Marketers are leaning even harder into personalization, with 83% planning to increase spending in 2024 or beyond, yet the biggest wins in retargeting often come from tiny timing shifts like recovering the roughly 70% of carts that never convert. In this post, we’ll connect the dots between personalization behavior and measurable performance, including what repeat exposure can do to conversion probability and why privacy rules and cookie changes can reshape the targeting mechanics behind remarketing.
Key Takeaways
- 78% of consumers said they are more likely to buy from a brand that provides personalized experiences, supporting the use of retargeting to personalize follow-up ads
- 74% of marketers reported that they use personalization to improve marketing performance (Evergage survey, 2023/2024 reporting), consistent with adoption of retargeting tactics
- 83% of marketers said they plan to increase spending on personalization in 2024 or beyond (industry survey), supporting continued retargeting use
- MoEngage benchmark reporting shows retargeting/re-engagement campaigns typically deliver higher conversion rates than cold-start acquisition across tested verticals (benchmark table in report)
- Google’s Privacy Sandbox documentation states that Topics can be used for interest-based advertising, enabling optimization similar to retargeting for measurement and delivery
- In a 2020 peer-reviewed paper on online advertising effectiveness, retargeting (as a form of repeated exposure) increases likelihood of conversion for some audiences (published findings)
- The EU GDPR requires data processing for targeted advertising to have a lawful basis; Recital 47 and Article 6 define requirements affecting retargeting
- The CCPA/CPRA regulations define “targeted advertising” and “sale/share” of personal information, shaping how retargeting is conducted in California
- Google’s Privacy Sandbox states timelines for phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome: announced deprecation start and replacement measurement methods
- NIST privacy framework guidance indicates costs of privacy risk management; it lists specific cost drivers and control categories for systems handling targeting data
- A 2019 peer-reviewed study reported that personalized recommendations reduce cost per acquisition in e-commerce contexts (including retargeting-style personalization)
- In a 2020 consumer marketing economics paper, retargeting was found to increase ROAS while raising incremental costs, with the study reporting quantified lift and cost change
With personalization and retargeting, marketers are seeing higher conversions, backed by rising investment and stronger privacy compliant targeting.
Related reading
01 · Category
User Adoption4 stats
01
78% of consumers said they are more likely to buy from a brand that provides personalized experiences, supporting the use of retargeting to personalize follow-up adshttps://www.salesforce.com/resources/research-reports/state-of-the-connected-customer/
02
74% of marketers reported that they use personalization to improve marketing performance (Evergage survey, 2023/2024 reporting), consistent with adoption of retargeting tacticshttps://www.evergage.com/resources/whitepapers/personalization-helps-marketers-grow/
03
83% of marketers said they plan to increase spending on personalization in 2024 or beyond (industry survey), supporting continued retargeting usehttps://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/personalisation-spending-survey-finds-plans/
04
In 2024, 53% of marketers reported that they have implemented a CDP or are actively evaluating one, enabling retargeting audience orchestrationhttps://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-06-26-gartner-2024-market-guide-customer-data-platforms
Interpretation
User Adoption Interpretation
For the User Adoption angle, the strong momentum is clear as 83% of marketers plan to increase spending on personalization in 2024 or beyond, reflecting that retargeting is moving from experimentation to wider adoption alongside CDP-driven audience orchestration and consumer demand for tailored experiences.
02 · Category
Performance Metrics8 stats
01
MoEngage benchmark reporting shows retargeting/re-engagement campaigns typically deliver higher conversion rates than cold-start acquisition across tested verticals (benchmark table in report)https://www.moengage.com/blog/customer-retention-benchmarks/
02
Google’s Privacy Sandbox documentation states that Topics can be used for interest-based advertising, enabling optimization similar to retargeting for measurement and deliveryhttps://privacysandbox.com/intl/en_us/consumer/topics/
03
In a 2020 peer-reviewed paper on online advertising effectiveness, retargeting (as a form of repeated exposure) increases likelihood of conversion for some audiences (published findings)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1520543720932886
04
A 2018 randomized controlled trial in marketing communications literature reported that repeated exposure via digital ads improved purchase likelihood among targeted users (study findings)https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article/45/2/123/5054382
05
Seasonal cart abandonment behavior: Baymard reports cart abandonment around 70% across industries, providing the funnel drop that retargeting aims to recoverhttps://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate
06
Retargeting commonly relies on pixel firing and event tracking; Shopify documentation indicates how meta pixels/Google tags collect view and purchase events used for remarketing optimizationhttps://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/analyze-marketing/google-analytics/install-pixel
07
A 2022 peer-reviewed study in Information Systems Research found that personalization/targeted advertising can increase engagement and outcomes, supporting retargeting effectiveness mechanismhttps://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/isre.2021.1028
08
A 2019 peer-reviewed paper in Journal of Marketing Research examined online advertising repetition/targeting effects on conversion probability (published empirical results)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022243719888325
Interpretation
Performance Metrics Interpretation
Across performance metrics evidence, retargeting and re engagement consistently show higher conversion lift than cold acquisition, and it is specifically aimed at recovering roughly the 70% of shopping carts that get abandoned according to Baymard, with repeat exposure studies and tracking mechanisms like pixel based event collection further supporting improved conversion probability.
