Remarketing vs Retargeting: Key Differences Explained

Terms like “remarketing” and “retargeting” are fairly common when it comes to digital marketing. Sometimes, they’re even used interchangeably. However, they’re both distinct strategies with unique goals and implementations. Both are essential for reconnecting with your audience and driving conversions, but choosing the right one requires an understanding of their nuances.

So in this article, we’ll break down the differences between remarketing and retargeting, discuss their applications, and guide you in deciding which strategy fits your marketing goals.

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Definition of Remarketing and Retargeting

Let’s first start by defining what remarketing and retargeting are.

Remarketing focuses on re-engaging existing customers or leads by sending targeted emails or messages, typically based on prior interactions. It’s a nurturing strategy aimed at people who’ve already shown interest in your brand, making it a vital tool for boosting customer retention and increasing lifetime value.

Retargeting, on the other hand, uses display ads to reach users who’ve interacted with your website but haven’t converted. It involves placing cookies or tracking pixels to serve relevant ads to these users as they browse other websites or social platforms, bringing them back to your site to complete the desired action.

Target Audience and Reach Comparison

Understanding the target audience and reach of your campaigns is critical to maximizing their effectiveness. Remarketing and retargeting are two distinct strategies designed to reconnect with users, but they target different groups and use different methods.

Remarketing

Remarketing targets your existing audience, including customers or leads who have subscribed to your email list, downloaded an eBook, or interacted with your brand in the past. This approach is ideal for reactivating dormant customers or encouraging repeat purchases.

Retargeting

Retargeting focuses on a broader, yet specific audience–typically, website visitors who didn’t convert. These individuals might have browsed a product page or added items to their cart but left without completing a purchase.

By distinguishing between the focused approach of remarketing and the broader reach of retargeting, you can better align your campaigns with your business goals. Remarketing is ideal for deepening connections with known customers, while retargeting helps capture new opportunities by converting site visitors into leads or buyers. Understanding your audience’s needs and behavior will guide you in selecting the most effective strategy or combining both for a well-rounded marketing approach.

Ad Content and Customization Variations

The messaging and visuals used in remarketing and retargeting differ based on audience intent and behavior.

Remarketing

Remarketing ads and emails often use personalized offers, reminding users of their previous interactions. Examples include:

• Discounts for items a user browsed.
• Upsell or cross-sell opportunities.
• Personalized recommendations based on past purchases.

Retargeting

Retargeting focuses on capturing attention with visual ads that highlight previously viewed products or services. Dynamic ads play a crucial role here, as they showcase specific items the user interacted with, often alongside scarcity messages like “Only 3 left in stock!”.

Remarketing and retargeting differ in their ad content and customization. Remarketing uses personalized offers, like discounts or recommendations, to re-engage known users via email or ads. Retargeting captures attention with dynamic visual ads showcasing products previously viewed, often incorporating scarcity messages to prompt action, targeting undecided website visitors.

Personalization Differences In Both Strategies

A key difference between retargeting vs remarketing is the use of personalization. When remarketing towards previous customers, there is much more scope for personalized content. Retargeting is harder to personalize, because you are targeting visitors who you have limited information on.

Personalization in remarketing

When remarketing products or services to existing customers, it’s possible that you may have all kinds of information on your customers that you can use to personalize your emails. This is particularly the case if customers had to create an account with you or if you have talked to your customers in person. Methods of personalization to consider when remarketing could include:

• Addressing customers by their name
• Referencing products and services that they have already bought
• Sending out emails during times of the year when customers have previously bought products
• Sending out exclusive birthday discounts, if you know their date of birth.

Personalization in retargeting

When retargeting previous website visitors who have not previously bought your product or used your service, there is not much data that you can use to personalize offers. Displaying adverts related to products or web pages that a user may have interacted with is the best way to personalize retargeted ads. By using tracking pixels, you can target these previous visitors. Examples of personalized retargeted ads could include:

• Adverts showing products that a customer previously looked at
• Adverts showing products that a customer abandoned in their shopping cart

Platforms and Tools for Remarketing vs Retargeting

Platforms for Remarketing

• Google Ads: Use remarketing lists to create email campaigns.
• Email Marketing Tools: Platforms like Mailchimp and HubSpot are designed for segmenting and automating remarketing efforts.
• CRM Systems: Salesforce or Zoho CRM helps track customer data for effective remarketing.

