Service, by job
Remarketing: audiences, frequency, and when it is a waste of money
Remarketing shows ads to people who have already been on your site or bought from you. Google will not serve a Display remarketing list until it holds 100 active users from the last 30 days, and Search or YouTube lists need 1,000, so a site with modest traffic behind a consent banner often cannot run it at all, whatever an agency proposes. Where the list is large enough it is managed on the Growth tier at £399 a month, with the window, the message and the frequency cap agreed in writing first.
Remarketing now
Smaller lists, better data, and a rule that did not exist before
Since March 2024 Google has required Consent Mode for advertisers showing personalised ads to people in the UK and the European Economic Area, which means a visitor who clicks “reject” on your cookie banner never joins the list. Combined with the limits browsers put on third-party cookies, remarketing audiences are a fraction of the size they were, and any plan that assumes every visitor can be followed is out of date.
What has improved is the data behind the lists. GA4 audiences can be built from behaviour rather than a page view: people who viewed a product twice, started the quote form and stopped, spent two minutes on the pricing page, or bought in the last year. Customer Match lets you upload your own customer emails and reach them, or exclude them, without a cookie at all. The lists are smaller and more useful, which suits a flat-fee manager better than one paid on volume.
Audiences we build
Each list has a window, a message and a place to run
| Audience | Window | What they see | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Started the quote or checkout, did not finish | 7 days | The thing they left, and the reason to come back: the callback, the delivery date, the guarantee | Display, and a Search bid adjustment |
| Viewed a service or product page twice | 14 to 30 days | Proof and a specific next step, not the same headline they already ignored | Display, YouTube where a short clip exists |
| All visitors who accepted cookies | 30 days | A reminder with one clear offer, capped hard | Display only, low bids |
| Past customers (Customer Match) | Rolling | Reorder, accessory, service due, or excluded entirely from acquisition campaigns | Search, Shopping, YouTube, Gmail |
| Converters in the last 30 days | 30 days | Nothing; they are an exclusion | Every campaign |
Frequency
The cap is the difference between a reminder and a nuisance
Left uncapped, a Display remarketing campaign will show the same banner to the same person dozens of times a day, because that person is cheap to reach and the campaign is told to reach people. Nobody buys a boiler because they saw the ad the fortieth time; they block it. We cap at three to five impressions a day per person, shorten the window to match the buying cycle, and rotate the creative so the third impression says something the first did not.
Search remarketing works the other way round. People who visited last week and are searching again are worth more than strangers, so the bid adjustment goes up for that list, and broad match can be allowed for them because we already know they are the right kind of searcher.
When it is a waste
Four cases where we say no
- The list will not fill. Under the 100 or 1,000 thresholds nothing serves, and a campaign that cannot serve is a line on an invoice.
- The purchase is decided in one visit. An emergency locksmith, a same-day boiler repair, a takeaway: the person has bought or moved on before the first banner loads.
- The Search campaign is still leaking. Following people who arrived on the wrong search is paying twice for the wrong visitor. The Search Terms report comes first.
- The message would be the same ad again. If there is nothing new to say, a second impression of the first ad adds cost and no reason.
Measurement
View-through conversions are not counted as results
Display reports a view-through conversion when someone who saw a banner, without clicking it, later converts. On a remarketing list that is nearly everyone, because they were already customers-in-waiting. The report counts click-through conversions and, where the list is large enough, a holdout: a share of the audience that sees nothing, so the campaign's real contribution is the difference between the two groups rather than a number the platform awarded itself.
Related
Where this connects
Google Ads management
The Search campaign that fills the list with the right people.
Landing pages for PPC
A page that converts the first visit needs less remarketing.
Pricing
Remarketing is managed on the Growth tier and above.
Get a quote
Tell us your monthly visits; the reply says whether a list would serve.
Questions about remarketing
My list is too small to serve. What then?
Google Display needs 100 active users in a list within 30 days before it serves, and Search and YouTube need 1,000. A site with a few hundred visits a month, of whom perhaps half accept the cookie banner, will not fill a Display list. The honest answer is to spend the money on Search and come back when the traffic supports it; Customer Match from your own email list is the exception, because it does not depend on the cookie.
Is it not creepy to follow people around?
It is when the same banner appears forty times a day for a month. Capped at a few impressions a day, for a window that matches how long people take to decide, with a message that says something new, it is a reminder rather than a pursuit. We set the cap and the window in writing before the campaign starts.
Does remarketing work without cookies?
Less than it did. Consent Mode means the list only fills with visitors who accepted analytics and ads cookies, and browser restrictions shorten how long a visitor stays in it. Customer Match, which matches your own customer emails to Google accounts, is the part that has become more important, not less.
Can I exclude people who already bought?
Yes, and we always do. A converter list is excluded from the acquisition audiences, and either dropped or moved to a separate list with a different message, such as a reorder reminder for consumables or an accessories offer after a machine.
Is remarketing included in the monthly fee?
On the Growth tier at £399 a month and above, and only when the traffic supports a list that will serve. We do not set up a remarketing campaign to have one on the report.
Not sure your traffic is enough for remarketing? Ask before you pay for it.
Send your monthly visits and your consent rate if you know it. The reply says whether a list would reach the threshold, and what we would run instead if not.