Behavioral retargeting (also known as behavioral remarketing, or simply, retargeting) is a form of online targeted advertising by which online advertising is targeted to consumers based on their previous internet behaviour. Retargeting tags online users by including a pixel within the target webpage or email, which sets a cookie in the user's browser.[1] Once the cookie is set, the advertiser is able to show ads (often display ads) to that user elsewhere on the internet via an ad exchange.
Dynamic creative (also known as personalized retargeting), allows an advertiser to display a banner created on-the-fly for a particular consumer based on specific pages that they viewed.[2] For example, if a consumer visits an advertiser's website and browses products A, B, and C – they will then be retargeted with a display banner featuring the exact products A, B, and C that they previously viewed. This is typically restricted to the visitor's browsing on a single website.
A refined version improves on re-engagement with customers. If a customer begins an online order, for example, but fails to complete it, a flag indicates they had an interest in the product being ordered. Later, ads showing the product of interest can be custom-linked to point back into the order system. When the user clicks on the ad, they are returned to their incomplete order.