Glossary/Audience data/Retargeting
What is retargeting in advertising?
How retargeting works, how it compares to remarketing, and what changes as cookies fade.
Written by Samhub with the help of AI·Updated 13 Oct 2026·3 min readRetargeting is showing ads to people who have already interacted with a brand, for example visited its website or viewed a product, to bring them back.
How it works
A visitor is tagged
A pixel or tag records the visit.
The visitor moves on
To other sites and apps.
Ads follow
The advertiser bids to show them a relevant ad.
Retargeting vs remarketing
| Retargeting | Remarketing | |
|---|---|---|
| Channel | Ads on other sites | Often email to known customers |
| Based on | Cookies or IDs | Customer lists |
The terms are often used for the same thing.
16 pages for publishers, with a checklist for data, programmatic and direct sales.
As cookies fade
Retargeting has relied on third-party cookies. It now moves to hashed emails, universal IDs and clean rooms, which need known readers on the publisher side too.
Addressability at Stampen Media after moving its reader data into one layer with Samhub.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, in Europe, since it uses personal data and cookies for advertising.
Usually days or weeks after the visit, with frequency caps.
Publishers can help advertisers reach their customers through IDs or clean rooms.
The advertiser has not excluded buyers, a common setup mistake.
Related terms
A tiny invisible image that records a visit or an action.
Cookies set by another domain than the site you visit.
An email address turned into a fixed code that cannot be read back.
A limit on how often one person sees the same ad.
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