Remarketing lists continue to be one of the more dependable tools inside PPC accounts, especially for search campaigns. They give advertisers clearer control over who sees ads, how bids are adjusted, and how messaging aligns with prior brand interaction.<\/p>
As tracking becomes more constrained and audience signals less granular, first-party data carries more weight in day-to-day performance.<\/p>
Remarketing allows you to act on what users have already done, rather than relying entirely on inferred intent or broad audience definitions.<\/p>
Where many accounts fall short is in how those lists are actually applied. Lists get created, added at observation, and then largely ignored.<\/p>
Without a clear purpose tied to bidding, exclusions, or messaging, remarketing ends up being underutilized.<\/p>
The strategies below focus on remarketing lists that directly influence PPC decisions. Each example is designed to support how users move through the funnel and how accounts are realistically managed, not how they look in theory.<\/p>
Top-Of-Funnel & Awareness Remarketing Strategies<\/h2>
These three remarketing strategies cover the basics of top-of-funnel marketing and utilize different campaign types to help leverage your RLSAs.<\/p>
1. Target Users Who Have Engaged With A Video Campaign And Encourage Them To Take Action<\/h3>
If you\u2019ve tried YouTube Ads in any form and have struggled to determine or quantify success, then this strategy might be for you.<\/p>
YouTube ads are a great way to gain awareness of a product, service, or brand \u2013 but how do you get a new user to take action from that first touchpoint?<\/p>
Enter in remarketing lists.<\/p>
Google Ads allows you to create different types of remarketing lists based on your YouTube videos. There are two key requirements for using this list type:<\/p>
- These lists can only be used in other YouTube or Search campaigns \u2013 not Display.<\/li>
- Your YouTube channel must be linked to your Google Ads account.<\/li> <\/ul>
To set up YouTube remarketing lists, navigate to Tools<\/em>\u00a0> <\/strong>Shared Library > Audience Manager.<\/em><\/p>
In Audience Manager, hit the \u201c+\u201d button to start segmenting your YouTube remarketing lists.<\/p>
![\"Build](\"https:\/\/cdn.searchenginejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/youtube-audiences-2026-448.png\" "\\"10")
Screenshot by author, January 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure> From there, Google gives a multitude of options to start leveraging your YouTube video engagement for remarketing. These options include engagement from:<\/p>
- Views to videos.<\/li>
- Subscribes to the channel.<\/li>
- Visits to the channel.<\/li>
- Likes on videos.<\/li>
- Add videos to playlist.<\/li>
- Shares of videos.<\/li> <\/ul>
Further, you\u2019re able to segment further to make your remarketing lists as specific as possible:<\/p>
![\"Choose](\"https:\/\/cdn.searchenginejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/youtube-views-remarketing-options-635f07a77febc-sej.png\" "\\"10")
Screenshot by author, January 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure> To leverage these newly created YouTube remarketing lists, try adding them to your existing Search campaigns as \u201cObservation Only\u201d at first to understand if these users are more likely to interact with your campaigns versus someone who hasn\u2019t seen your YouTube videos.<\/p>
Taking it a step further, you can create new Search campaigns that specifically target these users.<\/p>
The benefit is that you can provide different messaging to these users who have already interacted with your brand.<\/p>
2. Exclude Low Quality Or Irrelevant Website Traffic From Search Campaigns<\/h3>
If you\u2019ve run any type of awareness campaign, you\u2019ve likely seen a boost in traffic overall, including irrelevant webpages or low-quality visitors.<\/p>
What do we constitute as low-quality or irrelevant webpages?<\/p>
- Any page that wouldn\u2019t result in a purchase, such as:
- Careers page.<\/li>
- Investors page.<\/li>
- Advertise with us page.<\/li>
- Customer Service page.<\/li> <\/ul> <\/li>
- Users who stayed on the website for less than one second.<\/li> <\/ul>
Excluding these types of website visitors from the get-go can help make your remarketing efforts more cost-efficient in the long run.<\/p>
3. Create Lookalike Audiences From Your Own First-Party Data<\/h3>
Using Google\u2019s affinity audiences or attributes that consider someone at the top of funnel for your product or service can be daunting, especially if you\u2019re a small business or have a limited budget.<\/p>
