Converting inactive users: Your definitive guide to impactful retargeting

Among today’s mobile marketers, retargeting remains an essential and popular strategy. Rather than targeting new users, it  involves campaigns specifically aimed at inactive users–efforts to entice these users to return to a brand they have previously shown interest in. By analyzing user data, such as previous interactions, preferences, and interests, marketers can create tailored messages, notifications, or targeted advertisements that encourage users to re-engage.

What is retargeting?

In mobile marketing, retargeting is the process of targeting lapsed users who have engaged with your ad or your app but have not yet converted. Retargeting is a popular strategy because a user has already displayed intent, which often makes them more likely to convert.

Retargeting campaigns refer to specific and often personalized advertisements served to your existing app users to instigate opportunities for in-app engagement. Typically, this involves developing ad creative for individuals within particular cohorts, such as users who have added items to a cart or have a history of making purchases within your app.

In terms of data measured by MMPs (mobile measurement partners) like Adjust, retargeting campaigns drive reattributions rather than installs.

A note on terminology: When it comes to plans to target previous/existing users, the terms “remarketing” and “re-engagement” also crop up. It’s important to note that “retargeting”, “remarketing”, and “re-engagement” cannot be used interchangeably. While along the same lines, there are nuances that make each term unique. We’ll return to these terms a little later.

Retargeting often proves highly effective and a worthwhile investment of marketing budget. In the era of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework and Google’s Privacy Sandbox (often referred to as the “privacy era” or “privacy-first era”), retargeting inactive users remains a strategic imperative, despite increased complexity. In the early days of the privacy-first era, the industry perception was that the data required to retarget simply wouldn’t be accessible any longer. Fortunately, we see in practice that mobile marketers continue to run successful retargeting campaigns and make significant gains.

A thoughtful retargeting strategy is critical for maintaining consistent in-app activity, increasing in-app revenue, and building brand awareness.

Read on for our comprehensive guide to the strategic importance of retargeting, the significant benefits it brings to the bottom line, and critically, how to use retargeting to increase your conversion rate and return on investment (ROI) in the context of today’s privacy-first landscape.

In this example, your mobile analytics reveal that a user plays the free version of your gaming app, but has expressed interest in your monthly subscription by engaging with your paywall. However, some time has passed and they still haven’t made a purchase. You retarget this user with a specific offer or promotional tactic to persuade them to return to convert.

Read on to discover the numerous benefits of retargeting and how to make it work in practice.

The three Rs: Retargeting vs. remarketing and re-engagement

The terms remarketing and retargeting are often used interchangeably, but there are important nuances in their definitions and how each strategy is put into practice. Remarketing typically refers to reconnecting with users via email or another direct contact channel. It involves targeting individuals who have previously interacted with a website, app, or social media account with personalized messaging. Remarketing messages aim to nurture leads, encourage repeat purchases, or re-engage inactive customers.

On the other hand, retargeting usually takes place across multiple channels, often using paid advertisements and push notifications. Retargeting focuses on keeping a brand, product, or service front of mind and encouraging users to return or convert.

Both retargeting and remarketing fall under the wider concept of re-engagement. Retargeting campaigns target a user who has not yet converted, while re-engagement campaigns target users who were formerly active but have since churned.

There’s much debate about user acquisition versus retargeting, which usually comes down to LTV and ROAS. For app marketers, this poses an important question: why spend money on driving new users when you could spend the same, or much less, on those who are further down the funnel?

While a balanced approach works best, the effectiveness of retargeting shouldn’t be ignored. It’s a successful strategy used by thousands of marketers every day, as it moves already-acquired users to the conversion stage. It’s important to remember that while interest may not guarantee conversions, retargeting also helps to keep your brand on users’ minds.

