Remarketing vs Retargeting: What’s the difference and how to use them for more sales?

If you're into digital marketing, you've probably come across the terms remarketing and retargeting. Many people use them interchangeably, but they actually have significant differences. And if up until now you've thought it was just marketing jargon to make ads more tangled - you're not alone.

If we are to distinguish them simply:

In other words, retargeting brings back people who haven't bought yet, and remarketing retains and activates existing customers.

In this article, we'll look at how the two methods work, why they sometimes get confused, and how to use them together in your marketing strategy.

🟠 What is retargeting?

Retargeting is an advertising strategy that allows you to show personalized ads to users who have already interacted with your brand but have not made a purchase.

Retargeting uses cookies, or pixel, that track the behaviour of visitors to your site to serve them ads. This is the more common method and is mainly used for ads on Google, Facebook, Instagram and other ad networks.

How does retargeting work?

• A user visits your website and browses products or services.
• The site places a cookie on the user's browser.
• Later, while the user is browsing the internet or scrolling through social networks, they are shown ads related to your website.

On-site retargeting vs off-site retargeting

• On-site retargeting - in this case, you retarget users who have visited your site and possibly performed some other action (browsing a product, adding it to the cart), but have not completed an order.
• Off-site retargeting - in this case, you retarget users who have performed an action outside of your website. For example, through Facebook ads, you can target an audience that has interacted with your page, watched a video of yours, or participated in an event you organized.

Examples of effective retargeting:

• Display ads with abandoned products in the cart.
• Reminding users of items viewed but not ordered.
• Show special offers to people who have been to your site but have not converted.

Here are specific sample campaigns you can see across platforms:

• Facebook Ads: If you've viewed shoes on a site, a few hours later you'll see an ad for the same shoes in your newsfeed.
• Google Display Ads: Once you visit a hotel booking website, you start seeing ads for hotels while reading news on another site.
• YouTube Ads: You've been watching videos about electronic gadgets, and later an ad pops up for an appliance store.

When to use retargeting?

• If you want to reach people who are already interested but haven't converted.
• If you don't have an email base but want to use advertising platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
• If you sell products with a long purchase cycle and want to maintain consumer interest.

🟠 What is remarketing?

You've probably heard that it costs more to find a new customer than to get an existing one to order again. This is where remarketing comes in.

This is a strategy that aims to re-engage existing customers through emails and paid ads .

While most often a trailer is associated with email campaigns, it can also include campaigns that you show to users who have already purchased from you. This can be done, for example, through the option to create a custom audience on Facebook by uploading your customer email list.

How does remarketing work?

1. The user places an order.
2. After a while, he receives an email with a special offer, forgotten products in the cart, an offer for a product he will like (upselling).
3. Takes advantage and becomes a loyal customer, and you get a better return on the advertising budget invested.

Examples of remarketing:

• Abandoned Cart Emails 📧 - If a customer adds items to their cart but does not complete the order, you can send them a reminder email with a link to their cart.
• Personalized offers 🎁 - If a customer has already bought from you, you can offer them additional products that may be useful to them.
• Emails with exclusive promotions 🔔 - Loyalty programs, special discounts for regular customers.

When to use remarketing?

• If you have an e-commerce or SaaS service and want to bring customers back.
• When you have a database of emails and want to use email marketing.
• If you want to drive repeat purchases or engagement.

Why are remarketing and retargeting often confused?

Remarketing and retargeting are often used interchangeably because both methods focus on re-engaging consumers who have already had some contact with the brand.

Although they have different mechanisms, modern digital platforms allow them to be combined, further blurring the distinctions between them. A womenswear brand has a database of its customers' emails. Rather than just sending them promotional emails, the marketing team uploads the list to Meta and creates an audience that it targets with personalized advertising on Facebook and Instagram with new shoe models.

The core principle of both strategies is personalization - displaying relevant products, services or offers based on a user's past behavior.

Combining remarketing and retargeting creates a better user experience because you reach customers through different channels - emails, social networks, Google ads, YouTube, mobile apps, etc.

Which method is more effective?

It depends on your goals and business model.

• If you have an email customer base and want to drive repeat purchases, remarketing is a good choice.
• If you want to reach a larger audience and remind visitors about your brand, retargeting will help you more.
• And the best option? Combine both methods! Use retargeting to bring back visitors who haven't left an email, and remarketing to keep in touch with those already in your database.

What are the benefits of retargeting?

Retargeting is a powerful tool that:

• Increases sales by reminding of products viewed.
• Reduces abandoned carts with personalized offers.
• Builds brand recognition through a consistent presence.
• Optimises advertising spend by targeting more engaged consumers.

What are the benefits of remarketing?

You can achieve a lot with remarketing as long as you know how to use it.

• Recovers lost customers by reminding them of abandoned carts or products viewed.
• Encourages repeat purchases by offering personalized offers.
• Increases engagement by keeping in touch with customers through emails and ads.
• Increases return on investment (ROI) by targeting customers who already know your brand.

How to combine remarketing and retargeting in your marketing strategy?

To build an effective marketing funnel, you need to use both retargeting and remarketing, each serving different stages of the customer journey.

1. Retargeting.

Through retargeting ads, you can remind consumers about your business.
💡 How? If someone has visited your site but hasn't made a purchase, you can show them an ad for the product they were looking at.

2. Remarketing.

Once a customer makes a purchase, remarketing is the perfect way to re-engage them.
💡 How? Send emails with recommendations for additional products or special offers for loyal customers.

3. Example of a working strategy:

• Retargeting: use Facebook Ads to bring back visitors who viewed products but didn't buy.
• Remarketing: after a purchase, send emails with personalized offers to that customer.
• Retargeting again: if the customer opens the email but doesn't make a purchase, you can show them a time-limited discount ad.

Remarketing and retargeting are two powerful strategies that work best together.

👉 Retargeting is effective for returning leads who have not made a purchase.

🛍️ Remarketing is used to re-engage existing customers through emails or ads.

📢 Combining the two allows you to move customers through the marketing funnel - from first interaction to repeat purchases.

The difference between remarketing and retargeting is not just a matter of semantics, but of strategy. While remarketing uses emails to bring customers back, retargeting relies on ads to remind people about your brand.

Rather than choosing one or the other, it's best to combine them - this will increase the likelihood of conversions and keep potential customers interested.

And remember - if you don't re-engage your visitors, you risk them forgetting about you faster than they open a new page in their browser. 😊