What Is Remarketing?
Remarketing is an online advertising strategy that helps you reconnect with people who previously visited your website but did not complete a desired action—such as making a purchase or submitting an inquiry.
With remarketing, you can display targeted ads (text or image) to these past visitors as they continue browsing other websites or platforms. This keeps your brand visible and encourages users to return and convert.
How Remarketing Works
Remarketing relies on tracking user behavior through cookies or tags:
-
A visitor lands on your website.
When someone views a page on your site, a small code snippet—often called a tag or pixel—adds a browser cookie that identifies them as a lead. -
The visitor leaves your website.
Even if they don’t complete an action, the cookie remains on their browser. -
Your ads follow them around the web.
As the user visits other websites or social media platforms, advertising networks identify the cookie and display your targeted ads to them.
This constant visibility increases the chances that users will return to your website and convert.
Remarketing on Facebook vs. Google
Google Ads Remarketing
- Your ads appear across the Google Display Network, which spans millions of websites, apps, and YouTube.
- Users see your ads while browsing various sites, reading articles, or watching videos.
Facebook Custom Audiences
- Ads appear specifically on Facebook, often within users’ newsfeeds.
- The process is similar to Google remarketing:
- A visitor interacts with your website or brand.
- They are tagged with your tracking code (pixel).
- Your ads are shown to them inside Facebook’s ecosystem.
Why Remarketing Matters
Remarketing helps you:
- Stay top‑of‑mind with potential customers
- Recover lost leads
- Increase conversions at a lower cost compared to cold advertising
- Deliver personalized, relevant offers based on users’ past behavior
So the big question is: How do I tag my marketplace for remarketing?
Google:
To show ads to people who have visited your marketplace, add the AdWords remarketing tag to your marketplace. The tag is a short snippet of code that adds your website visitors to remarketing lists; you can then target these lists with your ads.
If your website has a Google Analytics tag, you can use that tag instead and skip adding the AdWords remarketing tag.
Find out more about Google remarketing here.
Find out more setting up Google remarketing here.
Find out how to tag your site for remarketing here.
Facebook:
The Meta pixel is a piece of JavaScript code for your website that enables you to measure, optimize and build audiences for your ad campaigns. Using the Meta pixel, you can leverage the actions people take on your site to create more effective Facebook advertising campaigns.
The Meta pixel can be used for three main functions including:
Building Custom Audiences for remarketing
Optimizing ads for conversions
Tracking conversions and attributing them back to your ads
How to set up Meta Pixel for remarketing:
Set up Business Manager. Learn more here.
Organize a product catalog and upload it or link it to Business Manager. Learn more here.
Install the custom audience pixel, now called the Meta Pixel and use custom data events to report which product IDs from your catalogue are being viewed, added to cart, and purchased.
Find out more about Meta pixel here.
Find out more about how to set up Meta pixel here.
Should I do this on my own?
Enabling remarketing capabilities requires a significant amount of coding knowledge so if you are not familiar with your marketplace codes, you should consider working with a web developer or someone with a technical background.