Reaping the benefits: How retargeting achieves a better ROI

To understand how retargeting is beneficial to marketers, here are a few of the primary benefits:

• Opportunity to upsell: Users are shown the benefits of converting.
• Increased conversion: Whether a user’s cart is full, or they haven’t completed a registration event, retargeting can help move users to the next stage of the funnel.
• Lower cost: A retargeting campaign typically has a lower cost of conversion and better ROI than the usual display ad.
• Precise audience targeting: This ensures re-engagement efforts are directed toward users who have shown interest in the app in the past. This targeted approach increases the likelihood of success and minimizes wasted resources.
• Personalized communication: Relevant messages and content are delivered to users based on their specific needs and preferences. This personalization fosters a sense of connection and value, making users more likely to re-engage and continue using the app.
• Improved user experience: Reminding users of the benefits and features they may have forgotten or overlooked improves the user experience and reignites their interest in rediscovering the app's value.

Nuanced retargeting approaches: Launching campaigns that succeed

Retargeting approaches can be broadly categorized in two ways: static retargeting (referring to content generated ahead of time based on a particular section of your app, or a specific ad, that a user engaged with) and dynamic retargeting (generated on a per-user basis, these ads are hyper-personalized based on a user’s behavior, interests, engagement, value, and more).

Within these two broad categorizations, we can drill down further to discover the many shapes and sizes of strategic retargeting:

• Behavioral retargeting: Focuses on targeting users based on specific actions they have completed within your app. By analyzing user data, such as past purchases, app usage patterns, or abandoned carts, you can create personalized campaigns that address their specific needs. For example, you might deliver a push notification with a free shipping offer to a user who has added items to their cart and visited the shipping and returns page in your app but has yet to make a purchase.
• Contextual retargeting: Targets users based on the context of the web page or content they are currently viewing. It focuses on delivering ads that are relevant to the specific content or topic of interest, even if the user's previous behavior may not be directly related. This strategy allows marketers to capture the attention of users who are actively engaging with content relevant to their offerings.
• Retargeting by funnel stage: By understanding whether a user is in the awareness, consideration, or decision stage, marketers can craft retargeting campaigns that align with their mindset and guide them toward conversion. For example, a user in the awareness stage who has not engaged with a particular feature can be served a communication showcasing further information about your app, relevant to other interests or behavioral data you have on this user. When it comes to where to display retargeting ads, again, it’s an important decision, and each platform offers different benefits:
• Cross-device retargeting: Reach users across multiple devices, ensuring consistent brand exposure and increasing the chances of re-engagement. With the proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and connected TVs (CTV), users seamlessly transition between devices throughout their day. Cross-device retargeting enables marketers to follow this user journey and deliver targeted ads or messages across different platforms. CTV retargeting, in particular, has gained significant traction as streaming services continue to grow in popularity. This is because it allows marketers to tap into the large and engaged audience consuming content on these devices, offering a unique opportunity to capture attention and drive conversions. More recently, mobile games developers are also benefiting from the emergence of PC and console as a powerful cross-device marketing space.

• Social media retargeting, e.g. through Facebook: Meta enables retargeting via the Meta Business SDK. Deliver ads to users already interacting with your app and measure in-app events to give you insights into user behavior and actions.
• Display retargeting, e.g. through Google Ads: Leveraging the power of Google’s dynamic remarketing for apps, you can show ads to users who have previously engaged with your app. By implementing the Google Ads remarketing tag, you can reach out to these users while they browse other websites or use other apps, reminding them of the value your app provides and encouraging them to return.

Exploring the design possibilities of your ads

There are many moving parts in an app retargeting campaign. From dividing your audience into segments and choosing the right networks to allocating your budget wisely. It’s not uncommon that some parts get overlooked–and one of them is the retargeting ad itself.

An effective ad that drives action is about more than just showing what your app offers. A lot of factors come into play, like the design and messaging of the ad, choosing the right format, knowing where to place it, and how to manage the production. It can be a game of mix-and-match–you have to identify the right combination of ad formats and match them to your budget and desired outcome.

Size matters. But that’s not all that matters.

Your ads can take shape in all sorts of sizes and appear in various positions on the device screen, depending on the inventory you have access to (i.e. the total number of ad placements or ad space a publisher has available for you to purchase in order to display your ads) and your available budget. Mobile ads can fall under these four formats: static, HTML, rich media, and video. Let’s look at each of them.

