How to Set Up Remarketing in Google Ads

Remarketing with Google Ads: Setup & Strategies

In practice: the vast majority of your website visitors don't buy on their first visit. Remarketing brings them back, and typically far cheaper than cold traffic. In this guide, you'll learn how to set up, segment and run remarketing.

What is Remarketing?

Remarketing (also retargeting) shows ads to people who have already visited your website.

Example:

1. User visits your online shop, adds product to cart
2. Leaves website without purchase
3. Sees your display ad the next day: "10% discount on your cart!"
4. Returns and buys

Why so effective?

• Often cheaper clicks: especially on the Display Network
• Higher CR: Warm leads instead of cold traffic
• Higher AOV: Returning visitors often buy more
• Brand Recall: Multiple touchpoints = higher trust

Worked example (made-up numbers, CPA = CPC / CR):

• Cold Traffic: CPC €3, CR 2%, CPA €150
• Remarketing: CPC €0.50, CR 6%, CPA €8

In this example, roughly 18x cheaper per conversion. Only your own account shows your real numbers, and some remarketing buyers would have bought without the ad.

The 4 Main Remarketing Types

1. Standard Display Remarketing

What: Banner ads on millions of websites (Google Display Network)

For whom: All visitors to your website

Setup:

Google Ads → Create Campaign → Display
→ Goal: Sales / Leads
→ Audience: Website visitors

Note: Google is moving Display campaigns into Demand Gen. According to Google's help, a migration tool has been rolling out in phases since June 2026 that lets eligible advertisers move existing Display campaigns. Later, new Display campaigns can only be created in Demand Gen, and remaining campaigns will be migrated automatically. When you create the campaign, check whether your account still offers Display as a separate campaign type; otherwise Display remarketing runs through a Demand Gen campaign.

Best Use: Brand awareness, broad reach

Cost: In my experience often CPC €0.20-0.60

2. RLSA (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads)

What: Ads in Google search for previous website visitors

Example:

• User visits your shop, doesn't buy
• A week later they google "running shoes buy"
• Your ad appears (with higher bid, because you know: they know you!)

Setup:

Search campaign → Audiences → Observation
→ Add website visitors
→ Bid adjustment: +50-150%

Best Use: High-intent keywords with known visitors

Cost: Like search ads, but higher ROI

3. Dynamic Remarketing (E-Commerce)

What: Shows exactly the products the user viewed

Example:

[Display ad]
"You viewed these products:"
[Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 40 - €129]
[Adidas Ultraboost - €159]
"Now 15% off!"

Setup: Requires product feed (Google Merchant Center)

Best Use: E-Commerce with many products

Performance: In my experience usually a better CR than standard remarketing, because the ad shows exactly the product the user viewed

4. Video Remarketing (YouTube)

What: Video ads on YouTube for website visitors

Best Use:

• Brand building
• Product demos
• Testimonials

Cost: In my experience often CPV €0.05-0.20 (very cheap)

Remarketing Setup: Step by Step

Step 1: Install Google Ads Tag

Method A: Google Tag Manager (recommended)

GTM → Create Tag → Google Ads Remarketing
→ Enter Conversion ID
→ Trigger: All Pages
→ Publish

Method B: Direct

Google Ads → Tools → Audience Manager
→ Audience Sources → Google Ads Tag
→ Code on all pages

Test: Go to website, then check in Google Ads: "Audience size" should be >0

Step 2: Create Audiences

Basic segments:

1. All Visitors

Audience Manager → + New Audience
→ Website visitors
→ Name: "All Visitors 30 Days"
→ Duration: 30 days

2. Cart Abandoners (E-Commerce)

→ URL contains: "/checkout" or "/cart"
→ URL does NOT contain: "/thank-you"
→ Duration: 30 days

3. Product Page Visitors without Purchase

→ URL contains: "/product/"
→ URL does NOT contain: "/thank-you"
→ Duration: 30 days

4. Past Customers (Exclusion or Upsell)

→ URL contains: "/thank-you"
→ Duration: 540 days (max)

Step 3: Time-Based Segmentation

Why important? Intent changes over time.

