How Remarketing Helps Build a Smarter, More Profitable Funnel

You know that old saying “reduce, re-use, remarket”?

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Ok, maybe we took some creative liberties there, but remarketing really can be as good for your business as recycling is for the environment.

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In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of remarketing and strategies you can use to effectively re-engage prospective customers alongside some examples of remarketing in action. 

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Whether you’re a remarketing veteran or this is your first time hearing the term, this article will provide you with some valuable tips to make the most of your remarketing campaign.

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What is remarketing?

To put it simply, remarketing is targeting users who have interacted with your brand but didn’t convert. It’s a strategy to re-engage someone who has already shown interest in your business or brand.

There are two common methods of executing a remarketing strategy:

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Using remarketing lists

Remarketing lists are lists of shoppers who have taken (or not taken) a specific action on your site. You can make lists for all sorts of actions: visiting a product category page, checkout page, or even your homepage over a certain period of time.

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When a customer visits pages on your site, they leave cookies in their wake. These are then used by remarketing tools to collect information and map out their journey. When the customer completes an action for which you have built a remarketing list, their cookie is added to that list. You can create as many remarketing lists as you want and get as granular or high-level as you need to.

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Once these lists are made, you can send ads and email campaigns to them and personalize the messaging to match their journey.

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Use remarketing pixel tags

Remarketing pixel tags are small pieces of code that allow your site to place and track customer cookies. This is possible because every visitor to your website has an individual ID that enables their activity to be tracked.

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The ad server or remarketing tool you use accesses these unique ID codes and adds them to the most relevant remarketing lists. For example, if someone signs up for your newsletter and makes it through to the “thank you” page, they’ll be added to one list. If they add an item to their cart but don’t purchase it, they’ll automatically be added to a different list. 

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The difference between remarketing and retargeting

Remarketing and retargeting are very similar and are often used interchangeably. 

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While both involve targeting prospective customers who have visited your site, remarketing typically uses direct communication channels like emails or push notifications. Retargeting, on the other hand, uses online ad placements on third-party sites. 

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The graphic below shows retargeting in action.

Most brands are running retargeting ads—you probably frequently see them after browsing a website. However, most aren’t running remarketing ads. This is because there's a misconception they’re more difficult to set up. Although there’s a bit more upfront work, this isn’t true overall. 

Remarketing a great way to break through the noise and can help provide a stronger ROI as a result. So, truthfully, businesses should be using a mix of both remarketing and retargeting to win back prospects for an omnichannel strategy that truly covers every touchpoint. 

For the purposes of this article, we’re going to focus on remarketing, so you can nail that before spending more money on paid ads.

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The benefits of remarketing

Pour one out for the marketing 101 textbooks… Because the ecommerce grim reaper has killed the traditional “awareness, consideration, conversion” marketing funnel. Here’s what we mean:

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The “consideration” phase is dead, and the funnel has been condensed into two phases: awareness and consideration/conversion. 

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What do we mean? The seamless, impulsive, and omnichannel traits of ecommerce have eliminated “consideration” and merged it with “conversion.” 

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With this new funnel, the “awareness” phase is easier than ever. Targeting options are limitless, and with so many platform options, you can reach someone just about anywhere. Getting on a customer’s radar is no longer much of a challenge. 

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However, the ease and low barrier to entry of the first phase has made the 2nd phase much harder. Convincing someone to actually bite the bullet and purchase is harder than ever. 

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The reason? There’s simply too much noise. It’s easy to lose an interested shopper to the next flashy campaign that shows up on their screen while they’re doomscrolling at midnight, watching only seconds of video after video.

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This is what makes remarketing more powerful and important than ever: you have an opportunity to keep re-engaging and remain top-of-mind when it matters most. You also need to do it fast, as after 5 months the CTR of retargeting ads decreases by almost 50%.

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So what benefits does prompt and strategic remarketing provide?

