The Best Remarketing Tools to Re-Engage Previous Website Visitors

Watching potential customers leave your website without making an enquiry or purchase can be frustrating. The good news is that it doesn’t always have to be the end of the journey.

Remarketing allows you to reconnect with people who’ve already shown an interest in your business, giving you another opportunity to turn a website visitor into a customer.

The challenge is deciding which remarketing platform to use.

There are plenty of remarketing tools available, but they all do slightly different things. Some are better suited to ecommerce businesses, while others work particularly well for lead generation or B2B companies.

If you’re new to remarketing, I’d recommend reading my guide on What Is Remarketing? first, as it explains exactly how remarketing works and why it continues to be one of the most effective forms of digital advertising.

In this guide, I’ll look at the remarketing tools I recommend most often, explain where each one works best and help you decide which platform is right for your business.

What Are Remarketing Tools?

Remarketing tools allow businesses to reconnect with people who have previously visited their website or interacted with their brand online.

Once someone leaves your website, these platforms help you continue the conversation by displaying relevant adverts or sending targeted emails designed to encourage them to return.

The aim isn’t simply to remind people that your business exists.

Good remarketing is about showing the right message to the right person at the right time.

For example, someone who abandoned their shopping basket should probably see a different advert from somebody who simply read one of your blog posts.

Likewise, an existing customer is likely to respond differently from someone who’s never bought from you before.

The best remarketing tools make this possible by allowing you to build audiences based on how visitors interact with your website.

Choosing the Right Remarketing Tool

One question I’m regularly asked is which remarketing platform is the best.

The honest answer is that there isn’t a single winner.

It depends entirely on your business, your customers and where they spend their time online.

A local service business might achieve excellent results through Google Ads, while an ecommerce retailer could see stronger returns from Meta’s advertising platform. A B2B company may find LinkedIn produces the highest-quality enquiries.

Rather than trying to use every platform available, I usually recommend choosing one or two that best suit your audience and investing the time to manage them properly.

Google Ads

If I had to recommend one remarketing platform for most businesses, Google Ads would usually be my first choice.

Google remains the largest advertising platform in the world, giving businesses the opportunity to reconnect with previous visitors across Google Search, YouTube, Gmail and millions of websites within the Google Display Network.

One of the biggest strengths of Google Ads is flexibility.

You can build different audiences based on how people interacted with your website, whether they viewed a service page, requested a quotation or abandoned a purchase.

This allows you to create highly relevant campaigns rather than showing every visitor exactly the same advert.

Google Ads also offers dynamic remarketing for ecommerce businesses, automatically displaying the products someone previously viewed on your website.

If you’re planning to use Google Ads as part of your marketing strategy, my Google Ads service can help you build, optimise and continually improve your campaigns.

Meta Ads

Meta Ads, which includes both Facebook and Instagram, is another excellent option for remarketing.

People spend a significant amount of time browsing social media each day, making it an ideal place to reconnect with previous website visitors.

One advantage of Meta is that adverts often feel more natural within someone’s feed than traditional display advertising.

For businesses with strong imagery, such as retailers, travel companies, restaurants or home improvement businesses, Meta can be particularly effective.

The platform also allows you to create highly targeted Custom Audiences based on website visitors, customer lists and previous engagement.

In my experience, businesses often achieve the best results when Meta remarketing campaigns form part of a wider Facebook Ads Management strategy rather than operating as standalone campaigns.

Mailchimp

Remarketing isn’t limited to paid advertising.

Email remains one of the most effective ways of reconnecting with people who’ve already engaged with your business.

Mailchimp makes it easy to automate many of these follow-up communications.

For example, you can automatically send:

• Abandoned basket reminders.
• Product recommendations.
• Follow-up emails after downloading a guide.
• Renewal reminders.
• Welcome email sequences.

Because recipients have already interacted with your business, these emails often generate strong engagement when they’re well written and delivered at the right time.

The key is making your emails useful rather than overwhelming people with constant promotions.

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn isn’t suitable for every business, but it’s one platform I regularly recommend for B2B companies.

If your ideal customers are business owners, directors or decision-makers, LinkedIn’s targeting options can be extremely powerful.

Remarketing campaigns allow you to reconnect with people who have already visited your website while continuing to position your business as an expert within your industry.

Although LinkedIn advertising is generally more expensive than Google or Meta, the quality of enquiries can often justify the additional investment.

For businesses selling professional services or high-value B2B solutions, it’s certainly worth considering.

Microsoft Ads

Microsoft Ads is often overlooked, but I think that’s a mistake.

Although it doesn’t have Google’s search volume, it still reaches millions of users through Bing, Microsoft Edge and Microsoft’s wider advertising network.

Competition is often lower than Google Ads, which can sometimes lead to lower cost-per-click and improved return on investment.

If you’re already running Google Ads campaigns, importing them into Microsoft Ads is relatively straightforward, making it an easy platform to test without starting from scratch.

For some businesses, it can become a valuable additional source of enquiries.

Which Remarketing Tool Is Best?

Rather than asking which remarketing tool is best, I think it’s better to ask which one is best for your business.

As a general guide:

• Google Ads – Excellent for most businesses, lead generation and ecommerce.
• Meta Ads – Ideal for visual products, ecommerce and B2C businesses.
• Mailchimp – Perfect for email remarketing and customer retention.
• LinkedIn Ads – Best suited to B2B businesses and professional services.
• Microsoft Ads – A good additional platform with lower competition than Google.

The right choice depends on where your audience spends their time and how they typically make buying decisions.

In many cases, using two complementary platforms will produce better results than trying to advertise everywhere.

Choosing the Right Remarketing Tool

The best remarketing tool isn’t necessarily the one with the most features or the biggest advertising network. It’s the one that helps you reach your audience at the right time with the right message.

Google Ads is an excellent all-round choice for many businesses, while Meta can be particularly effective for visual brands and ecommerce. LinkedIn is well worth considering if you’re targeting other businesses, and Mailchimp remains one of the most powerful ways to stay in touch with existing customers through email. Microsoft Ads can also be a valuable addition, particularly if you’re looking to reach new audiences with less competition.

The key is to choose the platform that best matches your customers rather than trying to advertise everywhere at once. Once you’ve identified what works, you can continue refining your campaigns and expanding your remarketing strategy over time.

When used effectively, remarketing can become one of the highest-performing parts of your digital marketing strategy, helping you reconnect with previous visitors, generate more enquiries and turn more potential customers into loyal clients.