Setup:

Audience 1: "Hot Leads" (0-7 days)
Audience 2: "Warm Leads" (8-30 days)
Audience 3: "Cold Leads" (31-90 days)

Different messages per segment!

The Remarketing Sequence Strategy

Day 1-7: Urgency & Incentive

Audience: Fresh visitors (highest intent!)

Message: Discount offer

"Still thinking? 10% off with code: WELCOME10"
"Only valid for 48 hours!"

Bid: +100-150% (aggressive!)

Channels: Display + RLSA

Why: Highest conversion probability

Day 8-30: Social Proof & Trust

Audience: Visitors who didn't convert

Message: Build trust

"Over 10,000 satisfied customers"
"★★★★★ 4.9 out of 5 stars"
[Show customer testimonials]

Bid: Standard

Channels: Display + YouTube

Why: Overcome purchase barriers (trust)

Day 31-90: Educational Content

Audience: Cold leads

Message: Value instead of sales

"The 10 Best Running Tips for Beginners"
"Free Guide: Finding the Perfect Running Shoe"

Bid: Low (-30%)

Channels: Display + Video

Why: Re-engagement through content, not blatant advertising

Advanced Remarketing Tactics

1. Cross-Sell & Up-Sell (for existing customers)

Setup:

Audience: "Running Shoe Buyers"
→ URL contains: "/thank-you"
AND Product ID Parameter

Campaign: "Upsell Premium Socks"

"Thanks for your purchase! Complement your running shoes:
Premium Running Socks - Now 20% off for existing customers"

Performance: In my experience often very efficient, because existing customers already know you and are cheap to reach

2. Abandoned Cart Recovery

The most profitable remarketing form!

Sequence:

1-2 hours later: Email + Display

"You forgot something in your cart!"

24 hours: Incentive

"Cart waiting! + Free shipping on orders today"

3 days: Urgency

"Last day! Products in cart almost sold out"

Conversion Rate: In my experience the highest of all remarketing audiences, because these users were already close to buying

3. Customer Match (Email Lists)

What: Upload your customer list → Remarketing in Google

Setup:

Audiences → + New Audience → Customer List
→ Upload CSV with emails

GDPR: Consent required! Who may upload lists and what to clarify on data protection beforehand is covered in my guide to Customer Match in Google Ads.

Use Cases:

• Exclude existing customers from acquisition campaigns
• VIP customers with exclusive offers
• Upsell/Cross-sell

Match Rate: Not every email can be matched to a Google account. Google Ads shows you the actual rate after the upload.

4. Lookalikes: the Successors of Similar Audiences

Important: Google shut down Similar Audiences in 2023. The idea lives on in two successors.

Optimized targeting: In Display and Demand Gen campaigns, Google uses your remarketing and customer lists as a signal and automatically looks for similar users.

Lookalike segments in Demand Gen:

Demand Gen campaign → Ad group → Audience
→ Create lookalike segment
→ Base: "Buyers last 90 days"

Size: Much larger than the original list

Performance: In my experience somewhere between remarketing and cold traffic

Use Case: Scaling when remarketing pool too small

Budget & Bidding Strategies

Budget Allocation

Recommended split:

Cold Traffic (Acquisition): 60-70%
Remarketing: 30-40%

Why not 100% remarketing?

