What is Remarketing? How It Works and Why It Has the Lowest CPA in Paid Traffic
<p>Remarketing (or retargeting) is the strategy of displaying ads to those who have already visited your site but did not convert. It uses the Google Ads or Meta pixel to identify visitors and re-display ads to them on other sites. It has the lowest CPA of paid traffic.</p>
Remarketing (or retargeting) is the strategy of displaying paid ads specifically to people who have already visited your site, viewed your products, or interacted with your brand — but did not complete the desired conversion. The goal is to bring back visitors who showed interest but left before making a purchase or contacting you.
How remarketing works
The mechanism works through a small code (pixel or tag) installed on your site that records visitors. When these people browse other sites, social networks, or conduct other searches on Google, your ads appear to them — with a message targeted to the interest they have already shown.
In Google Ads, you install the Google Ads tag on the site, create visitor lists, and display ads to them on the Display Network or in Search campaigns with a remarketing list. In Meta Ads, you install the Meta Pixel and create custom audiences (e.g., “people who visited my site in the last 30 days”) to display ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Why remarketing has the lowest CPA of paid traffic
Remarketing audiences convert more because they already know your brand, have shown interest by visiting a specific page, and are closer to making a purchase decision. The result is a CPA significantly lower than campaigns for cold audiences. For reference: the average CPA for cold audiences is R$80–150, while remarketing for visitors is R$20–50 and remarketing for abandoned carts is R$15–35.
Types of remarketing
- Standard remarketing: everyone who visited the site — brand awareness and general reacquisition
- Dynamic remarketing: shows exactly the product that the person viewed — ideal for e-commerce
- Abandoned cart: those who added to the cart but did not purchase — high priority for e-commerce
- Service page: those who visited a specific service page — ideal for B2B leads
- Customer list: upload of customer emails for upsell and reactivation
Best practices for remarketing
Segment by behavior, not just by visit: those who visited the pricing page receive an ad with customer testimonials and a direct CTA; those who visited the blog receive educational content. Set a frequency cap (5–10 impressions per week) to avoid irritation. Always exclude those who have already converted — nothing is more unnecessary than advertising to someone who is already a customer.
Remarketing vs. retargeting
In practice, the terms are used synonymously in the Brazilian market. Remarketing is the original term from Google, also used for email re-engagement. Retargeting is the broader industry term used by all platforms.
Related terms
- Paid Traffic — remarketing is a form of paid traffic
- CPA — remarketing has the lowest CPA of paid traffic
- CTR — remarketing has a higher CTR than cold audiences
- ROAS — remarketing campaigns have the best ROAS
- Sales Funnel — remarketing operates in the middle and bottom of the funnel
- Conversion Rate — remarketing audiences convert more