PAID MEDIA

What Is Remarketing: 8 Types Of Remarketing To Consider

Remarketing has become so ubiquitous across the web that users frequently resent the endless ads chasing them across the web after viewing a product once.

However, when used correctly, remarketing remains a powerful tool in the box for paid media marketers across a variety of industries.

If you’ve tried remarketing and haven’t seen a return, I’d like to share some thoughts on new categorization and different types of audiences you may not have experienced.

To keep up with the growing limitations on tracking capabilities, ad platforms continue to roll out new options to reach users outside of traditional pixel-based remarketing.

First, let’s start with a basic definition for those who may be less familiar with the tactic.

What is remarketing?

Remarketing (sometimes called retargeting) is a paid marketing technique that allows you to serve ads to people who have previously visited a website or interacted with your content on a social channel.

Website-based remarketing uses a pixel placed on the website to reach individuals who have visited certain pages or performed certain events.

Meanwhile, engagement-based remarketing allows you to reach those who have interacted with your social media content or watched a video.

Read on to discover eight types of remarketing you should consider for your campaigns.

1. Visitors to the pricing page

If a shopper visits the pricing page, they are more likely to search for the product than anyone else who views the home page.

They may compare costs against competitors and research specific features available by pricing class.

Gathering visitors to your pricing page in their category can produce a higher intent audience than you would get from targeting all visitors as a whole.

Screenshot from salesforce.com, July 2022 (Full disclosure: client’s website)

These individuals may be more willing to respond to a call to action for a product demo or a call with a sales representative.

You can also compile an asset with tips for evaluating products in your industry, which may attract people making product comparisons.

For example, my former client, who sold panel management software, provided a worksheet for evaluating panel software, displaying remarketing ads on screen and social networks to persuade previous visitors to provide their email addresses.

2. Visitors to the industry page

Segmenting audiences by industry can be complicated when trying to market to people in niche industries.

If you have pages on your site dedicated to each industry, you can create separate remarketing audiences for each of those pages.

Effectively, you will now create groups of people who have raised their hand saying they are interested in the services of a particular industry.

You can target unique ads tailored by industry to speak more specifically to those people based on their needs.

For example, you might have a guide explaining how real estate developers can use your software to track prospects and target that to people who visit your real estate industry page.

You may also have different product lines or prices for different industries.

For example, many companies offer discounted services to nonprofits and want to target these groups separately.

3. Cross-channel remarketing

Take full advantage of cross-channel opportunities by creating remarketing segments of people who visited your site from specific channels and campaigns.

It’s a great way to move your audience targeting options from one platform to another.

Plus, you can take advantage of lower costs in some platforms versus others for remarketing.

For example, if you’re running LinkedIn ads, you might want to target people who clicked on an ad from a C-targeted campaign.

With a URL-based audience, you can target people who fit your LinkedIn profile targeting criteria using any other channel, and pay the lower costs of a network like Google Display.

As long as you mark your links with a consistent UTM syntax, you can copy your landing page and associated tags into the “URL contains” field when setting up your remarketing audience.

This solution allows you to pay your LinkedIn visitors upfront using their built-in targeting but avoid the high costs for LinkedIn of remarketing within their platform.

4. Abandoned bandwagon

Cart leavers have the work of finding the product they want and adding it to their cart without checking out.

Remarketing with these ads can encourage people to return to the site and make purchases.

Including the offer may also entice people to come back and finish their purchase. However, it would be best if you were careful that people simply didn’t expect they could rig the process to get a discount.

This may also be a time to iterate on your brand’s selling points.

For example, if you offer a two-year warranty while most competitors only offer one, call that out in the ads.

Work to bring people back, which can be a trigger for them to shift into a buying mood.

5. Previous Buyers

If someone has bought from your site in the past, you can remarket them later to encourage them to make another purchase.

The products you promote and the timing of future remarketing depend on the type of product purchased.

