How to Set Up Retargeting Ads on Facebook

Almost 97% of people who visit your website for the first time leave without buying anything, and then they're gone forever. Facebook retargeting ads are your secret weapon to bring them back. This guide will walk you through setting up a powerful retargeting campaign, from installing the required tech to crafting ads that convert genuinely interested visitors into loyal customers.

What Exactly Are Facebook Retargeting Ads and Why Do You Need Them?

In simple terms, retargeting is the practice of showing ads specifically to people who have already visited your website, used your app, or engaged with your social media profiles. It’s like a gentle, digital tap on the shoulder saying, “Hey, remember us? You seemed interested in this.” Instead of shouting your message to a cold audience of strangers, you’re having a second conversation with a "warm" audience that already knows who you are.

Why does this matter so much? Because these people are significantly more likely to convert. They’ve already shown intent - by visiting your pricing page, adding a product to their cart, or watching your video. Retargeting gives you a second chance (and a third, and a fourth) to seal the deal. This approach typically leads to a higher Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and a lower Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) compared to campaigns targeting cold audiences, making it one of the most efficient forms of digital advertising around.

Step 1: Get Your Facebook Pixel Ready to Go

Before you can retarget anyone, you need a way for Facebook to know who has visited your website. That’s the job of the Meta Pixel (formerly the Facebook Pixel). The Pixel is a small snippet of code you place on your website that tracks visitor activity and sends it back to your Facebook Ads Manager. Without it, Facebook is flying blind and can't build the audience you need.

Think of it as your own personal security camera for your website traffic. It records who visits which pages, who adds items to the cart, and who makes a purchase.

How to Find and Install Your Pixel:

1. Log into your Facebook Ads Manager and go to the Events Manager.
2. Click on the green plus icon that says "Connect Data Sources" and select "Web". Hit "Connect."
3. Give your Pixel a name (usually just your business name) and enter your website URL.
4. Now, you need to add this code to your website. You have two main options:
   
   • Use a Partner Integration: If your website is built on a platform like Shopify, WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix, this is the easiest path. Facebook provides simple, guided instructions for adding the Pixel without ever touching a line of code. You’ll usually just need to find your Pixel ID (a long string of numbers) and paste it into a designated field in your website’s admin panel.
   • Manually Install the Code: If you're using a custom-built site or your platform doesn’t have an integration, you'll need to copy the Pixel's base code and paste it into the header section of your website's code - on every single page. If you're not comfortable with HTML, it’s a quick job for a web developer.

Once it's installed, you can use the Meta Pixel Helper Chrome extension to verify it's working correctly on your site. When you visit your website, the extension's icon should light up and show you that the Pixel is active and sending information.

Step 2: Create a Custom Audience from Your Website Visitors

With your Pixel collecting data, you can now tell Facebook exactly who you want to show your ads to. This is done by creating a "Custom Audience." This is the foundational piece of any retargeting campaign.

Here’s how to build your first and most important retargeting audience:

1. In Facebook Ads Manager, navigate to the "Audiences" section.
2. Click the blue "Create Audience" button and select "Custom Audience" from the dropdown menu.
3. For your source, select "Website," then click "Next."
4. This is where you define your audience rules. Under "Events," you will see a dropdown menu. For your first campaign, a great starting point is to select "All Website Visitors."
5. Set the "Retention" period. This tells Facebook how long to keep someone in this audience after their last visit. A common starting point is 30 days. This means anyone who visited your site in the last month will see your retargeting ads. You can set this for up to 180 days.
6. Give your audience a clear name, like "[Your Site] - All Visitors - 30 Days."
7. Click "Create Audience."

It will take some time for Facebook to populate this audience, especially if your site is new. You’ll see its status as "Populating" until there are enough people in it to serve ads to (usually a few hundred at least).