• Higher conversion rates - since the leads are already warm, remarketing leads to stronger ROI. Remarketing emails can get a conversion rate as high as 30%.
• Cost-effective advertising - remarketing is often more cost-effective since you aren’t doing cold outreach and the legwork of introducing the user to your brand.
• Improved brand recall - staying top-of-mind after someone visits your site increases purchase likelihood.
• Personalized customer journeys - by using different remarketing lists, you can build out multiple personalized customer journeys and target your remarketing ads to each specific journey.
• Reach multiple browsing touchpoints at once - remarketing is truly omnichannel and allows you to target the user on multiple devices and platforms.

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Remarketing strategies that work

Remarketing is deceptively versatile and can be moulded to suit almost any business or campaign need, making it a great complementary tactic to whatever you’re trying to achieve.

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Here are some tried and true remarketing strategies:

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List-based remarketing

Collecting email addresses on your website through pop-ups, surveys, or other campaigns that ask customers to share their email. 

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After collecting their contact info, you place those customers on a list and send them targeted emails to introduce your brand and promote your products. 

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Here’s an example from Awe Inspired. This brand features a product finder quiz on its website, asking customers questions about their style, personality, zodiac sign, and more. It then asks shoppers to share their email to get their results.

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Once their email is shared, they’re on Awe Inspired’s email list, and receive a welcome email about their quiz results. 

Now, each customer is on a specific email list, where they receive remarketing emails from Awe Inspired about product updates, deals, and other news until they decide to opt out.

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Cross-channel remarketing

This approach uses ads across multiple platforms/channels for stronger frequency and better reach. It ensures that if a shopper misses your email, they’ll still see your message somewhere else—like on social, display ads, or even in their mailbox.

Here’s an example from Mini Katana. This brand uses direct mail as part of its abandoned cart strategy, sending automated postcards to shoppers who leave a product in their cart without checking out.

If someone adds a sword to their cart but doesn’t buy, they’ll receive a postcard a few days later reminding them of what they left behind.

Because not every shopper opens emails or sees ads online, this physical reminder helps Mini Katana reach more people—and it works. Their abandoned cart postcards drive an 8x+ ROAS.

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Time-based remarketing

Remarketing strategies that adapt based on how long it’s been since a shopper last interacted with your brand.

The idea is to time your outreach perfectly—whether it’s minutes or hours after their last visit—so your message hits when they’re most likely to take action.

Here’s an example using Reactiv Clips. This tool lets brands send push notifications to users up to 8 hours after they engage with the mobile app page—without requiring a download or an opt-in. That means every single ad click can trigger a personalized follow-up on iOS, helping you reduce CAC and get more from your ad spend.

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Let’s say a shopper adds something to their cart but doesn’t check out. A few hours later, they get a push notification reminding them of what they left behind. Or maybe they browse a product page without taking action—later, they receive a quick nudge to revisit it.

You can also use this strategy to announce time-sensitive promotions or exclusive sales, creating urgency and nudging shoppers to buy before time runs out.

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Mobile app remarketing

Specifically targeted at mobile app users, mobile app remarketing seeks to re-engage users who have downloaded your app but haven’t used it recently.

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Med School Bro is a great example of this. As an alternative to the archaic nature of most med school studying resources and methods, they use study guides, flashcards, and PDFs to help med students ace their exams. 

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By offering engaging Question of the Day quizzes and weekly trivia features, they expertly use mobile app remarketing through personalized product recommendations to increase conversions. 

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The recommendations are based on the first-party data collected in-app, such as the quiz and trivia results. This gives them a data collection method that is engaging to users and also a launchpad for targeted remarketing.

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There’s a reason businesses keep re-using remarketing

If you’re not already using remarketing, you’re missing out on sales. It’s that simple. 

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Let us help you take more shots on net with mobile shoppers, convert buyers 3x more with remarketing strategies that cover all of the above. Contact us today to see if you’re a good fit for Reactiv.

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