Solved: Bringing Back Visitors to an Ecomm Store

Hi Jahshua,

Thanks for reaching out!

It sounds like you're hitting a wall that a lot of ecomm store owners face. You're doing the hard work of getting people to your site with Search and Shopping, but turning those first-time visitors into actual customers is a whole other battle. You're right to be thinking about retargeting, but your questions about privacy and cookies show you're also aware it's not as simple as it used to be.

The good news is, it's absolutley solvable. The bad news is that most of the "best practice" advice out there is either outdated or just plain wrong. Let's dig into how you can build a retargeting machine that actually works instead of just burning cash by showing the same ad to everyone.

We'll need to look at why 'bringing visitors back' is the wrong goal...

First things first, we need to reframe the objective. The goal isn't just to "bring visitors back." That's too vague and it leads to lazy campaigns. The goal is to move a specific person from one stage of the buying journey to the next. Someone who spent five minutes looking at a specific product is in a completely different mindset to someone who added three items to their cart and then got distracted. Showing them both the same "Come back to our store!" ad is a guaranteed way to waste money.

Think of it like a funnel. You're already using Google Search and Shopping to fill the top of your funnel (ToFu) with people who have a problem your product might solve. Retargeting is your tool for the middle (MoFu) and bottom (BoFu) of the funnel. Your job is to identify where someone is in that journey and give them the specific nudge they need to move forward.

The further down the funnel they are, the more valuable they are, and the more aggressive and specific your messaging should be. This is where most people go wrong. They create one "all website visitors" audience and hope for the best. That's like a shop assistant shouting the same sales pitch at every single person who walks through the door, regardless of whether they're just browsing or standing at the till with their wallet out.

I'd say you need to build a proper audience structure first...

So, how do we put this into practice? You need to stop thinking in terms of one big audience and start segmenting based on user behaviour. The privacy changes you mentioned make this even more important. With shorter cookie windows, you have less time to make an impact, so your targeting and messaging have to be precise from the get-go. Relying on the platform's pixel data is still the most reliable way to do this.

Here’s a prioritised list of audiences you should be creating, starting with the highest intent (and most valuable) ones first. You can create these in Google Analytics and import them into Google Ads.

• -> Added Payment Method / Initiated Checkout (Last 7-14 days): These people were seconds away from buying. They are your absolute top priority. The reason they left could be anything from a distracting phone call to unexpected shipping costs. Your only job is to get them back to complete the purchase.
• -> Added to Cart (Last 7-14 days): Almost as good. They've shown clear buying intent. They like your product enough to add it to the basket. They just need a final push.

• -> Viewed Specific Product Pages (Last 14-30 days): They are interested in something specific. This is where you can get really clever with your ads, which we'll cover later.
• -> All Website Visitors (Last 30 days, but EXCLUDE all BoFu audiences and converters): This is your broader "catch-all" retargeting group. The message here needs to be more general, focused on brand reinforcement and showcasing best-sellers or new arrivals.

You MUST use exclusions. There is nothing more annoying for a customer than buying a product and then being chased around the internet by ads for that same product. It wastes your money and creates a bad experience. Your "Added to Cart" audience should exclude people who "Initiated Checkout" and "Purchased". Your "Viewed Product" audience should exclude everyone in the BoFu audiences. It's like a waterfall – you catch them in the most specific, high-intent bucket possible.

This flowchart shows how you can think about structuring this logic.

You probably should think beyond Google Ads...

You're currently on Google Ads, which is fine. You can run retargeting campaigns on the Google Display Network (GDN). But I'll be brutally honest with you: for most ecomm stores, the GDN is not the best place for this. The ads are often limited to static banners, they can appear on low-quality websites, and engagement is generally poor.

Where you really want to be focusing your retargeting budget is Meta (Facebook and Instagram). Why? Three reasons:

1. Dynamic Product Ads (DPA): This is the single most powerful tool for ecomm retargeting. It automatically shows people the exact products they viewed or added to their cart. You set up the template, connect your product feed, and Meta does the heavy lifting. It’s personal, it’s relevant, and it works incredibly well.
2. Better Ad Formats: On Meta, you can use Carousels to show multiple related products, or engaging video ads that show your product in action. You can tell a much richer story than you can with a simple banner ad on some random blog.
3. User Mindset: People are on Facebook and Instagram to browse and discover. They are in a more relaxed, visual mindset, which is perfect for reminding them of a product they were interested in. It feels less intrusive than a banner ad interrupting an article they're trying to read.

I've seen this time and time again with our ecomm clients. One campaign we worked on for a subscription box company achieved a 1000% return on ad spend, almost entirely driven by Meta retargeting. Another client selling women's apparel saw a 691% return using Meta Ads. This isn't to say Google can't work, but if you have a limited budget, you're almost always better off spending your retargeting pounds on Meta. You already use Google to find the initial intent; use Meta to close the deal.

You'll need a message they can't ignore...

Once you have your audiences segmented and you've chosen the right platform, you need to craft the right message. As we've established, a one-size-fits-all ad is useless. You need to speak directly to the user's mindset based on the audience segment they're in.

Let's break down what your copy should be doing for each of your key segments.

The key here is to match the intensity of your offer to the intensity of their intent. A 15% discount is a powerful motivator for a cart abandoner, but it's a waste of margin on someone who only glanced at your homepage. For them, a simple reminder of your brand is enough to stay top of mind.

Let's talk about budget and expectations...

A common question is how much to actually spend on this. There's no magic number, but a good starting point is to allocate around 10-20% of your total ad budget to retargeting campaigns. As your site traffic grows, this portion can increase.

The most important metric you'll be watching is Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). Because you're targeting a warm audience of people who already know you, your retargeting campaigns should have a significantly higher ROAS than your prospecting (ToFu) campaigns. If your Google Shopping campaigns are getting you a 2x or 3x ROAS, you should be aiming for 5x, 8x, or even higher from your BoFu retargeting campaigns. For example, the subscription box client I mentioned earlier hit a 1000% ROAS (that's a 10x return, or £10 in revenue for every £1 spent) with this kind of focused strategy.

You can use this simple calculator to project some potential outcomes. Play around with the numbers to see how small changes in your conversion rate or average order value can have a big impact on your overall return.

This is the main advice I have for you:

I know this is a lot to take in, but implementing even a few of these ideas will put you miles ahead of most of your competition. To make it easier, here's a summary of the actionable steps you should take.

This is a framework for building a powerful retargeting system. But the truth is, this is just the beginning. The real magic happens in the constant testing and optimisation—trying different offers, new ad creatives, adjusting audience windows, and analysing the data to see what's really driving sales.

It can be a full-time job, and doing it wrong can be an expensive learning curve. This is often where getting some expert help can make a huge difference. Having someone who has built and scaled these kinds of systems for dozens of other ecomm stores can help you avoid common mistakes and get to profitability much faster.

If you'd like to chat through your specific situation in more detail, we offer a completely free, no-obligation strategy session where we can take a look at your current campaigns and give you a tailored plan of action. It’s a great way to get a second opinion and some fresh ideas.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh