How to Retarget on Facebook

Showing an ad to someone who has never heard of you is tough, but showing an ad to someone who just visited your website? That's a game-changer. Facebook retargeting lets you reconnect with these warm leads, turning missed opportunities into loyal customers. This guide breaks down exactly how to set up your first retargeting campaign, from installing the Pixel to creating ads that bring people back.

What is Facebook Retargeting and Why Bother?

In simple terms, Facebook retargeting (or remarketing) is the practice of showing targeted ads to people who have already interacted with your business. This isn't about reaching cold, new audiences. It's about re-engaging people who have shown a clear interest in what you offer, whether they've visited your website, watched one of your videos, or are on your email list.

Think about it like this: a person walks into your physical shop, browses around, picks up an item, but then leaves without buying. What if you could gently tap them on the shoulder a day later and say, "Hey, still thinking about this? Here's a little reminder of why you liked it." That's what retargeting does digitally.

Why is it so effective? Because you're advertising to a warm audience. These people aren't strangers. They already know your brand, even just a little. This familiarity makes them far more likely to click on your ad, convert, and ultimately become a customer. It's one of the highest-performing advertising strategies for a reason: it focuses on people who are already partway through the customer journey.

The Foundation: Getting Your Facebook Pixel Ready

Before you can retarget anyone, you need a way for Facebook to know who has visited your website. This is where the Meta Pixel (formerly Facebook Pixel) comes in. It's a small snippet of code that you install on your website. It acts as a tracker, logging visits and specific actions people take, like adding an item to a cart or making a purchase. Without the Pixel, Facebook is flying blind and can't build your retargeting audiences.

How to Find and Install Your Pixel

Setting up the Pixel is less intimidating than it sounds. Here’s a straightforward breakdown:

1. Go to Meta Events Manager: Navigate to your Facebook Ads Manager, click the "All Tools" hamburger menu, and select "Events Manager."
2. Connect a Data Source: Click the green plus icon to "Connect Data Sources" and select "Web." Give your Pixel a name (usually just your business name) and enter your website URL.
3. Choose Your Installation Method: Meta gives you two main ways to install the code.
   • Partner Integration: This is the easiest method. If you use a common platform like Shopify, WordPress, Squarespace, or WooCommerce, Facebook provides a wizard that guides you through an automatic setup. You just log into your platform and follow the prompts. No code required.
   • Manual Installation: If you're not using a partner platform or prefer to do it yourself, you can install the code manually. Facebook will give you the Pixel base code. You just need to copy this code and paste it into the header section of your website's code, just before the closing <,/head>, tag. If you have a developer, you can also just email them the instructions directly from this screen.

Verify Your Pixel is Working

Once you've installed the Pixel, you need to make sure it's firing correctly. The easiest way to do this is by installing the "Meta Pixel Helper" extension for Google Chrome. It's a free tool that tells you if a Pixel is found on a site and if it's working properly. Install the extension, visit your own website, and click the Pixel Helper icon. If it lights up green and shows your Pixel ID, you're all set!

Building Your Warm Audiences: Who to Retarget

With your Pixel collecting data, it's time for the fun part: creating "Custom Audiences." These are the specific groups of people you will show your retargeting ads to. In your Facebook Ads Manager, navigate to "Audiences" to get started.

Here are the most valuable custom audiences you can create, along with ideas for how to use them:

1. Website Visitors

This is the most common form of retargeting. You can get surprisingly detailed here by creating audiences based on how people behaved on your site.

• All Website Visitors: This is the broadest option. You can create an audience of everyone who visited your site in the last 30, 60, 90, or even up to 180 days. This is great for general brand awareness and top-of-mind recall.
• Visitors of Specific Pages: Get more granular. Create an audience of people who viewed your pricing page, a specific product category, or read a particular blog post. Example: An online course creator retargets people who visited the sales page for their "Social Media Marketing 101" course with video testimonials from past students.
• Visitors Who Abandoned Their Cart: This is a must-have for e-commerce stores. You can create an audience of people who triggered the "Add to Cart" event but not the "Purchase" event. These are high-intent users who just need a final nudge. Example: A clothing boutique shows an ad with an image of the exact item left in the cart and offers a 10% discount code to complete the purchase.
• Visitors by Time Spent: You can even target your most engaged site visitors by creating an audience of people who spent the most time on your site (top 5%, 10%, or 25%). These visitors are highly interested and primed for a stronger call to action.

