What is remarketing (retargeting)
Also known as: retargeting, your data (Google Ads)
Remarketing, also called retargeting, means showing ads to people who have already interacted with a business: they visited the site, opened the app, watched a video or are on the customer list. Because these people already know the brand, they are usually more likely to come back and buy than people who have never heard of it.
A furniture store notices that many people visit its sofa pages, compare models and leave without buying. It builds an audience of people who viewed sofas in the last 30 days and shows them the models they viewed, with shipping and installment details.
For people who already bought a sofa, the store does the opposite: it excludes them from the sofa audience and shows them cushions and throws. Nobody sees ads for something they already bought.
How it works
The site or app records, through a measurement tag, that a person came by and what they viewed. The ad platform builds lists from those records and lets you show ads only to those people as they browse other sites, YouTube, search or social media.
You can also upload your own lists, such as your customer base, to advertise to people who already bought or exclude them from acquisition campaigns. In Google Ads this is called Customer Match.
The new name in Google Ads
If you search for the word remarketing inside Google Ads, you may not find it: Google now calls remarketing "your data", and the old audience types are now "audience segments", according to Google Ads Help. The function is the same: reaching people who have already interacted with the brand.
Types of remarketing
| Who it targets | Example use | |
|---|---|---|
| Website visitors | People who visited specific pages | Show the product they viewed |
| Dynamic | People who viewed catalog items | Ad built from the items viewed |
| Search | Visitors who search again | Higher bids for people who know you |
| Video | People who watched your videos | A sequence of videos |
| Customer list | Your own uploaded base | Cross-sell or exclusion |
How not to become a stalker
- Cap frequency, so the same person does not see the same ad dozens of times.
- Set a time window that fits the buying cycle: days for a pizza, weeks for a car.
- Exclude people who already bought from that product's ads.
- Change the message over time instead of repeating the same creative.
- Respect consent: collecting data for ads has to follow privacy law and the site's cookie rules.
Frequently asked questions
What is remarketing?
Showing ads to people who already interacted with a business, such as website visitors, app users or customers in your database.
Are remarketing and retargeting the same thing?
In practice, yes. Remarketing is the term Google popularized; retargeting is more common on other platforms. Both describe advertising to people who already interacted with the brand.
Where is remarketing in Google Ads?
Google now calls remarketing your data, within audience segments. The function is unchanged.
Does remarketing require consent?
Collecting data to personalize ads has to follow privacy law and the site's cookie rules, including visitor consent where required.
How long should remarketing ads run?
For as long as the product's buying cycle. Quick purchases call for short windows; expensive, considered purchases justify longer ones.
Related terms
Rodrigo Fávaro
Founder of ROO3, a marketing and technology agency in São José do Rio Preto, Brazil. Builds AI products running in production (Tobia, gerar.app, Pense Mercado) and maintains the AI Benchmark, a public ranking of AI models.
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