Retargeting: Strategy and Psychology to Make a Better Impact
At Alterno Agency, we have been helping brands stay visible and relevant in digital media for more than 15 years. We have managed hundreds of campaigns a year for clients in Puerto Rico and abroad, working on strategies ranging from branding, website development, email marketing and digital campaigns, including retargeting. If there is one thing we have proven in all this time, it is that retargeting still works when done correctly.
While tools evolve, the human reality remains intact: people need to see, hear, trust and repeat before making decisions. That constant exposure still happens, for the most part, within the same digital ecosystems: Google and Meta.
What is Retargeting?
Retargeting is a digital advertising strategy that allows you to impact again people who have already interacted with your brand, either because they visited your website, saw your content, added something to their cart, or simply showed interest in some way. This tactic seeks to reinforce the message and bring the user closer to conversion.
Tools such as Meta Datasets or Pixel (formerly Facebook Pixel), Google Tag Manager and cookies allow you to track these interactions: what the user saw, how long they stayed, whether they added to cart or abandoned a page. Then, these platforms display personalized ads to reinforce the brand and motivate action. You can read more about how they work in this guide from Positional.
According to Exploding Topics (2024), retargeting ads have a click-through rate 10 times higher than ads targeting new audiences. This is why this technique remains a mainstay in digital advertising.
Retargeting is not just "Ads that follow you".
Retargeting has evolved. It's no longer just showing you repetitive ads on Facebook. Today it integrates with multiple audiences, platforms and cross-platform behaviors:
People who visited your website
Who saw your content on social networks
Those who interacted with your emails or forms
Visitors who initiated a purchase process, but did not complete it.
This way, more robust audiences are built, and their impact and sequence are optimized with AI.
Retargeting + Psychology = Results
Retargeting not only impacts digitally, but also psychologically. Reinforcing messages creates familiarity and trust. The famous "Familiarity Effect" is well documented in marketing and psychology: the more we see something, the more we trust it.
Recent data confirm:
It takes between 6 and 20 impacts for a consumer to take action. (HubSpot, 2024)
Audiences perceive the brands they see repeatedly as having greater budget, strength and positioning. (Wikipedia, Targeted Advertising)
Retargeting reinforces brand recall, projects strength and increases conversions.
What do the numbers say?
96% of people who visit a website for the first time do not buy.
Retargeting increases conversions by up to 147%.
70% of consumers are more likely to convert after being re-engaged.
(Sources: Cometly, 2025, 99Firms, 2024, NMQ Digital, 2024)
Our Experience at Alterno Agency
We've been helping brands transform their bottom line with strategies that really work for over 15 years. From universities, e-commerce, to large consumer corporations, we have seen how retargeting continues to be one of the most effective ways to achieve visibility, traffic, consideration and sales.
Why? Because we know where our customers' customers are. And we know how to find them, nurture them and bring them back to achieve concrete results. That's part of what we call: Transforming your brand with Alterno.
Reference sources and recommended reading:
Exploding Topics (2024). 21+ Retargeting Statistics and Trends.
Available at: https://explodingtopics.com/blog/retargeting-stats
HubSpot (2024). 100 Essential PPC Statistics Every Marketer Needs to Know.
Available at: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics
NMQ Digital (2024). The Retargeting Revolution.
Available at: https://nmqdigital.com/blog/the-retargeting-revolution
Positional (2024). How Retargeting Ads Work And Why They Are Effective.
Available at: https://www.positional.com/blog/retargeting-ads
99Firms (2024). Retargeting Statistics.
Available at: https://99firms.com/blog/retargeting-statistics/
Cometly (2025). What Is Retargeting Audience Performance in Marketing?
Available at: https://www.cometly.com/post/what-is-retargeting-audience-performance
Wikipedia (2025). Behavioral Retargeting.
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_retargeting
Wikipedia (2025). Targeted Advertising.
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targeted_advertising