Remarketing vs Retargeting: How Are They Different?

Why These Terms Are Often Confused

Retargeting or remarketing: the terms are often treated as synonyms because, in practice, they overlap heavily. Both strategies focus on re-engaging people who’ve already shown some interest in your product or service but haven’t yet converted. Both rely on tracking previous visitors or existing customers and showing them something relevant to bring them back.

The confusion largely stems from a shift in the industry. Google popularized “remarketing” specifically for its own ad platforms, while “retargeting” became the more general term for digital advertising. Ultimately, the two blurred together enough that most marketing strategies now take the form of a blend rather than two cleanly separate approaches.

What Is Retargeting?

Retargeting refers to paid ads, usually display ads, shown to people who interacted with your website or app but didn’t convert. It works by placing a tracking cookie in a visitor’s browser. This code triggers ad campaigns across social media platforms and platforms like Google Ads, following visitors around the web with relevant ads based on what they’ve browsed.

Use retargeting when the goal is re-engaging potential customers who are still in the consideration stage: they showed interest at some point, but something stopped them from completing a purchase or filling out a form.

What Is Remarketing?

Remarketing, in its more traditional sense, leans on email marketing, reaching out directly to people whose email addresses you already have – usually because they’re existing customers or potential customers who provided their information at some point. Instead of a cookie-based ad following someone across the web, remarketing campaigns typically take the form of targeted email campaigns, such as abandoned cart reminders, “we miss you” offers, or upsell messages based on purchase history.

Because it relies on first-party data like email addresses rather than third-party cookie tracking, remarketing offers more direct communication. You’re reaching someone through a channel they’ve explicitly given you access to, rather than showing up as an ad they didn’t necessarily expect to see again.

Main Differences Between Remarketing and Retargeting

These differences are gradually becoming less important, as plenty of marketers now use both terms more loosely. For example, even ad platforms like Google may call cookie-based display ads “remarketing campaigns,” which is exactly why the confusion keeps on.

Why the Difference Matters for Your Strategy

The difference is not just about semantics, as it shapes how you build a marketing strategy that moves people through the funnel.

A retargeting strategy tends to work best for audiences who didn’t convert and need another nudge through display ads on channels they’re already browsing.

Remarketing, on the other hand, tends to work best for re-engaging people you already have a direct communication line with. This approach drives repeat purchases, increases customer lifetime value, and keeps existing customers engaged long after their first purchase.

Used together, the two strategies cover both ends of the customer lifetime value picture: retargeting captures people before they convert, and remarketing keeps them coming back after they do, to boost your revenue growth beyond a single transaction.

How to Use Retargeting and Remarketing Together

A few practical ways to combine both approaches into one cohesive marketing strategy:

• Explore first-party data from your email campaigns to build more precise audience segments for retargeting campaigns.
• Use website visitor signals to trigger both a display ad retargeting sequence and a follow-up email marketing touch.
• Segment existing customers separately from new potential customers, since their purchase history and needs differ significantly.
• Track conversion rate and return on investment separately for each channel, since email marketing and paid media often perform very differently depending on your industry.

Measuring What Works

Whether you lean toward retargeting, remarketing, or both, tracking the right metrics matters.

Watch conversion rate, cost per conversion, and customer lifetime value, since remarketing to existing customers often drives stronger long-term value than retargeting focused purely on first-time conversions.

Both strategies should ultimately tie back to measurable revenue growth, not just impressions or opens.

Bottom Line

Remarketing and retargeting aren’t identical, even though the industry often uses them interchangeably.

Retargeting generally refers to cookie-based display ads that chase anonymous visitors across the web, while remarketing involves email-based outreach to people you already know.

The distinction matters less than making sure you’re using the right tool for the right audience, namely, re-engaging people who didn’t convert with retargeting and building customer lifetime value with existing customers through remarketing.

Contact IceWeb today, book your free discovery call, and let us help you develop the right online marketing strategy for your business!