Practitioner · Lesson 4 of 5
Retargeting journeys by sector
About 11 minutes · Yogender Kumar, Managing Partner
By the end of this lesson you'll be able to
- Explain how buying journeys differ between sectors
- Set a retargeting window from your own days-to-purchase data
- Plan a message sequence that follows the buyer's questions
Why this matters
A lot of retargeting runs on the platform default, often 30 days, whatever is being sold. A dress, a holiday and a car insurance policy aren't bought on the same timetable, or for the same reasons.
The core idea
Every sector has its own buying rhythm:
- Fashion and beauty: often days. People compare, then buy on impulse or payday.
- Travel: weeks, sometimes months. People look at destinations, then dates, then prices.
- Insurance: tied to the renewal date. Most buy in the last few weeks before it.
- Education and courses: months, shaped by term dates and open days.
Two settings follow from that. The window is how long someone stays in your retargeting audience. The sequence is which message they see, and when.
Set both from your own data. Your analytics can show how many days pass between first visit and purchase.
Worked example
Ferncroft Holidays is an imaginary UK holiday company, so the figures are illustrative. It looks at 1,000 recent bookings and when each was made, counting from the first visit:
- Within 7 days: 25% of bookings
- 8 to 30 days: 35%
- 31 to 60 days: 30%
- After 60 days: 10%
Its retargeting window was 7 days, so the ads stopped after day 7. The 75% of bookings that came later happened after people had left the audience.
Ferncroft extends the window to 60 days, which covers 90% of bookings. Then it plans the sequence around the questions people ask, in order:
- Days 1 to 7: the destination they looked at, with photos and what's included.
- Days 8 to 30: prices for the dates they searched, and how payment works.
- Days 31 to 60: reviews from past guests, and the deposit deadline.
A longer window means more ads per person in total, so a frequency cap of five a week keeps it from turning into a nuisance. People who book are suppressed straight away.
My view: set the window before you polish the creative. The best ad can't reach someone who left your audience a week before they were ready.
When Ferncroft's bookings happen, counted from the first visit
In practice
- Pull days from first visit to purchase for your last few hundred sales.
- Set the window to cover most buyers, usually 80% to 90% of them.
- Plan one message for each stage of the buyer's questions.
- Cap frequency more tightly when the window is long.
- Suppress buyers straight away, and renewals once they're done.
Common mistakes
- One window for every product. A 30-day default suits some sectors and misses others. Use your own data.
- The same ad from day one to day sixty. People's questions change, so the message should too.
- Long windows with no cap. A 60-day audience seeing ten ads a week will annoy people. Cap it.
Try it yourself
An insurance broker's retargeting window is 14 days from the first visit. Most people first visit about 30 days before their renewal date, and 60% buy in the last 14 days before it. What's wrong with the window, and what would you change?
Show answer
A 14-day window from a first visit 30 days out ends about 16 days before renewal. So people drop out of the audience just before the last 14 days, when 60% of them buy. Tie the window to the renewal date if you know it, or extend it to about 35 to 45 days so it runs past the renewal date.
Quick check
Not scored. Pick an answer to see the explanation.
How should you set a retargeting window?
25% of bookings happen in the first 7 days and 35% in days 8 to 30. What share does a 30-day window cover?
Key takeaways
- Each sector buys on its own timetable.
- Set the window from your own days-to-purchase data.
- Change the message as the buyer's questions change.
- A longer window means more ads per person, so check the cap.
Further reading: the full guide on our blog