What is Retargeting? How is it done and what does it do?
Retargetingis a digital marketing method that allows re-showing ads to users who have previously interacted with your brand but have not yet taken the action you want. Users who review a product but do not purchase it, add a product to the cart but do not complete the transaction, or leave the website after visiting it, can be targeted again with retargeting campaigns.
The simplest answer to the question of what retargeting means is to re-establish contact with users who already know your brand. Thus, the advertising budget can be used not only to reach new users, but also to reactivate people who have already contacted the brand in the purchasing journey.
How Does Retargeting Work?
In retargeting campaigns, people who have interacted with the website, mobile application or other digital channels are divided into specific target audiences. These users can then be shown ads related to their past behavior.
For example, a user who viewed a particular product on an e-commerce site but did not purchase it may later be shown an ad for the same product or related campaign. Google Ads also allows the retargeting of users who have previously interacted with the website, application or other brand channels.
What are the Benefits of Retargeting?
Retargeting benefitsstands out with the ability to re-establish communication with users who have seen the brand or product before.
A correctly planned retargeting strategy;
- The brand's users It helps the user to remember the product again.
- Enables retargeting of users who abandoned the cart or examined the product and left.
- Allows display of ads specific to the product or service the user is interested in.
- Makes it easier to present different messages to users at different stages of the purchasing decision.
- Focuses on more relevant audiences in advertising campaigns. provides.
Separate target audience segments can be created on the Google Ads side, for example, for users who add products to the cart but do not complete the purchase.
How is Retargeting Done?
"How is Retargeting done?" varies depending on the advertising platform used, the basic process is similar. First of all, an infrastructure is prepared to measure users' behavior on the website or application. Then, specific user groups are created using this data.
When planning the campaign;
- Different audiences such as those who visit the site,
- Those who examine certain product or service pages,
- Those who add products to the cart but do not purchase,
- Customers who have shopped before
can be evaluated.
Using messages appropriate to the behavior of each user group instead of showing the same advertisement makes retargeting campaigns more meaningful. In Google Ads, this structure is called “your data segments” , that is, audience segments created from the company's own data in current terminology.
What is the Difference Between Retargeting and Remarketing?
The concepts of retargeting and remarketing are often used interchangeably in daily use. In general, retargeting refers to the re-targeting of users with advertising based on their behavior on the website or digital channels, while remarketing in a broader sense can include efforts to re-communicate with current or past customers.
However, the terminology used by advertising platforms may change over time. For example, Google Ads now defines the structure it previously called "remarketing" within the scope of audience segments created mainly from the company's own data.
Content was updated on October 2, 2026.