Creating More Specific Audiences for Smarter Retargeting

Showing ads to "all website visitors" is powerful, but you can get even smarter by creating more specific audience segments. The more relevant your ad is, the better it will perform. Here are a few high-value custom audiences to create:

• People who visited specific pages: Do you have a key product or service page? You can create an audience of people who visited that exact URL. This allows you to show them ads featuring that specific product.
  Example: "Visited Pricing Page - 14 Days"
• Shopping Cart Abandoners: For e-commerce stores, this is gold. You can create an audience of people who triggered the "Add to Cart" event but not the "Purchase" event. Your ad can then remind them about the items left in their cart, perhaps with a small discount code to encourage them to complete the purchase.
  Example: "[ECOM] - Cart Abandoners - 7 Days"
• Visitors by Time Spent: You can create audiences of your most engaged visitors - people who spent the most time on your site. Facebook lets you segment by the top 25%, 10%, or 5% of your sitewide visitors based on time. These people are highly engaged and often just need one more nudge.
  Example: "[Your Site] - Top 10% Visitors by Time - 30 Days"

By building these different audiences, you can tailor your messaging precisely to where someone is in their customer journey.

Step 3: Build Your First Retargeting Campaign

With your Pixel firing and your audience built, it’s time to create the actual ad campaign. The process is similar to creating any other Facebook ad, but with one key difference at the audience selection step.

Here's the step-by-step launch sequence:

1. Choose Your Campaign Objective: In Ads Manager, click "Create." For your objective, you’ll almost always want to choose "Sales" (formerly "Conversions") for retargeting. This tells Facebook's algorithm to find the people in your audience who are most likely to take a desired action, like making a purchase or filling out a form.
2. Set Your Budget and Schedule: In the Ad Set level of your campaign, you’ll set your daily or lifetime budget. You don’t need a massive budget to start, even $10-$20 a day can generate great results for a small retargeting audience.
3. Select Your Audience: This is the crucial step. In the "Audience" section of your Ad Set settings, find the "Custom Audiences" box. Click inside it and select the audience you created earlier (e.g., "[Your Site] - All Visitors - 30 Days"). Leave the detailed targeting settings (interests, behaviors) blank. You don't need them because you’re already telling Facebook exactly who to target.
4. Manage Placements: You can leave this on "Advantage+ Placements" to let Facebook show your ads where they're likely to perform best, or you can manually select placements if you only want your ads to appear on, say, Instagram Stories and Facebook Feed.

From there, you proceed to the Ad level, where you'll design the creative that your audience will see.

Step 4: Design Retargeting Ads That Actually Work

Your retargeting ad shouldn’t be the same as the ad you show to someone who's never heard of you. A warm audience already has context, they know your brand. Your job is to remind them of the value you offer and gently nudge them towards conversion.

Here are some effective strategies for retargeting ad creative:

• Remind Them What They Looked At: Use Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) for e-commerce. These automatically show people the exact products they viewed or added to their cart. It truly doesn't get more relevant than that.
• Overcome Common Objections: Did they visit your pricing page but not sign up? Maybe they're worried about price or complexity. Your retargeting ad could feature a customer testimonial addressing that specific concern, highlight your money-back guarantee, or offer a limited-time discount code.
• Show Social Proof: Use your retargeting ads to showcase positive reviews, customer testimonials (video is fantastic for this), or mentions from well-known publications. This builds trust and confidence with people who are already on the fence.
• Offer an Irresistible Incentive: A simple "Come back and finish your purchase for 15% off" ad can be incredibly effective for cart abandoners. Free shipping, a bonus gift, or a free trial can all be powerful motivators to bring someone back over the finish line.

Remember to always keep your ad copy and creative direct and value-focused. They already know who you are, so get straight to the point and give them a reason to click.

Final Thoughts

Setting up Facebook retargeting ads is a game-changer because you're allocating budget to your most qualified audience - the people who have already raised their hand and shown interest. By installing the Meta Pixel, building thoughtful Custom Audiences, and creating ads that speak directly to visitors' previous actions, you can dramatically improve your conversion rates and get a much stronger return on your ad spend.

While retargeting is excellent for capturing people already in your funnel, a strong organic social media presence is what fills that funnel in the first place. You create the initial awareness and interest with great content, and ads bring interested people back. Managing all that organic content, however, can feel chaotic. Seeing so many people struggle with outdated, clunky scheduling tools is exactly why we built Postbase. It’s a clean, modern platform designed to make planning, scheduling, and analyzing your social media simple and reliable, so you can focus on creating the content that attracts your next big customer.