Site retargeting (or site remarketing) is about showing display ads to those individuals who have visited your site and then left. They are your existing visitors, and maybe even your existing customers. Site retargeting has a lot of value, but let’s be clear, that value is in generating additional revenue from an audience you have already paid to generate.
Conversely, Search Retargeting is a prospecting tool (when done right). Its goal should be about findingnew individuals who have not yet visited your site.
If that is understood then it should be clear that site and search retargeting are not competing with each other at all, they are in fact complimentary and can / should be run together. Search Retargeting should bring you the brand new people, and site retargeting is there to ensure they convert if they wander off from the purchase funnel.
Useful to help understand these distinctions further is the ‘7 types of retargeting‘ inforgraphic, as well as the Retargeting Exposed white paper.
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