• Need new traffic for remarketing pool
• Remarketing audience exhausts itself

Remarketing Budget Distribution:

Cart Abandoners: 40% (highest ROI)
Product Page Visitors: 30%
All Visitors: 20%
Lookalikes (Demand Gen): 10% (Testing)

Bids by Segment

Hot Leads (0-7 days, Cart Abandoners):

• Bid: +100-150% vs. Cold Traffic
• Reason: Much higher conversion probability

Warm Leads (8-30 days):

• Bid: +20-50%

Cold Leads (31-90 days):

• Bid: -20-40% (keep cheap)

RLSA (Search):

• Bid adjustment: +50-100% for visitors

Creative Strategies

Display Ad Best Practices

Format Mix:

• Responsive Display Ads (automatic)
• • Custom HTML5 Banners (for A/B tests)

Elements that work:

1. Product image (what they viewed)
2. Discount badge ("20% OFF")
3. Urgency ("Only 24h left!")
4. Social Proof ("10,000+ customers")
5. CTA button ("Get it now")

A/B Test Ideas:

• 10% vs. 15% vs. 20% discount
• "Buy now" vs. "Get it now"
• Product image vs. Lifestyle image

Dynamic Creative

What: Ads automatically adapt to users

Setup (for E-Commerce):

Campaign → Ads → Dynamic Ads
→ Connect feed (from Merchant Center)

Shows automatically:

• Products user viewed
• With current prices
• Possibly with sale prices

Performance: In my experience better than static ads, because every ad fits the user

Common Remarketing Mistakes

Mistake #1: Forgot Frequency Capping

Problem: User sees your ad 50x/day → annoying!

Solution:

Campaign → Settings → Advanced Settings
→ Frequency Capping: Max 3-5 impressions per day

Mistake #2: Too Long Membership Duration

Problem: 540 days remarketing → irrelevant after 3 months

Better:

• Cart Abandoners: 30 days
• Product Pages: 60 days
• All Visitors: 90 days

Mistake #3: No Segmentation

Problem: All visitors treated equally

Example (made-up numbers):

• Cart Abandoners: 15% CR
• Homepage Visitors: 2% CR

Solution: Separate campaigns with different bids

Mistake #4: Only Display

Wasted Potential: RLSA often more profitable!

Use all channels:

• Display Remarketing
• RLSA (Search)
• YouTube Remarketing
• Gmail Remarketing
• Demand Gen Remarketing (successor to the former Discovery ads)

Mistake #5: Not Excluding Existing Customers

Problem: You advertise to people who already bought

Solution:

Campaign → Audiences → Exclusions
→ Exclude "Buyers last 30 days"

Exception: Upsell campaigns!

Remarketing & GDPR

Important: Remarketing requires consent (Cookie Consent)

Compliance:

1. Cookie banner with opt-in (not just opt-out)
2. Privacy policy mentions remarketing
3. Google Consent Mode V2 (mandatory from March 2024)

Consent Mode Setup:

GTM → Configure Google Consent Mode
→ Ad Storage = Requires Consent

Impact: Your remarketing audience shrinks by everyone who rejects cookies. Your own consent rate shows you how many that is.

But: Compliance > Growth

Health topics: Google treats health as a sensitive category (for example illnesses or invasive procedures). For such ads, remarketing and Customer Match are usually off the table, as I explain in my article on the HWG and Google Ads.

Remarketing Performance: Measure Against Your Own Numbers

General benchmarks for CTR, conversion rate or ROAS won't help you much: they depend on industry, basket value, margin and consent rate. Comparing within your own account tells you more:

1. Remarketing vs. cold traffic: Compare CPA and ROAS of both campaign types over the same period.

2. Segments against each other: Evaluate cart abandoners, product page visitors and all visitors separately.

3. Break-even ROAS as your floor = 1 / margin

Example: 25% margin → 1 / 0.25 = 400% ROAS
Below that, you lose money on every remarketing sale.

Important: Remarketing ROAS often looks better than it is, because some buyers would have bought without the ad. If you want to know for sure, pause remarketing for a test period or in one region and compare total sales.

