---
title: "Remarketing"
url: https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/remarketing
type: Page
---

# Remarketing

Remarketing explained: how Google Ads data segments work, what dynamic remarketing needs, and the consent and policy rules that limit who you can target.

PPC glossary

## Remarketing

Remarketing is showing ads to people who have already interacted with a business, for example by visiting its website, using its app, watching its YouTube videos or giving it their email address. Google Ads now calls remarketing lists 'your data' segments, which can be targeted or excluded across Search, YouTube, Display and Gmail.

## How does remarketing work in Google Ads?

The Google tag on a website adds visitors to segments based on rules, such as everyone who viewed a product page or started checkout. Google says a segment needs more than 100 active users before it can run ads.

- Website visitors, shown ads on Display and in later Google searches
- App users
- YouTube users who watched videos or interacted with the channel
- Customer Match: uploaded customer contact details, matched to signed-in Google users
- People who submitted a Google Ads lead form

## What is dynamic remarketing?

Dynamic remarketing shows people the specific products or services they looked at. For retailers it needs product data in Merchant Center, a linked Google Ads account and the dynamic remarketing tag on the site.

## Consent and policy limits

For users in the European Economic Area, Google's consent mode needs both ad_user_data and ad_personalization granted for personalised advertising; if ad_personalization is denied, remarketing receives no data. Google's personalised advertising policy also bars advertiser-curated audiences for sensitive categories such as health, negative financial status and gambling, and excludes under-18s from personalised ads.

## Using it well

- Exclude recent buyers unless there is a reason to sell to them again
- Separate cart abandoners from blog readers, since their intent differs
- Bid higher on Search for past visitors who return to generic queries
- Test incrementality, because many remarketed visitors would have come back anyway

## Example

An online furniture shop builds a segment of visitors who added a sofa to their basket in the past 14 days without buying, and shows them dynamic ads featuring that sofa and a free delivery offer. It excludes anyone who bought, so the budget goes only on people still deciding.

## Related terms

- [Google Consent Mode](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/consent-mode)
- [Demand Gen](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/demand-gen)
- [Google Merchant Center (GMC)](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/google-merchant-center)
- [Attribution model](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/attribution-models)
- [Incrementality testing](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/incrementality-testing)
- [Performance Max](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/performance-max)

## Further reading

- [A Visibility Playbook for E-commerce](https://marketingsignals.com/playbooks/the-e-commerce-visibility-playbook)

Our [Pay Per Click](https://marketingsignals.com/service/pay-per-click) service puts this into practice for brands in the UK and US.

## Sources

- [About your data segments, Google Ads Help](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453998?hl=en-GB)
- [About setting up your data segments, Google Ads Help](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2454000)
- [About dynamic remarketing for retail, Google Ads Help](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6099158?hl=en)
- [Consent mode reference, Google Ads Help](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/13802165)
- [Personalized advertising policy, Google Advertising Policies Help](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/143465)

## Ready To Make Your Ad Spend Work Harder?