Retargeting

On a typical landing page, 2–5% of visitors convert. The other 95% leave without doing anything. Retargeting is the set of ads that follow those non-converters around the internet with a reminder to come back.

The reason it works: those 95% already raised their hand by visiting your page. They're not random strangers — they're warm prospects who just weren't ready to commit yet.

Retargeting audiences have already crossed the trust threshold. They've seen your brand. They know what you sell. They're somewhere in the consideration phase. All you need to do is remind them.

Rough benchmark: cold Meta ads convert at 1–2% on landing pages. Retargeting ads convert at 4–8% on the same page. The budget efficiency gap is similar — retargeting CPMs are higher but CPAs are lower.

Retargeting stops working (and starts hurting brand perception) when it's too aggressive. The frequency cap matters:

• Under 3 impressions/week: the person might miss the ad
• 3–5 impressions/week: optimal for most campaigns
• Over 10 impressions/week: fatigue, ad blindness, sometimes active annoyance

Other rules: don't retarget for more than 30 days (after that, interest has decayed). Don't retarget with the same creative forever — rotate. And respect privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) — make sure consent is clear.