Retargeting
Also known as: Remarketing
Retargeting is showing ads to people who have already interacted with your business — visited your site, watched a video, or engaged with your page.
What it actually means
Retargeting (also called remarketing) re-engages warm prospects who have shown interest but did not convert. Because these people already know you, retargeting almost always delivers a lower cost per result than cold prospecting — you are reminding, not introducing. It relies on custom audiences fed by the pixel, the Conversions API, or engagement data. Effective retargeting segments by intent: someone who abandoned a checkout deserves a different message than someone who merely watched a video. The risk is over-frequency — showing the same people the same ad until they resent it — so retargeting works best with capped frequency, fresh creative, and a clear reason to come back now.
A local business can retarget everyone who visited the booking page but did not finish, often closing them with a simple reminder or a small first-visit incentive.
Related terms
A custom audience is a targeting group built from your own data, such as a customer email list, website visitors, or people who engaged with your content.
The Meta Pixel is a snippet of code on your website that tracks visitor actions and sends them back to Meta for measurement and ad optimization.
A warm audience is people who already know your business through prior visits, engagement, or contact — as opposed to cold strangers.
Frequency is the average number of times each person saw your ad, calculated as impressions divided by reach.
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