For example, if someone buys a new backpack, they might be open to purchasing related equipment such as a hiking pole.

If someone orders a printer, they probably don’t want another right away but might need replacement ink cartridges after six months.

You have to be careful not to upset people because they form a negative perception of your brand after they’ve already made a purchase, so don’t try it too soon.

Also include a frequency cap where channels allow.

6. Top funnel transducers

Especially for the B2B world, converting a lead into a sale often requires a lengthy process of multiple touchpoints.

Offering a downloadable asset such as a manual or inviting people to sign up for a webinar can build an audience of people interested enough to raise their hands.

LinkedIn High Funnel AssetScreenshot of a LinkedIn ad, July 2022

You can then create remarketing lists based on people who download a higher funnel asset, and set up a new campaign targeting those with a lower funnel call-to-action, such as a product offer.

You can target this via the website pixel (reaching people who have already filled out a specific form) or via Meta or LinkedIn form lead redirection (reaching people who have filled out a form within the platform).

Think about the buying stages of your target people and create remarketing for people who engage in every part of the process.

7. Video viewers

Video display remarketing can drive intent from people who haven’t visited your website.

YouTube, Meta, and LinkedIn are three popular channels that allow you to create remarketing audiences.

YouTube audienceScreenshot from YouTube.com, July 2022

Within YouTube, you can segment people based on the following criteria:

  • I watched any video from a channel.
  • I watched certain videos.
  • Watch any video (as an advertisement) from a channel.
  • I watched some videos (as ads).
  • Channel interactions, including visits, subscriptions, and video likes.
Audience Meta VideoScreenshot from Meta, July 2022

Within Meta, you can segment people based on the following criteria for whatever video or group of videos you choose:

  • Watch a video clip of at least three, 10, or 15 seconds.
  • Watch a video at 25%, 50%, 75% or 95%.

Finally, LinkedIn allows you to segment your video viewing audiences by 25%, 50%, 75%, or 95%.

Creating audiences of people who have committed to watching all or most of your video can segment those with higher intentions who may be more likely to download an asset or want to attend a webinar.

People who have viewed shorter periods of time may still be willing to show additional content in future remarketing campaigns.

8. Operators page

Available in the Meta Ads interface, Facebook/Instagram Page Engagement Audiences provide another way to capture user intent outside of your site.

If a user chooses to like or comment on a post on Facebook, it indicates a certain level of interest in what you have to offer.

Facebook page audienceScreenshot from Facebook, July 2022

Currently, you can target people based on the following criteria:

  • People who like or follow your page.
  • Everyone who shared your page.
  • Anyone who visited your page.
  • People who interacted with any post or ad.
  • People who clicked the call-to-action button.
  • People who have sent a message to your Page.
  • People who have saved your page or post.

You can also combine these criteria to include/exclude people from a group to target.

For example, you can reach people who visited your page but don’t currently like or follow it.

Additionally, LinkedIn allows you to retarget people who have interacted with your individual display ads.

You can choose from any interaction (people who replied or commented, and also clicked) or limit it to clicks that can only be uploaded.

Renewal of remarketing campaigns

You’re ready to test some new remarketing methodology in your campaigns.

Think of new audiences that make sense for your brand and goals, and start building them.

If you’re not sure the masses will be large enough to warrant splitting, build them up and see how big they get over time.

Be sure to incorporate engagement-based and website-visit audiences for future proofing against tracking restrictions.

Remember that social platform participants are first-party audiences and more reliable than pixel-generated third-party audiences, so they will likely have a larger pool of individuals that you want to target.

Finally, don’t forget to develop unique and creative messages to speak to each audience. Launch your campaigns and start testing!

More resources:

  • 10 remarketing tools to re-engage and win conversion
  • 6 Remarketing Campaign Mistakes You Should Avoid
  • Winning at Retargeting: Tips for Reconnecting and Converting


Featured image: Den Rise / Shutterstock

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