It may feel that you don\u2019t have a lot of options to reach new users without paying dearly for it.<\/p>
But, have you ever thought about using your most valuable assets to build awareness?<\/p>
Leveraging your own first-party data to create Lookalike audiences<\/strong> gives you more leverage than third-party data, such as Google\u2019s affinity audiences, to reach like-minded people of users who already love your brand.<\/p>
To create an audience like this, there are a few options to consider:<\/p>
- Create a remarketing list of past purchasers using Google Ads or Google Analytics.<\/li>
- Upload a list of past purchasers to Google Ads.<\/li> <\/ul>
Depending on the size of these lists, you\u2019ll have the option to create a Lookalike audience and use it for either YouTube, Display, or Search.<\/p>
The example below shows what a remarketing list based on a completed purchase URL looks like when created in Google Ads:<\/p>
![\"Use](\"https:\/\/cdn.searchenginejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/purchase-url-remarketing-list-635f0b31bfa4b-sej.png\" "\\"10")
Screenshot by author, January 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure> I personally like to use Google Analytics when creating remarketing lists because you have many more segmentation or filtering options to be as specific as you need to be.<\/p>
As a reminder, your site must be tagged and linked with either your Google Analytics property or Google Ads tag.<\/p>
Consideration Stage Remarketing Strategies<\/h2>
These four remarketing strategies help move the user from the consideration to the purchase phase quicker using different bidding strategies and offers.<\/p>
4. Increase Bids For Qualified Visitors Of Your Site Who Haven\u2019t Made A Purchase<\/h3>
An easy way to leverage qualified users in your existing Search campaigns is to increase the bid on those users simply.<\/p>
You don\u2019t need to create separate campaigns for these users if you don\u2019t want to. Segmenting these users and manipulating the bids on them keeps your account management under control.<\/p>
To use this strategy, you\u2019ll first need to create a remarketing list of users who haven\u2019t made a purchase yet. You can use qualifications only to include people who:<\/p>
- Have made it to the cart checkout.<\/li>
- Visited a certain number of pages.<\/li>
- Spent a certain amount of time on site.<\/li>
- Visited certain categories\/high-value product pages.<\/li> <\/ul>
Once you have created those, it\u2019s time to add them to an existing Search campaign and increase the bid.<\/p>
What this means is that you\u2019re willing to pay\u00a0more<\/strong> for their click because they\u2019ve already interacted with your brand in some way.<\/p>
In your Search campaign, navigate to \u201cAudiences\u201d on the left-hand side.<\/p>
In this example, I\u2019m setting the audience at the campaign level, but you can set it at the ad group level as well.<\/p>
Make sure to choose \u201cObservation,\u201d so you\u2019re still able to capture other new users who are researching your brand.<\/p>
![\"Adding](\"https:\/\/cdn.searchenginejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/observation-only-targeting-2026-159.png\" "\\"10")
Screenshot by author, January 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure> Once you\u2019ve added your qualified remarketing list, it\u2019s time to increase your bid adjustment.<\/p>
Still, in the Audiences tab, you\u2019ll see your remarketing list added.<\/p>
In the columns, you\u2019ll see \u201cBid Adjustment.\u201d Choose the \u201cpencil\u201d icon to change the bid as you see fit. In this example, I\u2019m going to increase the bid by 15%.<\/p>
![\"Choose](\"https:\/\/cdn.searchenginejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/remarketing-list-bid-adjustment-635f106356226-sej.png\" "\\"10")
Screenshot by author, January 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure> Once you\u2019ve implemented this change, be sure to continuously check back on the audience performance and determine if bids need to be changed based on performance.<\/p>
5. Increase Bids For Users Who Have Completed A Micro-Conversion<\/h3>
This strategy is similar to the example above, except for the type of user you want to target.<\/p>
If a user has completed a micro-conversion of any sort, they\u2019re likely a high-qualified user to make a purchase.<\/p>
What are examples of a micro-conversion? Depending on your product or service, these could include:<\/p>
- Signing up for emails or newsletters.<\/li>
- Downloading an ebook.<\/li>
- Signing up for a webinar.<\/li>
