Retargeting

Retargeting is the practice of serving ads to people who previously interacted with a brand — site visitors, cart abandoners, or app users — to bring them back to convert. Historically powered by third-party cookies for cross-site tracking, it has been reshaped by browser privacy changes and cookie deprecation, which shrink the reachable pools and blur the old retargeting/remarketing distinction. In 2026 effective retargeting leans on consented first-party data, server-side tracking, and platform audiences built from owned signals.

Source: ethyca.com