2. Customer List

If you have an email list or a customer database, you can upload it directly to Facebook. Meta will securely match the emails or phone numbers to Facebook profiles, allowing you to create a high-value Custom Audience.

• Upsell Existing Customers: Upload a list of people who have already purchased from you and show them ads for a new product, a subscription service, or a complementary item.
• Re-engage Inactive Subscribers: Have a segment of your email list that hasn't opened an email in 90 days? Upload them as a custom audience and run a re-engagement campaign on Facebook and Instagram to bring them back into the fold.

3. On-Platform Engagement

You don’t even need a website to start retargeting. You can build powerful audiences from people who interact directly with your content on Facebook and Instagram.

• Video Viewers: Create an audience of people who watched a certain percentage of one of your videos. For example, you can target anyone who watched at least 50% or 75% of a specific Reel or Facebook video. These people are clearly interested in your content.
• Page or Profile Engagers: This audience includes anyone who has liked, commented, shared, or saved one of your posts, or even just visited your Facebook Page or Instagram profile. It’s a great way to target your most active followers with a compelling offer.
• Lead Form Submitters: If you run lead gen campaigns on Facebook, you can create an audience of everyone who opened or submitted your lead form and retarget them with the next step in your funnel.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Retargeting Campaign

Now that you have your Pixel and your audiences, let’s put it all together in Ads Manager.

Step 1: Choose Your Campaign Objective

When you create a new campaign, the first thing Facebook asks is your objective. For retargeting, your goal is almost always to drive a specific action. The best objectives for this are:

• Sales: Choose this if you want people to make a purchase, and you have the "Purchase" event set up with your Pixel.
• Leads: Use this if your goal is to get people to sign up for a newsletter, download a guide, or fill out a contact form.

Step 2: Set Up Your Ad Set

The "Ad Set" level is where you define who sees your ads, where, and for how much budget. This is where your Custom Audience comes into play.

1. In the ad set settings, scroll down to the "Audience" section.
2. In the "Custom Audiences" search box, find and select the audience you created earlier (e.g., "Website Visitors - Last 30 Days" or "Abandoned Carts - Last 14 Days").
3. Use the 'Exclude' Function: This is incredibly important. You want to make sure you're not annoying people who have already converted. For an abandoned cart campaign, you would include your "Abandoned Carts" audience and exclude your "Purchasers" audience. This ensures your ad stops showing to someone the moment they buy.
4. Skip detailed targeting (interests, behaviors) for now. Your Custom Audience is already highly targeted, so you don't need to layer on additional interests.
5. Set your budget and schedule. Start small and scale up as you see what works.

Step 3: Design Your Retargeting Ads

The final step is creating the ad itself. Since you're talking to a warm audience, your copy and creative should acknowledge that.

• Change Your Messaging: Don’t introduce your brand again. They already know you! Use language that feels like a continuation of a conversation, such as "Still interested?", "Your cart is waiting for you," or "Ready to take the next step?".
• Show Them What They Looked At: For e-commerce, using "Dynamic Product Ads" is a powerful move. Facebook will automatically show people a carousel ad featuring the exact products they viewed or added to their cart on your website.
• Offer a Gentle Nudge: A small incentive can make all the difference. Test an offer like "Complete your purchase today and get free shipping" or a 10% discount code.
• Build Trust with Social Proof: Use ad creative that features customer testimonials, user-generated content (UGC), screenshots of 5-star reviews, or media logos. This helps validate their initial interest and overcome any lingering hesitation.

Final Thoughts

Retargeting on Facebook is all about continuing the conversation with people who have already raised their hand and shown interest. By setting up the Meta Pixel, thoughtfully building Custom Audiences, and tailoring your message, you can create a powerful system that brings back potential customers and drives growth for your business.

Running successful retargeting ads starts with having an engaged audience in the first place, built through consistent, valuable organic content. Since modern social media is powered by short-form video like Reels and TikToks, managing a bustling content calendar can feel chaotic. As social media managers ourselves, we created Postbase to solve this very problem. Our platform makes it simple to plan, schedule, and analyze your content - especially video - across all your profiles, helping you build that warm audience you need to make your ad spend work even harder.