Retargeting Strategy: 21 High-Converting Ad Templates for SaaS

Retargeting, also called remarketing, is advertising shown to people who already visited your website, used your app or engaged with your brand but didn’t convert, to bring them back to sign up, book a demo or buy. A tag on your site can add eligible visitors to an audience list, and ad platforms such as Google, Meta and LinkedIn then show that list your ads while they browse, scroll or search.

That is how Criteo, AdRoll and LinkedIn define it. For a B2B software company, the people worth retargeting are usually pricing page visitors, demo form abandoners and trial users who never activated: buyers who already know the problem and haven’t decided yet.

Key takeaways

• Google Ads serves ads to a website audience once it has at least 100 active users in the last 30 days, and keeps visitors on it for up to 540 days, according to Google Ads Help in November 2026.
• LinkedIn delivers to a website retargeting audience only after it matches 300 member accounts, LinkedIn Help states as of November 2026.
• Third-party cookies stay in Chrome: Google said in April 2025 it would keep users’ current cookie choice, while Safari has blocked them by default since March 2020, per WebKit.
• In Metadata’s 2026 benchmark of 153 B2B advertisers, LinkedIn retargeting cost $234 per lead against $194 for prospecting, while Facebook retargeting was cheaper, at $120 against $166.

How does retargeting work?

Most retargeting runs on a tag: a small piece of JavaScript on your website, which AdRoll calls the retargeting pixel. Each platform has its own, the Google tag, the Meta Pixel and the LinkedIn Insight Tag. A campaign then runs as a loop:

1. Someone visits a page, say your pricing page, and leaves without signing up.
2. Where tracking is permitted and the visitor can be matched, the tag records the visit and the platform adds them to an audience that matches your rule, such as “visited a URL containing /pricing in the last 30 days”.
3. You show that audience ads that answer whatever stopped them, using frequency controls where the campaign supports them.
4. They click back to your site and book a demo or start a trial.
5. Your conversion tag puts them on an exclusion list, so you stop paying to reach people who already said yes.

Pixel retargeting is one of three kinds. List retargeting starts from contacts you already have: you upload a customer or lead list and the platform matches it to signed-in users. Google calls this Customer Match; Meta matches customer files on hashed email addresses. Engagement retargeting uses activity on the platform itself, such as people who watched your videos, opened a lead form or engaged with your Facebook Page or Instagram profile.

Retargeting vs remarketing

The two words mean the same thing in practice. Google says remarketing and now files remarketing lists under “your data segments”; Meta, LinkedIn and ad tech companies such as Criteo and AdRoll say retargeting. The settings, rules and minimums are what differ, and they differ by platform, not by name.

Where can you run retargeting ads?

Google, Meta and LinkedIn all let you retarget website visitors and uploaded lists, but each has its own audience types, minimum size and membership window. These are the rules as each platform documents them, checked on November 2, 2026.

Platform	Audience types	Minimum to serve	How long people stay	Source
Google Ads	Website visitors, app users, YouTube viewers, Customer Match lists, lead form submitters	100 active users in the last 30 days for Display, Search and YouTube (an older Search page still says 1,000)	Display and Search: 30 days by default, up to 540 days	Audience manager, data segments
Meta (Facebook, Instagram)	Website (Meta Pixel), engagement (Page, Instagram, lead forms, video), customer file	Not stated on the developer pages we checked	Website: 1 to 180 days in the API reference (its FAQ says up to 365); Page and Instagram engagement up to 730 days; lead forms 90 days	Website audiences, engagement audiences
LinkedIn	Website (Insight Tag), Company Page engagement, contact and company lists	300 matched member accounts	You choose a lookback window; the audience builds only from the day you create it	Website retargeting, Matched Audiences

Google Ads

Google shows your ads to past visitors as they browse “over 2 million websites and mobile apps” on its Display Network, on YouTube, and in Search when they look for what they need again, Google Ads Help states as of November 2026. The same page says there is no extra cost to use Google’s auction: retargeting is priced like any other campaign. A segment needs 100 active visitors or users in the last 30 days before ads serve, and Google keeps people on it for 30 days by default and up to 540. Google’s older Search ads page still asks for 1,000 cookies, so if a Search campaign won’t start, size is the first thing to check. Our Google Ads strategy guide covers the rest of the account setup.

