Did you know, that on average, only 2% of the people who visit your website will call, shop or engage with your business. What happens to the other 98%. This means that out of every 100 visitors to your website only 2 will contact your business. So what do you do to reach the other 98%? Retargeting is the way to reach out to the other 98 percent of people who don’t make a contact your business on their first visit to your website.

Behavioral retargeting (also known as behavioral remarketing, or simply, retargeting) is a form of online targeted advertising by which online advertising is targeted to consumers based on their previous Internet actions. Retargeting tags online users by including a pixel within the target webpage or email, which sets a cookie in the user’s browser.[1] Once the cookie is set, the advertiser is able to show display ads to that user elsewhere on the internet via an ad exchange.

While all retargeting depends on setting cookies in a user’s browser, there are several different methods of doing this:

Site retargeting is a display advertising technique used by marketers to display advertising to people who have previously visited their website. The marketer includes a pixel within their webpage which sets a cookie in the user’s browser.[1] That cookie allows the marketer to target the website visitor with advertising elsewhere on the internet using retargeting.

Search retargeting is a form of retargeting employed by online marketers that target an audience based on the previous searches they conduct on other websites. Unlike site retargeting, search retargeting is designed to find new customers which have likely never been to a marketer’s website before.

While search advertising is a method of placing online advertisements within the results of search engine queries, search retargeting attempts to extend the interaction with the same searchers when they move away from search query results pages to other online activities and websites. Search retargeting ads are typically displayed as display ads.

Link retargeting is a form of retargeting that allows an advertiser to target an audience that clicks on a link controlled by the advertiser.

Later, the advertiser can create audience segments in online advertising platforms for the people that clicked on the link. Then they can run ad campaigns targeting that audience segment.

For example, one benefit of link retargeting is that it allows creating an audience on proprietary social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, and making it addressable on the rest of the internet. Like Search retargeting, link retargeting does not require the user to visit the marketer’s website.

Retargeting an audience with display ads after they have read an email from the advertiser (Display-Ad Based)

Email from the advertiser is sent to recipients with a tracking pixel that tags the recipient’s browser, in the same way they would be tagged if visiting a webpage.

Email retargeting is only effective if the email is opened in a web browser, where the tracking pixel will function. Any recipient who uses a dedicated mail client will not be tagged. Additionally, Gmail’s decision to cache images means that this method of advertising does not work with gmail addresses.[1]

Emailing a website visitor after their website visit (Email Based)

Email retargeting relies on sending personalized e-mail to an anonymous website visitor. It is possible thanks to using a DMP (Data Management Platform) where cookies collected on a website include the IP address of the visitor (the IP address can be read from the visitors web browser’s header information). The IP address is then matched against the IP addresses previously collected with form submissions that include an e-mail address (whether those forms were completed on that website or on another).

Visitor browses a website, views a product and leaves

Cookies from the website matches the user to an email address

Visitor receives a personalized offer via e-mail message concerning the product they viewed

This form of remarketing helps increasing conversion by reaching interested audience only.

The answer to this question is simple: everyone. Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, if you’re trying to sell a product or service, you need to be using retargeting. The research couldn’t be more straightforward – retargeting will help you to turn potential customers into happy customers.