How to Create a Successful Retargeting Campaign: A Step-by-Step Guide for E-Commerce Stores and SaaS Businesses

Retargeting has long ceased to be an optional digital marketing tool; today, it plays a key role in growth strategies for e-commerce and SaaS projects. The reason is simple: acquiring a new user is becoming increasingly expensive, while returning an existing audience generates a higher ROI and increases lifetime value.

For online stores and product teams working in the SaaS space, the ability to re-engage users at the moment they have already shown interest, by viewing a product, installing an app, filling out a form, or starting a trial, is especially valuable.

This guide walks you through how to build a truly effective retargeting campaign step by step, using the Retarg Ad Platform, a platform designed specifically for accurate user re-engagement, process automation, and scaling advertising results.

What Makes Retargeting Especially Important for eCommerce and SaaS

Retargeting allows you to work with a warm audience that has completed a specific action on your website or app, rather than blindly. For online stores, this could be viewing a product, adding it to a cart, or visiting a category. For SaaS, this could be registration, visiting a plan, visiting a payment page, or interacting with features after installing a trial version. The result of retargeting services usage is a higher CTR, lower cost per conversion, and a significant increase in the share of returning customers. Retarg provides a full cycle of working with such audiences: from pixel installation to real-time campaign optimization, providing tools for self-service launches and a full-service approach.

Key Elements of a Successful Retargeting Campaign

An effective retargeting strategy is built on how accurately you segment your audience and how relevant your messages are to users. Below are the key elements that influence success.

A clear understanding of user interaction with your product

It is important to identify key touchpoints – product viewing, registration, clicking through to the pricing page, filling out a form, and cart abandonment.

Hyper-precise targeting

Retarg offers over 10 targeting settings and access to traffic from over 200 countries, allowing you to exclude irrelevant audiences and focus on users who are truly ready to buy.

Selecting an ad format

The platform supports six popular formats: banners, native ads, pop-unders, push ads, and others. Each format works best for different stages of the funnel.

A smart budget and pricing model

CPM and CPC models allow you to flexibly manage campaign costs and optimize them based on your goals, reach, or performance. 

In-depth analytics

Real-time statistics help you quickly adapt your strategy, eliminate weak sites, and strengthen successful combinations.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Launching a Retargeting Campaign for eCommerce and SaaS

Below is a step-by-step campaign launch plan designed for practical use in the Retarg platform.

Create a Retarg account

Registering in the system takes just a few minutes. After creating an account, campaign setup tools, technical support, and detailed statistics are available.

Install the retargeting pixel

This is the most basic technical step. The pixel allows you to:

1. Track user actions.
2. Segment your audience.
3. Create personalized ads.

The pixel is placed in your website code or integrated through a CMS/Tag Manager.

Segment your audience

High-quality segmentation is the foundation of successful retargeting.

For an online store, segments might look like this:

1. Users who viewed a specific product.
2. Users who abandoned their cart.
3. Category visitors.

For SaaS:

• Users who initiated registration.
• Trial users.
• Active users who have not upgraded to a paid plan. 4. Set up your first advertising campaign.

At this stage, you select:

• Ad format.
• Payment model (CPM or CPC).
• Frequency restrictions.
• Geography.
• Budget.

Retarg allows you to flexibly manage all parameters and launch your campaign without unnecessary commissions or setup fees.

Top Up Your Advertising Account

The platform supports convenient payment methods and fast deposits. This allows you to quickly scale existing campaigns without delays.

Launch a Campaign and Track Results

Statistics are updated in real time, allowing you to:

• See CTR, CPC, and conversions.
• Monitor segment performance.
• Control budget spending.

These are key to success, and you need to keep an eye out for them.

Optimize the campaign

Optimization includes:

• Disabling weak placements.
• Redistributing the budget.
• Creating new segments.
• Testing different creatives and offers.
• Scaling successful audiences.

Below is a table showing how you can structure audiences for different goals.

Practical Tips For Creating a Campaign That Actually Works

These are practical recommendations that will help you improve your results right from the start:

• Test at least 3-4 creatives simultaneously. Quick optimization increases CTR and reduces cost per conversion.
• Use different ad formats. Push ads and banners often produce better results together.
• Limit frequency. Avoid putting pressure on users—3-7 impressions per day is optimal.
• Segment not only by action but also by time. A user who abandoned a shopping cart an hour ago will react differently than someone who did so a week ago.
• Use personalization. Mentioning a specific product or pricing plan significantly increases conversion.
• Regularly check statistics in Retarg. In real time, you can quickly identify the best platforms and disable ineffective ones.

Creating an effective retargeting campaign is not just about setting up ads, but about working comprehensively with audiences, segments, creatives, and data. The Retarg platform enables online stores and SaaS companies to build precise, scalable, and profitable campaigns thanks to:

• Access to traffic from 200+ countries.
• 10+ precise targeting settings.
• Support for all popular formats.
• No commissions or setup fees.
• Full real-time analytics.

Following this step-by-step guide, you can build a user retention system, increase their LTV, and ensure stable growth in advertising effectiveness.