Platforms for Retargeting

• Google Display Network (GDN): Display ads across millions of websites.
• Social Media Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn offer robust retargeting options.
• Third-Party Tools: AdRoll and Criteo provide cross-platform retargeting solutions.

The technical requirements for implementing remarketing and retargeting differ based on the nature of each strategy.

Remarketing relies heavily on email lists and robust CRM integration to effectively track customer interactions and segment audiences. Tools like Salesforce or HubSpot streamline this process by organizing customer data, enabling businesses to send personalized campaigns.

In contrast, retargeting depends on cookies, tracking pixels, or device IDs to monitor user behavior across websites. These tracking mechanisms allow advertisers to deliver targeted display ads to users, ensuring that their brand remains top-of-mind as potential customers navigate the web.

Conversion Rates and ROI Analysis

Both remarketing and retargeting are designed to boost conversions, but their ROI depends on the campaign setup and audience engagement.

Remarketing ROI

Remarketing excels in nurturing existing customers, leading to higher conversion rates for repeat purchases. Personalized emails with strong CTAs often outperform generic campaigns.

Retargeting ROI

Retargeting works best for re-engaging undecided prospects, driving them back to the site to complete a purchase. Dynamic retargeting ads can achieve impressive ROI by delivering hyper-relevant content

Best Practices for Remarketing and Retargeting Campaigns

Remarketing Best Practices

• Segment Your Audience: Categorize users by behavior, such as cart abandoners, frequent buyers, or inactive subscribers.
• Craft Compelling Offers: Use exclusive discounts or loyalty rewards to re-engage customers.
• Time Your Emails Wisely: Avoid overwhelming users with too many emails.

Retargeting Best Practices

• Use Frequency Caps: Prevent ad fatigue by limiting how often users see your retargeting ads.
• Leverage Dynamic Ads: Show users specific items they viewed for a personalized touch.
• Optimize for Mobile: Ensure your ads are visually appealing and functional on all devices.

Common Mistakes To Avoid In Both

When comparing remarketing vs retargeting, there are a few mistakes to avoid that apply to both marketing strategies. These include:

Overwhelming a user with emails/ads

Sending a customer to many promotional emails or showing a user the same advert too many times could have a negative effect - a customer may get annoyed and unsubscribe from your mailing list or block your advert. This is why it’s important to set a frequency cap.

Failing to personalize

A generic email or advert is unlikely to have much of an impact. Personalized emails and adverts are more likely to cut through the noise and grab people’s attention - so make sure that your emails and ads are referencing specific products that a user has looked at or bought, or use tactics like addressing customers by name.

Ignoring mobile users

Think about how users are interacting with your product or service. If they are doing so via a mobile device, it’s important that your emails and adverts are mobile-friendly. Some adverts may be too detailed to display properly on a small screen, while email inboxes viewed via a mobile app often show less of a subject line.

Continuing to target converted customers

Don’t waste your money continuing to target customers who you’ve just successfully converted. Exclusion lists can be used to prevent you targeting ads at certain users, while you can segment your mailing lists so that certain emails go to active customers while others target your dormant customers.

Case Studies: Remarketing vs Retargeting Success Stories

Remarketing Success Stories

Yoga Democracy and AdRoll: Yoga Democracy, an eco-friendly activewear brand, partnered with AdRoll to implement a remarketing campaign targeting previous website visitors. By delivering personalized ads across various platforms, they achieved a 200% increase in conversions and a 50% reduction in cost per acquisition.

Tiger Sheds and Search Laboratory: Tiger Sheds, a garden building manufacturer, collaborated with Search Laboratory to enhance their remarketing efforts. By utilizing dynamic remarketing strategies, they experienced a 25% increase in sales attributed to remarketing campaigns.

Retargeting Success Stories

Watchfinder and Periscopix: Watchfinder, a luxury watch retailer, worked with Periscopix to develop a retargeting strategy aimed at users who had shown interest but hadn't made a purchase. By creating 20 distinct audience segments based on user behavior and demographics, they experienced a 1,300% return on ad spend and a 34% decrease in cost per acquisition.

Mazda and Merchenta: Mazda implemented a retargeting campaign with Merchenta to engage users who had visited their website but hadn't requested a test drive. By delivering personalized ads based on user proximity to dealerships, they achieved a 53% increase in test drive bookings.

How to Choose Between Remarketing and Retargeting Strategies

Understanding when to employ remarketing or retargeting can significantly impact the success of your campaigns. Both strategies are powerful tools for re-engaging audiences, but their effectiveness lies in choosing the right approach for your specific objectives.

