Audiences built from behaviour
A single "all website visitors" list is lazy and it performs like it. We segment by what people did: viewed a product, started checkout, read pricing, or already bought. Each segment gets its own message, because someone who abandoned a cart needs a different nudge than someone who read one blog post.
Display conversion rates are low by nature, near 0.6%, so the win comes from cheap reach and tight audiences, not from expecting Display to convert like Search.
- Cart and checkout abandoners with product-specific creative
- Past customers for cross-sell and win-back
- Engaged non-converters from Search and Shopping
- Suppression of recent buyers to stop wasted impressions
Demand Gen replaced the old playbook
Video Action Campaigns and standalone Display are gone, folded into Demand Gen through 2025. Demand Gen runs visual, social-style creative across YouTube, Discover and Gmail, and it suits remarketing and prospecting to lookalike audiences.
We use it to re-engage warm traffic first, then carefully test cold lookalikes once the remarketing economics are proven.
Creative that earns the second click
Remarketing fails when the ad just repeats the homepage. We brief creative around the reason someone left: price, trust, a missing detail, or simple forgetfulness. A returning visitor who sees a relevant offer converts far more cheaply than a fresh click from Search.
Common questions
Yes, when the audiences are tight and the creative is relevant. Most ad clickers leave without converting, and reminding them is cheap, with Display clicks around $0.63. The mistake is one giant visitor list and a repeated homepage ad. Behaviour-based segments with specific messages are what make it pay.