Stop Obsessing Over General Remarketing

Can we stop doing this?

I understand why you’re doing it. I used to do it, too. But it’s time to move on from general remarketing.

Let me explain…

What is General Remarketing?

Remarketing is when you create custom audiences to target people who are already connected to you in some ways. But it’s important to differentiate general remarketing from a more hyper-targeted remarketing.

General remarketing is when you create custom audiences to isolate all of our website visitors, email subscribers, and page engagement. You do this to tell Meta who your most important people are so that you can target them specifically, and no one else.

There was a time when Meta needed these people separated to get us the best possible results. I was a major proponent of this approach.

It’s Different Now

But it just isn’t necessary with algorithmic targeting now. Meta already prioritizes these people. You’re wasting your time and possibly making results worse.

You can prove it by using audience segments with sales campaigns. Assuming you define your engaged audience and existing customers thoroughly in your Advertising Settings, Meta will generate rows to show how much of your budget was spent on each group, in addition to a completely new audience.

In my video, I provide an example of an ad set optimized for free registrations. In that case, Meta is spending a combined 10% of my budget on remarketing audiences. That’s while using completely wide-open targeting.

I don’t know about you, but 10% feels like a pretty good percentage. It allows me to dedicate some money to people who know me well while focusing on growth to a new audience.

You also don’t want the percentage spent on remarketing to be too high. If anything, that’s what you should be concerned about, rather than trying to reach only those people.

Always Exceptions

I’m not completely anti-remarketing, and you can make the argument for it in some unique cases. But this is almost always because you’re trying to isolate a very specific group (not a general group) for a high-ticket item (especially when you don’t have a high-ticket ad budget).

But if you’re creating separate general remarketing ad sets because you think Meta needs it, stop. Meta doesn’t need it. Remarketing is happening anyway, and you can prove it to yourself.