Remarketing Campaigns on Google and Microsoft

What remarketing does

Remarketing (Google sometimes calls it 'your data segments') shows ads to people who have already interacted with you: visited a page, abandoned a basket, watched a YouTube video or appear on your customer list. Because they already know you, these audiences are usually cheaper to convert than strangers. It's also where badly set-up ads annoy people most, so the details matter.

We run remarketing as part of Google Ads management or PPC management. On Meta and LinkedIn, the equivalent is handled in paid social management.

Consent first, or the lists stay empty

In the UK, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) mean advertising cookies need consent. Google also requires advertisers to send consent signals for users in the UK and EEA. Since March 2024, Consent Mode v2 has added two signals, ad_user_data and ad_personalization, alongside ad_storage and analytics_storage. Without them, Google can't add consenting visitors to remarketing lists, and your audiences shrink or stop growing.

We check your cookie banner passes these signals correctly, in basic or advanced consent mode, before building any lists. If tracking needs work, it is set up under conversion tracking from £145 + VAT, one-off. Consent Mode itself doesn't ask for consent: you still need a consent banner or consent management platform.

Building audiences that are worth targeting

• Website visitors by intent. Pricing page or contact page visitors, people who started a quote, basket abandoners, and people who viewed a product category but didn't buy.
• Time windows. A 7-day basket abandoner needs a different message from a 90-day blog reader. We set membership durations to match your buying cycle.
• YouTube viewers. People who watched your videos or visited your channel, from a linked YouTube account.
• Customer Match. Hashed email addresses from your CRM or shop. Google Ads Help says Customer Match memberships last up to 540 days and lists need at least 100 members added or updated in that time to stay eligible. Google's Customer Match policy only allows full targeting for accounts with 90 days of history and more than US$50,000 lifetime spend; other accounts can still use lists for observation and exclusions, which is useful for keeping existing customers out of acquisition campaigns.

Google Ads Help also says a segment needs at least 100 active users in the past 30 days before it can serve on Search, Display or YouTube, so small sites sometimes need wider lists or longer windows.

Where remarketing runs

On Search, remarketing lists let us bid more, or show different ads, when a past visitor searches again. On Display and YouTube, they power image and video ads across Google's partner sites and apps. Remarketing audiences also act as signals in Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns. Microsoft Advertising offers its own remarketing lists through the UET tag.

We keep remarketing respectful: buyers are excluded, frequency is limited where the campaign type allows it, and Display placements are reviewed so ads don't appear on content you wouldn't want next to your brand.

Creative matters more in remarketing than anywhere else, because the same people see it repeatedly. We prepare several versions of each message, change offers with the seasons, and match the ad to the page someone looked at: a basket abandoner sees the product they left, a quote starter sees a reminder to finish, and a past customer sees what's new rather than what they already own. Ads are refreshed when click-through rates start to fall, which is usually the first sign people have stopped noticing them.

Price

Remarketing is managed from £150 a month + VAT, or 10 to 15% of ad spend if higher, usually as part of a wider Google Ads account. Ad spend is paid directly to Google or Microsoft. Monthly, cancel with notice. For email follow-up of the same people, see email automation.

What you get

• Consent Mode v2 and Google tag checked so audiences can actually build
• Audience segments by page visited, time since visit, basket or form abandonment
• Customer Match lists uploaded where eligible, with consent checked
• Remarketing on Search, Display, YouTube and Microsoft as suits your budget
• Exclusions for converters and frequency settings to avoid over-showing
• Fresh ad creative and offers rotated through the year

How it works and what it costs

Google Ads management from £150 a month, social media management from £125 a month and email marketing from £95 a month, all + VAT. Ad spend is separate and paid to the platform. No long contracts.

1. Free review

   We look at your current ads, social, email and analytics, or your plans if you are starting out, and tell you plainly what we would change.

2. Plan and price

   You get a written plan with targets, budgets and a fixed monthly fee before anything starts.

3. Set up properly

   Tracking and consent first, then campaigns, audiences, content calendars or email flows, all in accounts you own.

4. Run and improve

   We manage it every week: search terms, bids, creative, posts and tests, cutting what does not pay and doing more of what does.

5. Report in plain English

   A monthly report on leads, sales and cost per result, not vanity numbers, with what we will do next.

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