Retargeting ROI: Track Visitors Who Didn't Convert and Measure Results
Ninety-seven percent of website visitors leave without buying. They browse your products, read your content, maybe even add items to their cart—then disappear.
Most businesses treat these visitors as lost. They're not. They're opportunities.
Retargeting campaigns bring them back by showing ads across platforms like Facebook, Google, and Instagram. But here's what matters: tracking whether those ads actually drive revenue or just burn budget.
Why Retargeting Works (And Why Most People Still Don't Track It Properly)
Standard display ads convert at 0.05-0.10%. Retargeting ads convert at 0.7-1.5%—that's 10-15 times higher. Why? Because you're reaching people who've already expressed interest through their behavior.
The economics change completely. If your acquisition cost for cold traffic is $150 per customer, retargeting often runs $30-60 per customer. You're working with a qualified audience that's already partway through your funnel.
Setting Up Your Retargeting Pixel
Before you can measure results, you need proper tracking. That starts with your pixel—the piece of code that tracks visitor behavior on your site.
Every major ad platform provides a pixel: Facebook Pixel, Google Ads Remarketing Tag, LinkedIn Insight Tag. Install your pixel in the header of your site. If you're using Google Tag Manager (you should be), create a new tag that fires on all pages.
Test it using the browser extension provided by your ad platform—Facebook has Pixel Helper, Google has Tag Assistant.
But here's where most people stop. They install the base pixel and call it done. That's not enough. You need event tracking.
Event tracking captures specific actions: viewing a product page, adding items to cart, reaching checkout, completing purchase. These events let you segment audiences by behavior and measure which actions correlate with eventual conversion.
Set up events for:
- Page views (specific high-intent pages like pricing, features, case studies)
- Add to cart
- Initiate checkout
- Purchase (with transaction value)
- Form submissions
- Video views (if you use video content)
Audience Segmentation: Not All Visitors Are Equal
Once your pixel is tracking behavior, you can build audiences. This is where retargeting gets powerful—and where most campaigns fail.
The mistake: creating one giant audience of "everyone who visited my site" and showing them all the same ad.
The reality: someone who viewed your homepage for 8 seconds is completely different from someone who spent 12 minutes on your pricing page, added a product to cart, and abandoned at checkout.
Segment your audiences by behavior and intent level:
Low-Intent Audiences (visited homepage or blog only):
These visitors barely know you. Retarget them with educational content, not hard sells. Show them blog posts, guides, or brand awareness messages.
Expected conversion rate: 0.3-0.7%
Recommended budget allocation: 10-15%
Medium-Intent Audiences (viewed product/service pages):
These visitors explored what you offer. Show them case studies, customer testimonials, or comparison content. Address objections.
Expected conversion rate: 0.8-1.5%
Recommended budget allocation: 25-35%
High-Intent Audiences (viewed pricing, started checkout, added to cart):
Your hottest prospects. They were ready to buy. Hit them with offers: limited-time discounts, free shipping, money-back guarantees.
Expected conversion rate: 2-5%
Recommended budget allocation: 50-65%
Recent Converters:
People who already bought. Show them complementary products, premium tiers, or referral incentives.
Expected conversion rate: 3-8% (for relevant upsells)
Recommended budget allocation: 10-15%
Setting Up Conversion Tracking
You need conversion tracking—the system that connects ad clicks to revenue.
Place conversion pixels on your confirmation page (the "thank you" page after purchasing or form submission). When someone completes the action, the pixel fires and reports back.
Critical part: Pass transaction values through your conversion pixel.
Not just "a conversion happened"—you need "a conversion worth $247 happened."
Without revenue data, you can't calculate ROAS. Most e-commerce platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce) have plugins that automatically pass transaction values to your ad pixels.
If you're running lead generation, assign average customer values to different conversion types: demo request = $500, free trial signup = $300, contact form = $150.
The Metrics That Actually Matter
Your ad platform dashboard shows dozens of metrics. Most don't matter for measuring ROI. Focus on these:
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend):
Your primary profitability metric. ROAS = Revenue Generated ÷ Ad Spend.
Industry benchmarks:
- E-commerce: 4-8x ROAS
- SaaS/B2B: 3-6x ROAS
- Lead generation: 5-10x ROAS
Anything below 3x ROAS for retargeting campaigns deserves scrutiny.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA):
How much are you paying to acquire a customer through retargeting?
CPA = Total Ad Spend ÷ Number of Conversions
Compare this to your customer lifetime value (LTV). A useful rule: your CPA should be no more than 30% of your LTV for retargeting campaigns.
Conversion Rate:
What percentage of people who click your retargeting ads actually convert?
Conversion Rate = Conversions ÷ Clicks
This tells you whether your landing pages and offers match your ad messaging. High CTR with low conversion rates means your ads are compelling but your landing experience disappoints.
When Retargeting Isn't Working (And How to Fix It)
If your retargeting ROAS is below 3x or your CPA exceeds 40% of LTV, something's broken:
Problem 1: You're retargeting too cold. Solution: Exclude homepage-only visitors. Focus budget on people who viewed product pages or higher-intent pages.
Problem 2: Your frequency is too high. Solution: If people are seeing your ads 10+ times without converting, cap frequency at 5-7 impressions per week.
Problem 3: Your offer doesn't match intent. Solution: High-intent audiences need conversion offers (discounts, urgency). Low-intent audiences need educational content.
Problem 4: Your attribution window is wrong. Solution: E-commerce should use 1-7 day windows. B2B needs 30-90 day windows due to longer sales cycles.
Retargeting works when you track the right behaviors, segment audiences properly, and measure what matters. Skip any of those steps and you're guessing—not optimizing.
Related Guides: Retargeting Guide, Tracking Setup Guide, ROAS Calculator.