Meta (Facebook and Instagram)

Meta builds website audiences from the Meta Pixel and also lets you retarget people who engaged with your Page, Instagram profile, lead forms or videos. Its developer documentation sets the website window at 1 to 180 days in the API reference, while an FAQ on the same page says 365, so check the limit Ads Manager shows when you create the audience. Engagement audiences keep Page and Instagram activity for up to 730 days and lead form activity for 90. Meta also lets you build a lookalike audience from a website audience, which is how many teams find new prospects who resemble their visitors.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s Insight Tag builds website audiences from page visits, button clicks and form submissions. A website audience only counts visits from the day you create it, needs 300 matched member accounts before ads deliver, and can take 48 hours to process, LinkedIn Help states as of November 2026. Install the tag well before you need the audience. Company Page audiences can look back 30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days. Our LinkedIn ads strategy guide covers targeting, bidding and measurement on the platform.

Check platform eligibility separately before choosing where to launch. An audience can meet one platform’s minimum and miss another’s; matching, permissions and additional targeting filters affect the reachable count.

How to set up a B2B retargeting campaign

1. Install the tags and conversion events

Install the relevant platform tags on eligible marketing pages, and set up a conversion event on your signup or demo confirmation page. Follow platform restrictions on sensitive data and consent before collecting events. The conversion event matters twice: it measures results and it feeds the exclusion list in step 3. Collect consent wherever the privacy law that applies to your visitors requires it.

2. Build segments by intent

Someone who read one blog post and someone who looked at pricing twice need different ads. Start with a few segments built from page rules and your own lists:

Segment	Example rule	Window to start with	What to show
Pricing page visitors	URL contains /pricing	30 days, Google’s default	A customer story or an answer to the common objection, with a demo offer
Demo or signup abandoners	Visited /demo, did not reach the confirmation page	30 days	What happens on the call, and how long it takes
Trial users who haven’t activated	Uploaded list of trial signups without the key action	While the trial runs	The one feature or setup step that gets them to value
Blog and guide readers	URL contains /blog	Longer, such as 90 days	The next useful piece of content, not a demo ask
Customers	Uploaded customer list	Keep it current	Exclude them from acquisition ads

3. Exclude converters and customers

Exclusions stop you paying to show signup ads to people who already signed up. Google lets you exclude your data segments from a campaign, and Meta’s documentation gives the same example: exclude your current customers when the campaign is for new ones.

4. Write ads that answer the objection

Warm visitors already know what you do. The ad has to deal with why they didn’t buy: price, risk, a missing feature, a competitor, timing. Brian Yam, who runs marketing at Paragon, starts LinkedIn spend with exactly this audience:

First, retarget… These are people that have been on your website, that have looked at like your pricing page, and they’re interested, they’re actively looking to buy… they just haven’t been convinced enough. … This is really easy to set up and you also don’t need to create a lot of content. You already know what the common objections are… but this audience is small, so you can’t stay here forever.

Brian Yam, Head of Marketing, Paragon. Watch at 12:38

5. Cap frequency and rotate creative

A small B2B audience sees the same ad many times in a week unless you stop it. On Google Display you can cap impressions per person per day, week or month. Refresh the creative when results fall, and give each segment its own message rather than one ad for everyone.

6. Run retargeting alongside outbound

Retargeting doesn’t have to wait for a website visit. If your sales team works a named account list, upload it and show those accounts ads while the emails and calls go out. Sri Swaminathan, co-founder of Factors.ai, describes the effect:

You also want to run LinkedIn ads to the same set, or you want to run retargeting ads to the same set. Ads actually work like an air cover when the emails and other things go on the ground, so that you actually give a brand or a brand awareness to the same set of accounts. What this leads to is the better reply rates and better qualification rates.

Sri Swaminathan, Co-Founder, Factors.ai. Watch at 20:17

How much do retargeting ads cost?

For Google Ads, Google states there is no extra cost to use its audiences. What changes is the price of a result, and warm audiences are not always cheaper.

Metadata’s 2026 B2B paid media benchmark, built from $57.6 million of 2025 spend by 153 B2B advertisers, found LinkedIn retargeting cost $234 per lead against $194 for prospecting. On Facebook the pattern reversed: $120 per lead for retargeting against $166 for prospecting. Across all channels in the same data, retargeting also cost more per thousand impressions, $49.27 against $30.13. These are spend-weighted results from Metadata customers, not a controlled test or a promise of what another company will pay. Facebook retargeting has only 36 advertisers in its cut, versus 59 for prospecting; the LinkedIn cuts have 77 and 94 respectively. A lead from someone who already knew you is not the same as a new one. Judge retargeting on cost per customer and pipeline, not cost per click: our CAC calculator works out what a customer costs you across channels.