Whether you’re focused on nurturing existing customers or capturing new leads, aligning your strategy with your goals and audience behavior is critical to achieving maximum ROI.

When to Use Remarketing

• You want to nurture existing relationships.
• Your goal is to drive repeat purchases or engagement.
• You have access to detailed customer data, like email addresses.

Remarketing is most effective when your goal is to strengthen relationships with existing customers or leads. This strategy works well for businesses that have a robust database of customer information, such as email addresses, and want to use that data to create personalized, engaging campaigns.

By targeting customers who have already interacted with your brand, remarketing focuses on driving repeat purchases, reigniting interest in lapsed customers, or encouraging loyalty through special offers or exclusive content.

When to Use Retargeting

• You aim to convert new prospects or undecided visitors.
• Your focus is on driving first-time conversions.
• Your audience isn’t yet part of your CRM or email list.

Retargeting is the go-to strategy for converting undecided prospects or capturing first-time customers. This approach shines when you’re aiming to re-engage visitors who have shown interest in your brand by browsing your website or products but haven’t taken the next step.

Unlike remarketing, retargeting uses tracking technologies like cookies or pixels to serve relevant ads to these users across different platforms, helping to keep your brand top-of-mind and drive them back to your site to complete their journey.

Combined Strategy

Many businesses find success by integrating both strategies. For instance:

• Use retargeting ads to capture website visitors.
• Follow up with remarketing emails to nurture them post-conversion.

For many businesses, combining remarketing and retargeting delivers the best results. Start by using retargeting ads to capture the attention of website visitors and encourage them to return.
Once they’ve converted or expressed further interest, shift to remarketing campaigns to nurture these leads or customers with personalized follow-ups, driving long-term engagement and loyalty.

This dual approach ensures that you effectively engage users at every stage of the customer journey.

Conclusion

Understanding the differences between remarketing and retargeting is crucial for maximizing your marketing efforts, as explained by MultiPixels. While remarketing focuses on reactivating existing customers via email, retargeting leverages display ads to re-engage website visitors. Each has its unique advantages, and often the most effective approach is a blend of the two.

FAQs

What is more effective: remarketing or retargeting?

The effectiveness of remarketing vs retargeting depends very much on your goals. Remarketing is a more effective strategy for generating business if you already have many past and existing customers - it’s a way of re-engaging these customers. Re-targeting could be a more effective strategy if you’re getting lots of traffic but not many leads. It focuses on converting previous visitors who you weren’t able to turn into customers.

Can remarketing and retargeting be used together?

Yes, deploying both strategies at the same time can be a great way of increasing the likelihood of generating leads. It may even be possible to use a similar marketing angle for each - for example, you could advertise an upcoming sale on a specific product by remarketing it towards previous customers that bought that product while also retargeting website visitors who previously looked at the product.

How do I choose between remarketing and retargeting?

When choosing between remarketing vs retargeting, consider whereabouts in the marketing funnel you most need to build conversions. If you’ve got no issue getting website visitors to convert into customers but are struggling to attract return customers, remarketing might be a better strategy. If you’re able to maintain loyal customers but are having trouble getting new customers because website visitors aren’t sticking around, retargeting is likely to be a better solution.

What is an example of remarketing?

An example of remarketing could include sending an email to a previous customer enticing them to buy your product/use your service again. For example, perhaps a customer used to regularly buy supplements from your online store, but hasn’t done so in a few months. Alerting them of a limited time discount on a supplement they used to purchase might potentially win them back.

What is an example of a retargeting strategy?

An example of retargeting could include displaying adverts to users that previously visited a product webpage, but never bought that product. For example, perhaps visitors have been interested in a certain clothing item, but you haven’t had many purchases of that item. Running a promotion on that item and displaying adverts to previous visitors could possibly encourage sales.

What is retargeting also known as?

Retargeting is sometimes referred to as ‘remarketing’ or ‘remarketing ads’. However, marketers typically distinguish ‘retargeting’ and ‘remarketing’ as two separate things. When collaborating with others on a ‘remarketing’ campaign, it could be important to first distinguish whether the goal is to target previous/existing customers or previous website visitors who are yet to convert into customers.

What is the difference in user targeting between the two?

When it comes to understanding the difference between retargeting vs remarketing, it’s important to understand the different types of users that each strategy focuses on. Remarketing typically involves communicating with previous or existing customers via email, retargeting involves targeting website or app users who may not have previously bought your product via display ads.