Quick answer: Facebook retargeting shows a second, different message to people who visited your site or engaged with you, and often produces the cheapest leads.
Most people who visit your website won’t enquire on the first visit. They’re comparing quotes, checking with a partner or just not ready yet. Retargeting lets you show those people a follow-up ad on Facebook and Instagram, so you stay in the running when they are ready.
For many service businesses, retargeting produces the cheapest leads in the whole account, because the audience already knows who you are.
What you need first
Retargeting depends on Meta being able to recognise your visitors. That needs:
- The Meta pixel installed on every page of your site
- Ideally the Conversions API as well, which sends visit and lead data from your server so fewer visits are lost to browser privacy settings and ad blockers
If your tracking is patchy, your retargeting audiences will be small and incomplete. See Meta pixel vs Conversions API.
The audiences worth building
Create these in Ads Manager under Audiences → Create audience → Custom audience.
Website visitors
- All visitors in the last 30 days
- Visitors to high-intent pages (pricing, quote, contact, booking) in the last 30 to 60 days
- People who started but didn’t finish your form, if your tracking captures that step
Website audiences can look back up to 180 days.
People who engaged on Facebook or Instagram
- Anyone who engaged with your Page or Instagram profile in the last 90 to 365 days
- People who watched at least 50% of your videos
- People who opened your lead form but didn’t submit it
These are especially useful if your site traffic is low, because engagement happens on Meta’s own apps and doesn’t rely on the pixel.
Exclusions
Always exclude people who already became leads or customers in the relevant window. Upload a customer list or use your “lead submitted” event. Showing “Get a free quote” to someone who just got one wastes money and looks careless.
What to show them
The first ad they saw didn’t convince them, so don’t just repeat it. Retargeting ads should answer the reason they hesitated:
- Proof: testimonials, reviews, before-and-after photos
- Process: “Here’s exactly what happens after you send a photo”
- Objections: pricing ranges, timeframes, warranties
- A lighter next step: a checklist, a short call, an email quote instead of a site visit
Rotate two to four ads so the same small audience doesn’t see one ad twenty times.
How much to spend
Retargeting audiences are small, so budgets are small too. A useful rule of thumb is 10 to 20% of your total Meta budget, or simply as much as it takes to reach the audience a few times a week without the frequency climbing above about 3 to 5 per week. If frequency climbs while results drop, the audience is saturated. See Facebook ad fatigue.
If your site gets fewer than about 1,000 visitors a month, a separate retargeting campaign may barely spend. In that case, rely on Advantage+ audience in your main campaign (it already favours warm audiences) and focus on growing traffic first.
How Advantage+ changes retargeting
In Advantage+ Sales and Leads campaigns, Meta already shows ads to warm audiences when it predicts they’ll convert. You can see how much spend goes to existing versus new audiences in the reporting breakdowns, and you can define your “existing customers” in the ad account settings. Many accounts no longer need a separate retargeting campaign. It still makes sense when you want a different message for warm people, or when you want precise control over who sees an offer.
Privacy and policy notes
- Your website needs a privacy policy that explains you use cookies and advertising pixels.
- Don’t write retargeting ads that say “We saw you looking at…” or reference personal circumstances. That breaks Meta’s personal attributes policy and feels intrusive.
- Health, finance and other sensitive sites have extra restrictions on what data can be shared with Meta.
Sources and further reading
- Meta Business Help Centre – search “website custom audiences” and “engagement custom audiences”
- Meta Business Tools Terms – the data rules for using the pixel and custom audiences
- OAIC: Australian Privacy Principles – your privacy obligations as an Australian business
Written by Gregory
20 years building websites and running lead generation, mostly with my own money on the line. Based in Sydney, working with clients worldwide. How I work →