B2B Retargeting: Turning Prospects into Customers

Portrait of Sara Vicioso on a teal circle background. by Sara Vicioso   |   Jan 02, 2025   |   Clock Icon 10 min read

A B2B digital marketing strategy needs to account for your sales cycle, especially if it requires an extended period of time and multiple touchpoints with prospects. Retargeting for B2B businesses allows you to re-engage an interested audience, keeping your product or service top-of-mind during the decision-making process. This bottom-funnel strategy encourages prospects to ultimately convert.

Retargeting vs. Remarketing: Are They The Same?

Retargeting and remarketing are often used interchangeably, but they are distinct strategies with different goals and methods.

  • Retargeting focuses on engaging users who have shown interest in your business, such as by visiting your website or interacting with your ads, but who haven't yet completed the desired action (e.g., filling out a form or making a purchase). For instance, if a potential client views your product demo page but doesn't schedule a consultation, retargeting can deliver personalized ads reminding them to take the next step.

  • Remarketing centers on re-engaging past customers or leads who have already converted or interacted meaningfully with your business. This could involve email campaigns targeting users who previously signed up for a webinar, made a purchase, or downloaded a resource.

Both strategies aim to increase engagement and conversions, but retargeting focuses on prospective customers, while remarketing reactivates existing relationships. By leveraging these approaches, you can keep your brand top-of-mind and drive results across different stages of the customer journey.

What is B2B Retargeting?

B2B retargeting is a digital marketing strategy designed to re-engage prospects who have already shown interest in your brand, such as by visiting your website or interacting with your ads. The primary goal is to nurture these potential customers, guiding them further down the sales funnel and ultimately converting them into paying clients.

In the B2B landscape, where sales cycles are often lengthy, competition is fierce, and decision-makers conduct extensive research before committing, retargeting plays an important role in any digital marketing strategy. By keeping your products or services top-of-mind during this decision-making process, retargeting ensures that your brand remains a key consideration, even amidst competitors vying for attention.

B2B Retargeting Benefits

Increased Brand Awareness and Recall

Retargeting reinforces your brand messaging by repeatedly exposing interested prospects to your ads. This consistent engagement increases brand awareness and recall, ensuring decision-makers remember your offerings when it matters most. Moreover, retargeting amplifies the impact of your content marketing efforts by delivering relevant content to a precisely targeted audience.

Lead Nurturing

Retargeting is an invaluable tool for nurturing prospects through their customer journey. By re-engaging potential clients with personalized ads, you can address their unique pain points and objections, offering the information they need to move closer to conversion. Retargeting becomes even more powerful when combined with marketing automation, allowing you to customize messaging for each stage of the buyer's journey and ensure a seamless progression down the sales funnel.

Improved ROI

B2B retargeting is a cost-efficient strategy with the potential for high returns. By focusing your budget on users who have already shown interest, you maximize the efficiency of your ad spend and improve conversion rates. Advanced analytics enable you to track campaign performance, uncover valuable insights, and make data-driven adjustments to further enhance ROI. Continuous optimization based on conversion data ensures your retargeting campaigns deliver maximum impact over time.

Types of B2B Retargeting

B2B businesses have two primary approaches to retargeting: Site Retargeting and List-Based Retargeting. Both strategies allow you to reconnect with your audience effectively, but they differ in how they identify and engage prospects.

  • Site Retargeting: Site retargeting involves using tracking pixels placed on your website to collect data on visitor behavior. These pixels build a pool of potential prospects who can be segmented further based on specific pages visited or actions taken (e.g., downloading a whitepaper or visiting a pricing page).

  • List-Based Retargeting: List-based retargeting uses a list of specific users—such as leads or existing customers—typically sourced from email databases or CRM systems. This list is uploaded to your chosen marketing platform (e.g., Google Ads or LinkedIn), which matches the email addresses with users online.

Both types of retargeting can work in tandem to target different stages of the buyer’s journey, helping you create a well-rounded retargeting strategy.

Best Practices for B2B Retargeting

A successful B2B retargeting strategy starts with aligning your campaigns with your business goals and objectives. Here are some best practices to guide your efforts:

1. Define Clear Campaign Objectives

Every retargeting campaign should begin with well-defined objectives. What action do you want users to take after re-engaging with your ads? Whether it’s booking a demo, submitting an RFQ, or downloading a whitepaper, your objective will shape every aspect of your campaign—from audience segmentation to ad creative and landing page design.

2. Define & Segment Your B2B Audience

Understanding and segmenting your audience is important to crafting personalized and effective retargeting strategies. A deep understanding of your target audience allows you to create tailored messaging, choose the right channels, and design compelling CTAs (calls-to-action).

Pro Tip: Leverage Predictive Retargeting to identify high-potential audiences. By using AI and advanced analytics, you can target users more likely to convert based on past interactions and predicted behaviors.

3. Create Customized Landing Pages & Ad Copy

Personalization is key to any successful retargeting campaign. Ensure your landing pages and ad copy are specifically designed for the audience segment you’re targeting.

Considerations:

  • Reflect the user’s stage in the buyer journey. For example, if they’ve already visited a product page, direct them back to that product with a targeted offer.

  • Maintain consistency between ad copy and landing page content. If your ad promises a demo, ensure the landing page features an easy-to-find demo request form.