- Requesting a free sample.<\/li> <\/ul>
These types of conversions show a user is active in research mode and seriously considering your brand.<\/p>
By increasing the bid in your search campaigns for these users, you\u2019re saying you\u2019re willing to pay more for their clicks because they\u2019re that much more likely to convert.<\/p>
The process of setting this strategy up is the same as above, with the exception of creating a remarketing list based on the success of these micro-conversions.<\/p>
6. Test Maximize Conversion Value With Cart Abandoners<\/h3>
This remarketing strategy would require you to create a separate campaign targeting\u00a0only<\/strong> cart abandoners.<\/p>
You may be asking, \u201cWhy not just use Maximize Conversion Value for everyone?\u201d<\/p>
If you\u2019ve ever tested out the Maximize Conversion Value bidding strategy in Google Ads, you\u2019ll know exactly why.<\/p>
The reasons I don\u2019t recommend using this for all campaigns include:<\/p>
- You can\u2019t set any maximum ceiling values.<\/li>
- Not all users are ready to purchase.<\/li> <\/ul>
By segmenting a search campaign specifically for cart abandoners, you can test this bidding strategy at a lower threshold \u2013 and with the most qualified users who are most likely to make a purchase.<\/p>
Similar to the above examples, this strategy tells Google that you\u2019re willing to be more flexible in how much you pay for someone to make a purchase.<\/p>
And what better way to test this than with users who were\u00a0almost ready<\/strong> to make that purchase?<\/p>
To set this strategy into motion, you first need to create a remarketing list of \u201cCart Abandoners.\u201d<\/p>
This will look different for everyone, but it will likely be URL-based and able to be created in either Google Analytics or Google Ads.<\/p>
After that list has been created, it\u2019s time to set up your new search campaign.<\/p>
This campaign can be a duplicate of any other search campaign. Just make sure to exclude your Cart Abandoner list<\/strong> from that existing campaign. We don\u2019t want any crossover here!<\/p>
When creating the new campaign, this is where you\u2019ll set the bid strategy to \u201cMaximize Conversion Value\u201d in the settings.<\/p>
![\"Choosing](\"https:\/\/cdn.searchenginejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/maximize-conversion-value-bid-strategy-939.png\" "\\"10")
Screenshot by author, January 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure> Google Ads does give you the option to set a target return on ad spend, giving you somewhat control over campaign performance.<\/p>
Depending on how much flexibility you have in your marketing budget, you can either leave that blank or set a target.<\/p>
If you do set a target ROAS, make sure not to set it too high right away. Otherwise, the campaign won\u2019t be able to effectively learn.<\/p>
7. Create Offers Based On The User\u2019s Interaction Timeline<\/h3>
Did you know you can create the same remarketing list of users, but segment them by the number of days?<\/p>
Say you had a cart abandoner and wanted to move them toward purchase ASAP. You may be willing to give them a higher discount since the purchase was still new in their mind.<\/p>
If they still haven\u2019t purchased within three days, you may choose to still give them a discount, but not as high as the first offer.<\/p>
After seven days, you still want them to keep your product top-of-mind, but that discount or offer may change again because they\u2019ve waited so long.<\/p>
So, how do you go about setting up this strategy?<\/p>
First, you\u2019ll want to create three different remarketing lists (for this example only).<\/p>
Create cart abandoner audiences separated out by one day, three days, and seven days.<\/p>
In Google Ads, you simply change the \u201cmembership duration\u201d for each list. An example of where to change that during list creation is below:<\/p>
![\"Choose](\"https:\/\/cdn.searchenginejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/cart-abandoners-1-day-635f170f3fbcd-sej.png\" "\\"10")
Screenshot by author, January 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure> Once these lists are created, I recommend setting up different ad groups for each list. You\u2019ll want different ad groups because the offer will be different for each list.<\/p>
The last crucial piece of targeting cart abandoners is to\u00a0exclude purchasers from your campaign.<\/strong> You will do this in the \u201cAudiences\u201d tab of your campaign and add your \u201cPurchasers\u201d remarketing list as an exclusion.<\/p>
Post-Purchase Journey Remarketing Strategies<\/h2>
