Retargeting
A paid-media tactic that serves ads specifically to people who have already visited your website, engaged with your brand, or appeared in your CRM.
Retargeting is a paid-advertising tactic that serves ads to people who have already visited your site, opened an email, or appeared in your CRM. It works through pixel-based audiences, customer-list matching, or identity-based audiences, and delivers 3 to 10x higher click-through rates than cold prospecting because the audience already knows your brand.
Definition
Retargeting (also called remarketing) is a paid-media tactic that specifically targets people who have already engaged with your brand — by visiting your website, opening an email, appearing in your CRM, or matching a known customer list. Three mechanisms power it: pixel-based retargeting (a tracking pixel drops an ID on visitors and adds them to an audience), customer-list retargeting (uploading hashed emails or phone numbers to platforms like Google Customer Match, LinkedIn Matched Audiences, or Meta Custom Audiences), and identity-based retargeting (resolving anonymous visits to known contacts via an identity graph, then activating those contacts as audiences).
Retargeting vs remarketing
The terms are used interchangeably in practice, but there is a historical distinction. Retargeting originally referred to paid ads served to website visitors via display networks. Remarketing originally referred to email sequences sent to past customers or lead-form fills. Google uses 'remarketing' across both paid and email; Meta and LinkedIn use 'retargeting.' Use whichever term your platform uses and focus on the mechanism behind the campaign.
Strategically, retargeting is almost always paid media and remarketing spans paid and owned channels. Both exist because acquiring a first-time visitor is 5 to 7x more expensive than converting one you already have.
How retargeting works in a cookieless world
Traditional retargeting used third-party cookies dropped via pixels to track users across sites. Safari ITP, Firefox ETP, iOS ATT, and Chrome IP Protection have eroded that model. Modern retargeting is built on first-party data: email addresses captured via forms or identified via visitor ID are hashed and uploaded to ad platforms, where they are matched against known users on LinkedIn, Google, Meta, and Reddit.
Identity-based retargeting typically outperforms pixel-based retargeting in a cookieless world. Match rates are higher (because platforms match deterministic identifiers), audiences persist longer (not tied to cookie lifetimes), and targeting is more precise (you can filter by firmographics, page viewed, and ICP fit before activation).
Why it matters
First-visit conversion rates on B2B sites sit around 2 to 4%. The remaining 96% of traffic is the actual market — interested enough to visit, not ready to buy. Retargeting is how you stay in front of that majority until they are ready. Done well, retargeting is the single highest-ROI paid channel because it targets people who already know the brand, typically at 3 to 10x the click-through and 2x the conversion rate of cold prospecting.
Examples
- Serving LinkedIn ads to VPs who viewed your pricing page but didn't convert
- Email retargeting to trial users who went dark after day 3
- Google Customer Match audiences built from identified website visitors
- Meta retargeting to cart abandoners with a 10% discount code
How Bullseye helps
Bullseye enables identity-based retargeting that survives cookie deprecation. When Bullseye identifies an anonymous website visitor, the verified work email is synced directly into LinkedIn Matched Audiences, Google Customer Match, and Meta Custom Audiences. Match rates are materially higher than pixel-based audiences, retargeting lists persist across devices, and you can segment by page viewed, ICP fit, and company.
Frequently asked questions
What is retargeting in digital marketing?
Retargeting is a paid-media tactic that serves ads specifically to people who have previously visited your site, engaged with your brand, or appeared in your CRM. It uses pixel-based audiences, customer-list matching, or identity-based matching to re-engage a warm audience at 3 to 10x the click-through rate of cold prospecting.
What is the difference between retargeting and remarketing?
The terms are largely interchangeable. Historically, retargeting meant paid ads served to past visitors and remarketing meant email to past customers. Today Google uses 'remarketing' across both, while Meta and LinkedIn use 'retargeting.' Focus on the mechanism and channel, not the label.
How does B2B retargeting work?
B2B retargeting typically runs on LinkedIn, Google, and Meta, powered by customer-list audiences (hashed work emails) or website retargeting pixels. The strongest B2B retargeting is identity-based: website visitors are identified at the person level, filtered to ICP-fit accounts, and activated as audiences on LinkedIn and Google Customer Match.
Is retargeting still effective after cookie deprecation?
Yes, but the model has shifted. Pixel-based retargeting on Safari and Firefox has been degraded for years, and Chrome is following. Identity-based retargeting — using hashed emails uploaded as customer-match audiences — is the replacement and typically delivers higher match rates and longer audience persistence than cookie-based targeting.
How much should I spend on retargeting vs prospecting?
A common split is 20 to 40% of paid budget to retargeting and the remainder to prospecting. Retargeting cannot scale beyond your existing audience, so it caps itself; overspending creates ad fatigue. Prospecting feeds the retargeting pool, so starving it eventually starves retargeting. Monitor frequency and cost-per-acquisition to rebalance quarterly.
Related terms
Website Visitor Identification
Software that reveals the names, emails, companies, and job titles of anonymous website visitors who never fill out a form.
First-Party Data
Data collected directly from your own customers and visitors through your own channels — website, product, email, CRM — making it the most accurate and privacy-resilient data type.
Cookie Deprecation
The phase-out of third-party cookies by web browsers, forcing a structural shift in ad targeting, retargeting, and cross-site attribution.
Keep learning
Related Use Cases
Lead Generation
Generate leads from your website without forms by identifying anonymous visitors.
Sales Intelligence
Real-time intelligence on website visitors for proactive sales outreach.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
Identify individuals from target accounts visiting your site for ABM programs.
Related Guides
Put retargeting into practice
See how Bullseye helps with retargeting and more.