Some founders find the opposite. In an interview published April 1, 2026, Jeremy Goillot, founder of Allo, an AI phone system, says many startups never switch retargeting on, and calls it the cheapest ad at that time, a founder opinion rather than a market benchmark:

On top of that, we have a lot of retargeting. … They [startups] never activate retargeting, [it] is the cheapest ad as of today.

Jeremy Goillot, Founder and CEO, Allo. Watch at 5:45

Watch the full interview with Jeremy Goillot, with transcript.

Does retargeting still work without third-party cookies?

Yes, though less of it runs on third-party cookies than it used to. Chrome kept them: in April 2025 Google said it would keep users’ current third-party cookie choice in Chrome and not roll out a new standalone prompt, and in October 2025 it said it would retire most Privacy Sandbox technologies, including Protected Audience and Topics, citing low adoption. Safari has blocked third-party cookies by default since March 2020.

On iPhones, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency has required apps since iOS 14.5 to ask permission before tracking people across other companies’ apps and websites. Meta’s annual report for 2025 says those 2021 iOS changes reduced its ability to target and measure ads. Website audiences built from mobile visits can be smaller than your traffic numbers suggest.

That shifts weight toward audiences you own. Customer and lead lists match on hashed email addresses rather than browser cookies, and engagement audiences come from activity on the platform itself, so they offer alternatives when browser cookies are unavailable, subject to platform rules, permissions and matching. Retarget with them alongside your pixel audiences.

How do people stop seeing retargeting ads?

Each platform gives people controls. Google lets them turn personalized ads on or off in My Ad Center, Meta lets them hide ads from an advertiser, and LinkedIn members can control how their data is used for ads in their settings. For an advertiser, the lesson is to avoid the ad that follows someone for months: cap frequency, use short windows for high intent pages, and exclude people as soon as they convert.

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Frequently asked questions

What is retargeting?

Retargeting, also called remarketing, is advertising shown to people who already visited your website, used your app or engaged with your brand but didn’t convert. A tag on your site can add eligible visitors to an audience, and platforms such as Google, Meta and LinkedIn show that audience your ads to bring them back.

Which Google Ads data segment should a software company use to re-engage people who visited but didn’t sign up?

Use a website visitors segment from your data segments, built from the Google tag, and exclude people who reached your signup confirmation page. Google needs at least 100 active users in the last 30 days in the segment before ads serve.

How much do retargeting ads cost?

Google says there is no extra cost to use its auction for data segments; advertising spend still applies. Results vary by platform. Metadata’s 2026 benchmark of 153 B2B advertisers found LinkedIn retargeting cost $234 per lead against $194 for prospecting, while Facebook retargeting cost $120 per lead against $166.

What is an example of a retargeting ad?

A software company shows people who visited its pricing page in the last 30 days, but didn’t book a demo, a short customer story that answers the most common objection, with a demo offer. Once they book, they are excluded from the audience.

What is the difference between retargeting and remarketing?

In practice none: Google uses remarketing and Meta, LinkedIn and most ad tech companies use retargeting for the same thing. What differs is each platform’s audience types, minimum size and membership window.

How big does a retargeting audience need to be?

Google Ads needs at least 100 active users in the last 30 days for Display, Search and YouTube. LinkedIn needs 300 matched member accounts before it delivers. Meta’s developer documentation does not state a minimum on the pages we checked.

Does retargeting work without third-party cookies?

Yes. Chrome still allows third-party cookies after Google’s April 2025 decision, though Safari blocks them by default and iPhone apps need permission to track. Customer lists and on-platform engagement audiences offer alternatives to pixel audiences, subject to permissions and matching.

How do I stop retargeting ads?

As a viewer, turn off personalized ads in Google’s My Ad Center, hide an advertiser’s ads on Facebook or Instagram, and change your LinkedIn ad settings. As an advertiser, cap frequency, keep windows short for high intent pages and exclude people once they convert.

Sources and method

Reviewed November 2, 2026. Platform rules (audience types, minimum sizes, membership windows, frequency caps, exclusions and privacy controls) are as Google Ads Help, Meta for Developers and LinkedIn Help described them on that date; Meta’s Business Help Center pages did not render without a browser, so Meta facts come from its developer documentation and its 2025 annual report. Cost per lead figures come from Metadata’s 2026 benchmark of 2025 spend. Founder quotes come from talks published on Founderpath, each linked to the moment it is said; they are lightly cleaned transcripts with fillers removed.