and pixels are used, and customer lists should only be uploaded if you have the right to use them that way. Platforms also limit some audience types for sensitive categories. Check your own legal position, and say in your privacy policy how you use advertising tools.

Retargeting needs enough people to work. A website with very few visitors won't build a useful audience, so put effort into reaching new people first. Don't show the same ad to the same person for weeks: it gets annoying fast. Set a time window, refresh the creative and stop when it no longer brings results. And avoid ads that feel like you are watching people, such as naming exactly what they looked at in a sensitive category.