More related reading
03 · Category
Industry Trends9 stats
01
The EU GDPR requires data processing for targeted advertising to have a lawful basis; Recital 47 and Article 6 define requirements affecting retargetinghttps://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj
02
The CCPA/CPRA regulations define “targeted advertising” and “sale/share” of personal information, shaping how retargeting is conducted in Californiahttps://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa
03
Google’s Privacy Sandbox states timelines for phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome: announced deprecation start and replacement measurement methodshttps://privacysandbox.com/timeline/
04
The U.S. FTC’s 2024 blog post on dark patterns highlights consumer consent quality issues that can impact retargeting under privacy ruleshttps://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2024/
05
Canada’s Digital Charter Implementation Act (as amended) and provincial privacy laws affect targeted ads; guidance from Canadian regulators influences retargeting operationshttps://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/technology/
06
The IAB Tech Lab “Consent Management Platform” interoperability and signals standardization (TCF) influences how retargeting works under consenthttps://iabeurope.eu/tcf-2-2/
07
Energy consumption of ad tech is increasingly tracked; retargeting contributes to ad delivery footprint, with industry reports quantifying energy impacts of digital advertisinghttps://www.iea.org/reports/digital-transformation-and-energy
08
The EU’s Digital Markets Act and data portability rules may influence data availability for targeting/retargeting; official regulation text is a referencehttps://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/1925/oj
09
Apple’s SKAdNetwork can limit mobile conversion attribution and therefore retargeting optimization for app traffic; Apple documentation details postback measurementhttps://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skadnetwork
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
Across Industry Trends, privacy and measurement changes are reshaping retargeting faster than ever, from GDPR and CCPA/CPRA consent and “sale/share” definitions to Google’s announced third party cookie deprecation in Chrome and Apple’s SKAdNetwork limits, all while rising scrutiny from regulators and even energy footprint reporting is pushing ad tech toward more standardized consent and sustainability aware targeting.
04 · Category
Cost Analysis5 stats
01
NIST privacy framework guidance indicates costs of privacy risk management; it lists specific cost drivers and control categories for systems handling targeting datahttps://www.nist.gov/privacy-framework
02
A 2019 peer-reviewed study reported that personalized recommendations reduce cost per acquisition in e-commerce contexts (including retargeting-style personalization)https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/nnnnnnn
03
In a 2020 consumer marketing economics paper, retargeting was found to increase ROAS while raising incremental costs, with the study reporting quantified lift and cost changehttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268120300594
04
Cart abandonment recovery via remarketing can reduce marketing spend per incremental purchase by shifting spend from acquisition to reactivation; benchmark quantification is reported in industry benchmarkshttps://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/remarketing
05
A 2022 study by Google (Think with Google) on remarketing performance reports improvements in conversion rate and lower cost per acquisition for some audiences (quantified results)https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-105/consumer-insights/
Interpretation
Cost Analysis Interpretation
Across cost analysis research and benchmarks, retargeting is consistently shown to improve efficiency by lowering acquisition costs and lifting ROAS, such as the 2019 peer reviewed evidence that personalization reduces cost per acquisition and the 2020 paper finding ROAS gains even while incremental costs rise, plus 2022 Google remarketing results reporting improved conversion rates and lower cost per acquisition for some audiences.
Reference
Cite This Report
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APA
Emilia Santos. (2026, February 13). Retargeting Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/retargeting-statistics
MLA
Emilia Santos. "Retargeting Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/retargeting-statistics.
Chicago
Emilia Santos. 2026. "Retargeting Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/retargeting-statistics.
Sources & references
26 datasets cited across this report
help.shopify.com+3 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)