Performance

Retargeting

Also known as: remarketing · retargeting ads

Definition

Retargeting shows ads to people who have already visited a site, used an app or engaged with a brand, using lists built from that behaviour. It targets existing interest rather than creating demand, so its reported results flatter it.

Build the lists by depth of intent: people who viewed a product, started checkout or began an enquiry form each need a different message. The biggest avoidable waste is advertising to people who have already bought or enquired, so exclude converters from every list and set the look-back window to the buying cycle: days for a fashion basket, weeks for a car or a course.

Lists depend on consent. A visitor who declines tracking on the cookie banner shouldn't enter your audience, which makes list size a product of your consent set-up as well as your traffic. Cap how often people see the ads, and test incrementality where you can, because some of those buyers would have returned without an ad. For many UAE businesses the conversation ends on WhatsApp, so an ad that opens a chat can be a better next step than another form.

More in Performance

A/B testing

A/B testing compares two versions of one element, such as a headline, an offer or a page, by showing each to a randomly split share of traffic at the same time and measuring which produces more conversions. It needs enough traffic and one change at a time.

Ad fatigue

Ad fatigue is the decline in an ad's performance as the same people see it repeatedly, usually visible as rising frequency and falling click-through rate before cost per result climbs. The remedy is fresh creative or a wider audience, not a bigger budget.

Ad Rank

Ad Rank is the value Google Ads calculates in each auction to decide whether an ad is eligible to show and where it sits against others. It combines the bid with ad and landing page quality, minimum thresholds, competition, search context and the expected impact of assets.