🧠 Are Your Retargeting Ads Even Doing Anything?

Welcome back to the 75th edition of Nord Media

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You ever had a slow leak in your house?

Maybe it was under the sink. A tiny drip, barely noticeable at first. No puddles, no major issues. 

Then, weeks later, you open the cabinet, and everything’s warped. The wood is swollen, mold is creeping in, and now you’re faced with costly repairs.

It’s quite the headache… 

And this is precisely what bad retargeting does to your ad budget.

At a glance, everything looks fine. Your campaigns are running, your ROAS isn’t terrible, and conversions are still coming in. 

But behind the scenes, you’re bleeding money, paying for clicks from customers who were going to buy anyway. Recycling the same audience over and over instead of actually driving new revenue.

Brands are wasting millions doing this. They treat retargeting like a safety net, thinking it’s just “sealing the deal” on lost customers. But in reality, they’re cannibalizing their profits, overpaying for customers they already had in the bag.

It’s time to fix that.

Today, we’re breaking down the steps to structure warm audience campaigns for true incremental revenue so you’re actually making more, not just shifting the same dollars around.

Let’s dive in.

Why You’re Overpaying for Customers Who Would’ve Bought Anyway

Retargeting feels like a no-brainer. 

Someone visits your site, doesn’t buy, and you remind them with an ad. Simple, right?

A lot of those people were going to buy anyway.

Think about the last time you left something in your cart. Maybe you got distracted, needed more time to think, or just didn’t feel like pulling out your card. 

A day or two later, you came back and checked out whether or not you saw an ad.

Now imagine if a brand spent money retargeting you, showing ad after ad, or even throwing in a discount to “win you back.” That’s money they didn’t need to spend.

This happens all the time. Retargeting campaigns end up chasing easy conversions instead of driving new purchases. And it leads to three big problems:

• Paying for purchases that were already coming. 

If someone was going to return and buy on their own, the ad isn’t influencing behavior—it’s just eating into your margin.

• Overlapping audiences across multiple channels. 

If someone sees a Meta ad, then a Google ad, and finally checks out, which ad actually made a difference? If you don’t structure campaigns carefully, you’re paying for the same customer multiple times.

• False signals from high in-platform ROAS. 

Retargeting ads look great on the dashboard because they convert at a high rate. But without measuring lift, it’s impossible to tell how many of those sales would’ve happened without the ad.

You don’t have to chase everyone who visits your site.

A Smarter Way to Structure Warm Audience Campaigns for True Incremental Revenue

​​Retargeting isn’t the problem. It’s how it’s being done.

The goal isn’t just to bring back visitors. It’s to influence new behavior. That means cutting out wasted spend on people who were already coming back and shifting the budget toward those who actually need an extra push.

Here’s how to make your retargeting strategy more efficient:

1. Segment Based on Intent, Not Just Page Visits
   Not all visitors are the same. Someone who bounced after five seconds isn’t the same as someone who added to cart but didn’t check out. Instead of lumping everyone into one retargeting pool, break them out:

High-intent visitors (cart abandoners, repeat visitors, product page explorers) 

These are the people worth retargeting with strategic messaging.

Low-intent visitors (people who bounced quickly, homepage lurkers) 

Instead of retargeting them immediately, consider excluding them or pushing them into a separate, lower-priority audience.

2. Set Frequency Caps to Avoid Overexposure
   One of the biggest money leaks in retargeting is ad fatigue. If someone sees your ad 10+ times in a week and still hasn’t converted, they’re either not interested or waiting for a better offer. 

Either way, continuing to pay for impressions is burning budget.

Keep frequency reasonable (2-4 impressions per week for warm audiences).

Exclude users who’ve seen multiple ads but haven’t engaged.

3. Stop Giving Discounts to People Who Don’t Need Them
   A first-time visitor abandoning their cart isn’t always price-sensitive. 

Maybe they were just checking shipping costs or waiting to get paid. If your retargeting ad immediately offers a discount, you might be handing out margin for no reason.

Test non-discount creatives first: Reviews, UGC, or urgency messaging.

Only offer discounts after multiple engagements or exit intent triggers.

4. Measure Lift, Not Just ROAS
   Retargeting ads almost always show high ROAS, but that’s because they’re targeting people who are already interested. The real question: Would they have purchased without the ad?

Use geo holdout tests or split audiences to measure true lift.

Compare retargeting results against a control group that doesn’t see ads.

When retargeting is structured this way, every dollar spent goes toward driving incremental revenue. Not just shuffling existing customers through the funnel.

The Overlap Problem: How to Stop Paying for the Same Customer Twice

One of the biggest reasons retargeting costs spiral out of control is “channel overlap.”

A potential customer visits your site, leaves, and then gets hit with retargeting ads across Meta, Google, and TikTok. Sometimes even within minutes of each other. 

If they convert, every platform takes credit, making it look like each channel is performing well.

In reality, you’re paying multiple times for the same conversion.

How to Fix It:

1. De-Duplicate Audiences Across Channels

If Meta is running dynamic retargeting, do you really need Google Display to do the same? 

Avoid running redundant campaigns across multiple platforms. Instead, allocate budgets based on what’s actually driving conversions.

2. Use Sequential Retargeting

Instead of blasting customers with the same message on every platform, stagger your touchpoints:

Meta → First exposure (UGC, social proof)

Google → Follow-up (search intent, branded queries)

Email/SMS → Final nudge (abandoned cart recovery)

This way, each touchpoint has a role instead of competing for the same conversion.

3. Exclude Recent Converters from All Retargeting Campaigns

If someone just bought, immediately remove them from all active retargeting lists. 

This prevents wasted impressions and improves customer experience (nobody wants to see ads for something they just purchased).

4. Check Attribution & Actual Contribution

Use first-click vs. last-click vs. data-driven attribution to see which channels are actually moving the needle.

Set up incrementality testing to measure which ads are making a difference versus those that are just taking credit.

Way too much money can be lost on redundant retargeting. 

But when you clean up audience overlap, segment based on intent, and prioritize true lift, your retargeting budget works harder, and your profitability skyrockets.

Closing Thoughts

The easiest way to stop wasting money is to start looking for the leaks.

• Check your audience overlap. Are you paying for the same customer across multiple platforms?

• Audit your discount strategy. Are you handing out margins to people who were already planning to buy?

• Measure true lift. Are your ads actually changing behavior or just taking credit for organic purchases?

Retargeting should drive incremental revenue, not just shuffle the same dollars around. 

You'll see the difference once you clean up your strategy by segmenting by intent, limiting wasted spend, and tightening up attribution.

Your budget will go further. Your profitability will climb. And best of all, you’ll stop overpaying for already your customers.

Start finding your leaks now.

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Thank you for reading! I appreciate you.

Sincerely,
Kody