Remarketing Checklist

Setup ✅:

• Google Ads Tag on all pages
• Audiences created (min. 5 segments)
• Time-based segmentation (Hot/Warm/Cold)
• Cart Abandoner segment
• Frequency capping activated (3-5/day)

Campaigns ✅:

• Display Remarketing active
• RLSA on search campaigns
• Separate campaign for cart abandoners
• Customer Match setup (if email list available)
• Lookalike segments testing (Demand Gen)

Creative ✅:

• At least 3 ad variants
• Product images used
• Discount offers for hot leads
• Social proof for warm leads
• Dynamic Remarketing (E-Commerce)

Optimization ✅:

• Bids optimized by segment
• Budget split: 30-40% for remarketing
• Existing customers excluded (acquisition)
• A/B tests running
• GDPR compliant (Consent Mode)

Conclusion

In my experience, remarketing is one of the most profitable Google Ads channels:

• Often cheaper CPCs
• Much higher conversion rates
• Usually higher ROAS than cold traffic

Success Formula:

1. Segmentation (Time + Behavior)
2. Sequences (different messages)
3. Multi-Channel (Display + RLSA + Video)
4. Creative Diversity (A/B testing)
5. Frequency Capping

In practice, most of your visitors won't return, unless you actively bring them back!

Remarketing Setup Support

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FAQ on Google Ads Remarketing

What does Google Ads remarketing cost?

In my experience, remarketing CPCs on the Display Network are often €0.20-0.60, usually well below search ads. Minimum budget: €200-500/month. Typical planning: 20-40% of total budget for remarketing. Calculate your CPA yourself (CPC / conversion rate) and compare it with your acquisition campaigns. Setup: free, only ad spend.

How does remarketing work with Google Ads?

Google Ads Tag tracks website visitors, saves them in audiences (GDPR compliant with consent). Later, these users see your ads on Google Display Network, YouTube, Gmail, or in Google Search (RLSA). Only those who visited your website see remarketing ads. Membership duration: 1-540 days.

Is remarketing GDPR compliant?

Yes, with consent! Required: Cookie banner with opt-in (not just info), privacy policy mentions remarketing, Google Consent Mode V2 implemented. Without consent: No remarketing tracking. Impact: Your remarketing pool shrinks by everyone who rejects cookies, but you're on the legally safe side.

What's the difference between remarketing and retargeting?

Terms are used synonymously, mean the same: ads for website visitors. "Remarketing" = Google's term, "Retargeting" = generic term. Technically no difference. Both: User is tagged, sees ads later. Google calls it "Remarketing", Facebook "Retargeting".

How big does my remarketing list need to be?

According to Google: for Display, Search (RLSA) and YouTube, a list needs at least 100 active users in the last 30 days. Customer lists (Customer Match) also need 100 active users if they were uploaded or refreshed after February 1, 2024 (older lists: 1,000 matched users). Below the minimum, no ads are served to that list. From my practice, campaigns run much more steadily from a few thousand users per list, so for a start I'd rather recommend 5,000+ visitors per month.

Which remarketing strategy works best?

Cart Abandoner Remarketing: In my experience usually the highest ROI, because these users were close to buying. Sequences by time: Day 1-7 discount, Day 8-30 social proof, Day 31-90 content. Dynamic Remarketing (E-Commerce): Shows exactly the products the user viewed. RLSA: +50-100% bid adjustment for visitors in Search.

How often should remarketing ads appear?

Frequency Capping: Max 3-5 impressions per day, max 15-20 per week optimal. Too much: Annoys users, brand damage. Too little: Not effective. Cart Abandoners: Higher frequency ok (5-7/day first 3 days). Display: 3/day. RLSA: No cap (only in search).

Is remarketing worth it for small businesses?

Yes, especially! Benefits: usually cheaper clicks than cold traffic, works with small budget (from €200/month), in my experience often one of the channels with the best ROI. In my experience it makes sense from around 3,000-5,000 website visitors/month for a sufficiently large list. Under 1,000 visitors/month: First traffic generation, then remarketing.