How do I set up retargeting, and is it worth it at my scale?

Asked repeatedly across the data, most operators either skip retargeting entirely or overcomplicate it

Retargeting (reaching people who've already interacted with your store or ads) is worth setting up once you have meaningful traffic volume, roughly 100+ daily sessions or 1,000+ weekly ad impressions. Below that, your retargeting audiences are too small to deliver consistently.

The simplest retargeting setup that works: Create a Custom Audience in Meta of "Website visitors in the last 30 days who did not purchase." Run 2–3 ads to this audience focused on objection handling and social proof, not the same awareness ad they already saw. These people know what you sell; your retargeting job is to overcome why they didn't buy.
Three high-value retargeting audiences: (1) Add-to-cart but no purchase (last 14 days), your hottest audience, strong discount or guarantee message works here. (2) Product page visitors, no ATC (last 30 days), they were interested but unconvinced; use testimonials or a "here's what you're missing" angle. (3) Video viewers (75%+ of your ad video), warm but not on-site yet; use a direct offer.
Budget allocation: At $100/day total, allocate 80–85% to cold prospecting and 15–20% to retargeting. Retargeting audiences are small and will hit frequency quickly if you overspend them. At $500+/day, retargeting becomes a more material revenue lever.
Don't run the same creative to warm and cold audiences: Cold traffic needs problem-awareness and product education. Warm traffic needs objection removal and purchase urgency. The same ad doing both jobs does neither well.

See this in practice: Pick Your Ad Angles →

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