  • Pick the Right B2B Retargeting Channel

Choose the retargeting channels that best align with your audience and goals. Some effective options for B2B businesses include:

  • Programmatic or Display: Re-engage users as they browse other websites, keeping your brand top-of-mind.

  • Paid Search: Use RLSAs (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads) to create customized search campaigns that layer retargeting audiences on top of your paid search efforts.

  • Social Media: Platforms like LinkedIn are particularly effective for B2B retargeting, given their ability to target decision-makers. While LinkedIn ads often have higher CPCs, they can deliver highly qualified leads.

4. Set Appropriate Frequency Caps

Frequency caps ensure your ads don’t overwhelm or annoy potential customers, reducing the risk of ad fatigue. There’s no universal rule for the “perfect” frequency, so use testing to find the right balance for your audience. Monitor engagement rates to refine your approach over time.

5. Test, Test, Test!

Retargeting is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. Regularly A/B test ad components such as headlines, CTAs, imagery, and landing pages to determine what resonates most with your audience.

Keep detailed records of test results to identify trends and refine your strategy. What works for one campaign may inform future efforts.

By implementing these best practices, your B2B retargeting campaigns will be better equipped to drive engagement, nurture leads, and convert prospects into loyal customers.

Overcoming Challenges and Mitigating Risks in B2B Retargeting

While retargeting offers significant benefits, it comes with challenges that require proactive management. Addressing these risks ensures your campaigns remain effective, relevant, and compliant.

1. Combatting Ad Fatigue: Frequent exposure to the same ads can lead to ad fatigue, where prospects tune out or become annoyed. This not only reduces engagement but can also damage your brand perception.

Solution:

  • Implement frequency caps to limit how often your ads are shown to the same user.

  • Rotate ad creative regularly to maintain freshness and engagement.

  • Use sequential messaging to tell a story or introduce new value propositions over time, keeping your audience intrigued.


2. Managing Privacy Concerns: With increasing regulations like GDPR and CCPA, consumer privacy concerns are more critical than ever. Non-compliance can result in legal repercussions and eroded trust.

Solution:

  • Adhere strictly to privacy laws by ensuring transparency about data collection and usage. Offer clear opt-in and opt-out options for users.

  • Partner with advertising platforms that prioritize compliance and respect for user privacy.

  • Use first-party data (e.g., from your CRM) rather than relying solely on third-party cookies, as browsers continue to phase out third-party tracking.


3. Avoiding Audience Overlap and Relevance Issues: Reaching the right audience with the right message is important, but audience overlap can dilute your efforts and result in irrelevant ads.

Solution:

  • Segment your audience carefully based on behaviors, demographics, and stages in the buyer’s journey.

  • Leverage tools like predictive analytics to identify the most promising prospects and prioritize them in your campaigns.

  • Align messaging with audience needs, ensuring ads resonate with their specific pain points or interests.


4. Competing in a Saturated Marketplace: The B2B landscape is highly competitive, with multiple brands vying for the same prospects. Limited ad inventory and high CPCs can increase the cost of retargeting efforts.

Solution:

  • Differentiate your ads with compelling creative and value-driven messaging. Highlight your unique selling points (USPs) to stand out.

  • Use retargeting alongside complementary strategies, such as content marketing and account-based marketing (ABM), to increase your reach and impact.

  • Monitor campaign performance closely and reallocate the budget to the highest-performing segments and platforms.


5. Ensuring Effective Analytics and Optimization: Without proper tracking and analysis, it’s difficult to measure retargeting success or make data-driven decisions for improvement.

Solution:

  • Set up robust analytics tracking to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) like click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and ROI.

  • Regularly analyze campaign performance and adjust your strategy based on data insights.

  • Test ad elements (e.g., headlines, visuals, CTAs) and document findings to continually refine your approach.


Add Retargeting to Your B2B Digital Marketing Strategy

Retargeting is an effective paid media tactic to include in any B2B digital marketing strategy, especially for businesses that rely on brand awareness or nurturing prospects to account for longer sales cycles. If you’re taking a closer look at your budget, it’s also a good tool to maximize ROI.

Make sure you have clear objectives, messaging, and ads that will resonate with your audience, and that you are constantly optimizing those ads based on performance. Workshop Digital can help you get a retargeting strategy up and running quickly, and we have the expertise (and time) to keep your digital marketing campaigns delivering the best possible results. Contact us today, and we can talk through some solutions that are specific to your business and goals.

This blog post was originally published on July 10, 2023, and was updated and republished on January 2, 2025.

Portrait of Sara Vicioso

Sara Vicioso

Sara has been working in the Digital Marketing industry since 2013, starting her career in the Paid Media space. Driven by her passion to become a well-rounded marketer, she has expanded her expertise to include SEO, Email Marketing, and Analytics.

Over the years, she has worked across various industries, including retail and e-commerce, manufacturing, cloud computing, fintech, healthcare, and more.

Sara earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University in 2013.

Originally from San Diego, California, Sara has made Austin, Texas her home. She fell in love with the city's vibrant music scene, great food scene, and welcoming community. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her dog, Peanut, traveling whenever possible, exploring new restaurants, and home improvement projects.

Connect with Sara on LinkedIn.