Facebook retargeting ads

Most people who visit your website leave without buying, booking or getting in touch. Facebook retargeting ads put a second, better-aimed message in front of them on Facebook and Instagram while they are still deciding. The same approach reaches people who have watched your videos, messaged your page or bought from you before. Because these people already know who you are, retargeting usually shows a lower cost per result than cold campaigns, though some of that is business that would have come anyway.

This page covers retargeting as a piece of work in its own right: building the audiences, writing the follow-up ads and keeping the spend in proportion. Showing shoppers the exact products they browsed is a related but separate job, explained on my catalogue and dynamic product ads page. If you want all of your Facebook and Instagram advertising run month to month, retargeting usually sits inside ongoing Facebook ads management.

What retargeting changes for a UK business

A cold ad asks a stranger to trust you on the strength of one post in their feed. Retargeting talks to someone who has already shown interest, so the message can be more direct: a reminder of what they looked at, an answer to whatever stopped them, a reason to come back this week rather than next month. For a service business that might mean following up with people who read your prices but never sent the form. For a shop it might mean a nudge to people who added something to their basket and left.

It also changes how results should be read. These audiences are made up of people who were already part of the way to buying, so some of them would have come back without any ad. I report on retargeting with that in mind, rather than presenting every sale Meta attributes to it as money the ads created.

The UK consent rule that shapes everything

Website retargeting depends on the Meta Pixel, which stores cookies on the visitor’s device and reads information from their browser. Under regulation 6 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), that requires the visitor’s consent, and the Information Commissioner’s Office does not accept advertising cookies as strictly necessary. In practice, the Pixel must not load until a visitor accepts marketing cookies on your banner.

Two consequences follow that people often miss. Your website audiences only contain visitors who said yes, so they will be noticeably smaller than your traffic figures, and the plan has to allow for that. And a site where the Pixel fires before the banner is answered, or fires whatever the answer, is building audiences it has no right to. I check this before building anything, then set up the consent management platform or tag rules so the Pixel waits for a yes. Where the Conversions API sends events from your server, I apply the same consent decision to it, so declining on the banner means declining everywhere.

I am not a solicitor and none of this is legal advice. If your business has particular data protection questions, I am happy to work alongside whoever advises you on them.

Who retargeting suits, and who it does not

It suits businesses with:

• Enough website visitors, social followers or past customers to form audiences Meta can deliver to, even after consent has thinned the numbers.
• A buying decision that usually takes more than one visit, such as furniture, courses, private treatment, holidays, professional services or higher-priced products.
• A website that works when people return, with tracking that records the enquiry or sale.

It is a poor fit for a brand-new site with very little traffic, for impulse purchases that people either make on the first visit or never make, and for topics where following someone around with ads feels intrusive. Meta’s own business terms forbid sending sensitive information, such as details of a health condition, through the Pixel, so sites in those areas need careful handling of which pages are tracked at all. In those cases I would usually spend the budget on reaching new people first.

The audiences I build

A sound retargeting set-up uses a small number of audiences, each matched to how recently and how seriously someone engaged. I keep the number low on purpose. Lots of thin audiences split the budget and leave each ad set without enough results to learn from.

Ads that match how warm the person is

The commonest retargeting ad says “Still thinking about it?” and repeats the original offer. It rarely achieves much. A better approach is to work out why each group did not act, then answer that:

• People who read a service page but did not enquire usually need reassurance: how the process works, what it costs and who they will deal with.
• People who abandoned a form or basket often hit a practical snag, such as a delivery charge, a long form or doubt about timing.
• Past customers need a reason that fits them: a refill, a related product, an annual review or a seasonal reminder.

Discounts are a tool, not a default. If every abandoned basket earns a code, regular shoppers learn to abandon baskets. I would test an answer to the objection first and keep any offer for the groups that need it. When the ad sends people back to a page that cannot answer their questions, the page needs work too, and I may suggest a landing page designed for ad traffic.

Exclusions and frequency

Retargeting goes wrong in two predictable ways: it shows ads to the wrong people, or it shows them too often. Both are fixed in the settings, not by changing the budget.

Exclusions keep each audience clean. Buyers come out of the ads asking them to buy, people who enquired come out of the ads asking them to get in touch, and retargeting audiences are kept out of prospecting campaigns so the two are not competing for the same people. Staff come out too, where a list makes that possible.

Frequency, the average number of times each person sees your ads, climbs quickly in small audiences. A small pool with a generous budget can see the same ad many times a week, which irritates people and wastes money. I size the budget to the audience, rotate the creative and check frequency every week. My reach and frequency calculator gives a rough feel for this before you spend anything.

How I run it

1. Check consent and tracking. I test whether the Pixel waits for consent, whether the Conversions API follows the same rule, and whether each enquiry or purchase is recorded once.
2. Measure the pools. I look at how large each possible audience is once consent is accounted for, which decides how many audiences the account can support.
3. Build the audiences and exclusions. Usually two to four retargeting audiences, plus the exclusions described above.
4. Write and brief the ads. One message per audience, aimed at the reason that group did not act.
5. Launch with a budget sized to the audience. Retargeting normally takes a modest share of total Meta spend, set by how many people are in the pool rather than by a fixed percentage.
6. Review and adjust. I watch frequency, cost per result and what your business actually receives, and refresh the ads before they wear out.

Problems I see most often in UK accounts

• The Pixel loads before the cookie banner is answered, or the banner has no effect on it at all.
• Retargeting and prospecting run side by side with no exclusions, so the same people are paid for twice.
• A single audience of everyone who visited in the last 180 days, shown one ad for months.
• Purchases or leads counted twice, which makes retargeting look far better than it is.
• Results judged on Ads Manager alone. Meta counts sales that follow a click or a view of an ad within its attribution window, and retargeted people were likely to buy anyway, so its figures for these audiences run high.

What you receive

• A short written check of your consent set-up and Pixel tracking, with anything that needs fixing listed in order of importance.
• Audiences and exclusions built in your own ad account, named so your team can follow them.
• Ad copy and a creative brief for each audience.
• A monthly report that separates retargeting from prospecting and compares Meta’s figures with your own sales or enquiry records.

Everything stays in your Meta business account. You own the audiences, the Pixel and the data.

Cost and next step

Retargeting is usually set up as part of a wider Meta account rather than on its own, so the cost depends on what else is needed and how much is already in place. Send me your website address and a rough idea of your monthly Meta budget through my contact page, and I will tell you whether retargeting is worth doing yet and what I would fix first.