Retargeting (also called remarketing) is an advertising strategy that serves ads specifically to people who have already interacted with your brand - visited your website, viewed a product, added something to their cart, or engaged with your social media content - but did not convert. Unlike prospecting, which introduces your brand to cold audiences, retargeting re-engages people who already know you and are statistically far more likely to purchase.
The mechanism is simple: when someone visits your Shopify store, a tracking pixel (Meta Pixel, Google tag, or TikTok pixel) drops a cookie on their browser. When that person subsequently browses Meta, Instagram, Google's Display Network, YouTube, or TikTok, your retargeting campaign recognises them and serves relevant ads. Because these users have demonstrated purchase intent, retargeting typically delivers significantly higher conversion rates and lower CPAs than cold prospecting campaigns.
Effective retargeting is not a single audience - it is a stack of segments with different intent levels and different messaging:
Product viewers saw a specific product but did not add to cart. These users are early-intent and typically respond well to social proof, reviews, or a broader brand message. Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) are ideal here - they automatically surface the exact product the user viewed with current pricing.
Add-to-cart abandoners showed strong purchase intent but did not complete checkout. This is your highest-value retargeting segment. A direct, low-friction ad - often featuring the specific product with a clear CTA - converts at 2-3x the rate of product-view retargeting.
Past purchasers are a distinct retargeting segment often overlooked. Serving cross-sell or replenishment ads to existing customers via paid social is one of the most efficient uses of retargeting budget, particularly for consumable products.
Lapsed visitors who have not returned in 30-90 days may need a different angle - a new product launch, a promotion, or a brand story ad rather than a hard product push.
The standard retargeting window is 7-30 days. Beyond 30 days, purchase intent has typically cooled and retargeting CPMs may not be justified. Within the window, frequency capping is essential - seeing the same ad 15 times creates brand fatigue rather than conversion. A frequency of 3-7 impressions per user per week is a reasonable starting point, adjusted based on creative testing.
Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) changes in 2021 significantly reduced the signal available for retargeting on Meta. Users who opt out of tracking cannot be cookied via the Meta Pixel, which shrank retargeting audience sizes by 30-50% for many brands. Mitigations include Conversions API (server-side event matching), first-party data uploads (customer lists matched to Meta accounts), and email/SMS retargeting via Klaviyo as a complement to paid social. Attribution for retargeting campaigns is also more reliable when measured through incrementality testing rather than platform-reported last-click numbers.
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