Once a user has made a purchase, that\u2019s not necessarily the end of their journey!<\/p>
These remarketing strategies enable past purchasers to become your most valuable asset and opportunities for repeat purchasers to become brand advocates.<\/p>
8. Cross-Promote Other Products Based On A User\u2019s Purchase Behavior<\/h3>
One of the best ways to create a repeat purchaser is to recommend complementing products based on a user\u2019s purchase.<\/p>
For example, say you\u2019re a makeup brand, and a user just purchased their first tube of lipstick and mascara from you.<\/p>
An effective remarketing strategy would include creating lists of past purchasers\u00a0segmented by product category.<\/strong> This enables you to cross-promote other products and exclude product types they\u2019ve just purchased.<\/p>
In this example, you may create a remarketing list of users who have bought lipstick or mascara. You can then use that list to remarket products like foundation or eye shadow to encourage a repeat purchase.<\/p>
These lists and strategies would work well in Dynamic Remarketing Ads or Google Shopping Ads. Because these products are much more visible, you\u2019d want to use those campaign types to your advantage.<\/p>
9. Exclude Past Purchasers To Maximize Spend Efficiency<\/h3>
As mentioned in strategy No. 7, you\u2019ll want to exclude past purchasers from current acquisition campaigns to maximize spending efficiency.<\/p>
An example of lazy remarketing is for a user to see an ad for a product they have already purchased.<\/p>
Not only does that create a bad taste for the user, but that means you\u2019re wasting valuable marketing money on people who have already purchased.<\/p>
Now, there are certainly times when you\u2019d not want to exclude past purchasers, especially if your product is a repeat purchase.<\/p>
But, in these examples, your search campaigns are likely going after new users.<\/p>
To exclude past purchasers, go to Audiences on the left-hand side of your campaign, then find the \u201cExclusions\u201d table.<\/p>
![\"Excluding](\"https:\/\/cdn.searchenginejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/exclude-audience-segments-868.png\" "\\"10")
Screenshot by author, January 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure> 10. Create Brand Advocates From Your Existing High-Value Customers<\/h3>
It\u2019s true when they say that your customers are your best advocates. They have put their trust in you to deliver a high-value product or service that they have come to know and trust.<\/p>
So, how do you turn them into advocates?<\/p>
This remarketing strategy still includes utilizing that same past purchaser list. A few different options you could potentially offer past purchasers:<\/p>
- Create a referral program and give discounts to each person who purchases.<\/li>
- Offer discounts based on providing a positive public review.<\/li> <\/ul>
Just because someone has purchased from you once does not mean they become a loyal customer. Sometimes it takes additional motivation to want to purchase again.<\/p>
Loyalty or referral discounts are a great way to keep your existing customers coming back to you, as well as utilizing their own referral vehicles to generate new customers.<\/p>
Creating referral programs is a low-cost and efficient multi-channel awareness strategy that is mutually beneficial for you \u2013 the brand and the customer.<\/p>
Using Remarketing Lists With Intent, Not Just Coverage<\/h2>
Remarketing lists are most effective when they are built to support specific decisions inside your account. That includes how aggressively you bid, who you exclude, and where you shift budget based on user behavior.<\/p>
Rather than treating remarketing as a single tactic, it works better as a system layered throughout the funnel. Lists tied to meaningful actions, like product views, cart activity, or prior purchases, tend to deliver far more value than broad, catch-all audiences.<\/p>
As broader targeting becomes less reliable, remarketing offers a level of control that is increasingly hard to replace. When lists are thoughtfully segmented and actively used, they help PPC managers spend more efficiently and act with more confidence.<\/p>
The real impact of remarketing does not come from how many lists you create. It comes from how intentionally those lists shape your bidding, targeting, and messaging decisions.<\/p>
More Resources:<\/strong><\/p>
Featured Image: Tetiana Yurchenko\/Shutterstock<\/em><\/p> <\/div>
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- Any page that wouldn\u2019t result in a purchase, such as: