What Is Retargeting?
Retargeting is a digital advertising tactic that serves ads to people who have previously interacted with a brand, such as visiting a website or engaging with content, in order to bring them back and move them further along the buyer journey.
Retargeting, Explained Simply
You've already got their attention once. Retargeting keeps it.
Retargeting identifies people who have already shown interest in a brand — often by visiting a website, viewing a page, or engaging with an ad — and serves them follow-up advertising.
Instead of starting from scratch with a cold audience, retargeting focuses spend on people who already have some familiarity with the brand.
For B2B marketers, this is especially valuable because buying cycles are long, and retargeting helps keep a brand visible throughout that extended journey.
Why Retargeting Matters
Retargeting is a core tactic in B2B advertising because it can:
- Re-engage prospects who showed interest but didn't convert
- Keep a brand visible throughout a long B2B buying cycle
- Improve efficiency by focusing spend on warmer audiences
- Move prospects further down the marketing funnel
- Support account-based strategies with account-level retargeting
PAULA'S PERSPECTIVE
Retargeting is one of the highest-value tactics in B2B advertising because our buying cycles are so long.
A prospect might visit your site, get pulled away, and not come back to that research for weeks. Retargeting is what keeps your brand present during that gap.
The key is not overdoing it. Retargeting should feel like a natural continuation of a prospect's interest, not a barrage of the same ad following them everywhere they go.
— Paula Chiocchi
Retargeting in Practice
- Step 1Website Visit Tracked
- Step 2Audience Pixel Match
- Step 3Retargeting Segment
- Step 4Follow-Up Creative
- Step 5Re-Engagement
A prospect visits a product page but leaves without converting. Retargeting can serve that same prospect relevant follow-up ads across the web, reminding them of the offer and encouraging them to return.
Over time, this consistent presence can move the prospect further along the buyer journey toward a conversion.
KEY TAKEAWAY
Retargeting re-engages people who have already shown interest in a brand, helping marketers stay visible and move prospects forward throughout a long B2B buying cycle.
About Paula Chiocchi
Paula Chiocchi is the Founder and CEO of Outward Media, Inc. and host of B2B Influence: Spotlight on Industry Game-Changers, with decades of experience in data-driven marketing.