What is Retargeting Rate?

Why It Matters

Retargeting rate shows whether the budget spent re-engaging warm prospects is actually recovering lost sales, or just repeatedly showing ads to people who were never going to convert. Because the retargeting audience has already demonstrated intent by visiting a product page or clicking an earlier ad, this rate is expected to run well above cold prospecting conversion rates, and judging it against a top-of-funnel benchmark would make it look artificially strong or hide real underperformance. Tracking it helps a team decide how much budget to allocate toward retargeting versus new-audience acquisition, since a strong retargeting rate justifies expanding the retargeting pool, while a weak one suggests the ad creative or offer isn't closing the gap for people who hesitated. It also interacts closely with frequency, since showing the same retargeting ad too many times to someone who isn't converting wastes spend that could go toward reaching new warm prospects instead.

Example

A campaign serves retargeting ads to 20,000 people who previously visited a product page without buying, and 800 of them go on to convert. Retargeting rate is 800 divided by 20,000, times 100, which equals 4%. Retargeting rate is typically several times higher than a cold prospecting campaign's conversion rate, since the audience has already shown intent, which is why retargeting budgets are usually judged against a different, higher benchmark than top-of-funnel campaigns.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who counts as being in the retargeting rate denominator?

  Everyone served a retargeting ad after a qualifying earlier action, such as visiting a product page or clicking a prospecting ad without converting, regardless of whether they end up converting.

• How does retargeting rate differ from regular conversion rate?

  Regular conversion rate typically measures a broader or colder audience, while retargeting rate is specifically measured against people who already showed intent, which is why it's usually judged against a higher benchmark.

• Why is retargeting rate usually higher than cold campaign conversion rates?

  The retargeting audience has already engaged once, visiting a page or clicking an ad, so they're further along in considering a purchase than someone seeing the brand for the first time.

• What causes retargeting rate to decline over time?

  Showing the same ad too frequently to the same audience without capping frequency, or retargeting people too far outside a reasonable window after their original visit, both tend to erode retargeting performance.

• How can retargeting rate be improved?

  Segmenting the retargeting audience by how far they got in the funnel, such as cart abandoners versus page viewers, and tailoring the offer or creative to that specific segment typically lifts retargeting rate.