Retargeting works best when the advert reflects what somebody did, not when every website visitor is followed for six months by the same generic creative. Start with a small number of meaningful groups and a clear reason to speak to each one.

You need working website events and enough audience volume before the setup can deliver.

Work through the checks

1. Check the dataset. Open Events Manager and confirm page views, product views, add-to-basket events, leads or purchases arrive correctly. Retargeting built on broken events creates incomplete or misleading audiences.
2. Create website audiences. In Audiences create Custom Audiences from website activity. Begin with a recent visitor window, then add higher-intent groups such as product viewers or basket abandoners if the volume supports them.
3. Create exclusions. Exclude recent purchasers from acquisition or basket-abandonment messages. For services, exclude completed leads where sales follow-up has already started.
4. Choose a sensible window. Short windows are more relevant but smaller. Match the retention period to the buying cycle and test whether enough people enter the audience to support delivery.
5. Build the campaign. Choose the Sales or Leads objective according to the result, then select the relevant custom audience at ad-set level and keep geography and exclusions correct.
6. Match creative to behaviour. Recent visitors may need the main reason to choose the business, product viewers may need proof or detail and basket abandoners may need reassurance about delivery or returns.
7. Measure incrementally. Track verified purchases or enquiries, frequency and cost. Retargeting often claims people already close to buying, so do not treat platform return as proof every sale was created by the campaign.

Keep retargeting relevant

Build the smallest structure that reflects real customer intent, exclude people who should not see the message and refresh the creative before frequency becomes a substitute for persuasion.

Source checked

This guide was checked against Meta Custom Audience guidance.