Ad format 1: Static ads

What are they?

Static ads often appear as still visuals and are usually in JPG or PNG format. They can also appear animated and come in GIF format while still being displayed as a static ad in the inventory.

What are they good for?

Static ads are highly compatible across ad slots and they load fast, thanks to their simplicity. They are also quick and easy to produce, as there are not many technical aspects to consider. Static ads are ideal for creating and displaying ads without much heavy lifting and are great for promoting straightforward brand messaging.

Things to consider

Creating static ads to fit different inventory types can be time-consuming. Set aside time for your designers to create variations for testing. It's worth remembering that if you only publish one ad design, you will see the letterboxing effect (where black bars take up unused areas of the placement).

Ad format 2: HTML ads

What are they?

HTML ads combine file components (JPG, PNG, GIF) with code components (HTML, CSS). The result is a sophisticated interface that supports additional features, such as display responsiveness, animation, and dynamic content.

An animated ad has the potential to attract more attention compared to a static image. HTML ads can also appear without animation and still look interesting, especially when they display images and text that resonate with the user’s interests.

What are they good for?

HTML ads are your best bet if you want to customize ads to fit your audience's preferences, make them interactive, and use animation. Also, file sizes tend to be small, meaning the ads rarely fail to load.

Things to consider

Creating HTML ads can be complex and time-consuming for design teams. Extensive testing may also be required to ensure the ads appear as intended in all in-app environments

Ad format 3: Rich media ads

What are they?

Rich media ads use an array of multimedia features such as video, audio, and animation to engage users. Like HTML, these ads contain file and code components, however, they require a MRAID (Mobile Rich-Media Ad Interface Definitions) framework embedded within the ad to run correctly. This framework lets the ad access device functions like its video player, GPS, and accelerometer.

What are they good for?

A well-made rich media ad uses many elements to offer a fun and unique brand experience for your users. This is your go-to format if you want to give them a glimpse of your gameplay with a screen takeover or provide an interactive walkthrough of your app's features.

Things to consider

Rich media ads offer almost endless possibilities and valuable insights into your users' behavior. For example, you can track the number of taps, the area where individual users tap, and how long audiences stay on the ad. But remember, this high degree of user interaction and engagement comes at a high production cost. You may need to work with an external vendor to produce rich media ads.

Ad format 4: Video ads

What are they?

Video ads use video to engage your users. These can be an MP4 or WebM file tied with a companion ad (commonly known as end cards) that appears at the end of the video or when it gets skipped.

What are they good for?

Video ads are effective for storytelling, meaning you can hold your user's attention longer than with other formats. Video ads work well if you want to promote or explain a specific area within your app, such as a new gameplay feature, or if you want to reuse material from other video-based marketing materials, like a television commercial.

Things to consider

It's crucial to partner your video with an end card. End cards can come in any format (static, HTML or rich media) and support the end goals of your ad–a CTA that entices a click that brings a target user back to your app.

Adventures in mobile real estate

Similar to buying property for your business, choosing the right location that attracts the most eyeballs (that are hopefully the relevant ones, too) and determining how big you want your presence to be can make or break the performance of your retargeting campaign.

Within mobile advertising, the word “inventory” refers to the ad spaces available on publishers’ platforms, such as apps or websites. There are three main inventory types where you can display your ad:

• Display inventory: This encompasses the traditional ad spaces that appear within the interface of the app or web page and can support both MRAID formats (rich media) and non-MRAID formats (static, HTML).
• Video inventory: This space is dedicated to ads that run as videos. An example would be the video ads you see during a transition from one level to another while you’re playing a puzzle game. It’s common for players to watch video ads as a way to earn rewards.
• Native inventory: Your ad will appear as if it’s part of the content of the publisher’s app. An example would be an ad that appears on the feed of a news app that blends with other posts from the accounts you follow.

Good to know: The variety of inventory types varies by supply-side platforms (SSPs) and publishers. Not all partners offer the full range of inventory types.

Examples of ad placements

It goes without saying that larger placements mean higher rates of user engagement, but they are also more expensive to buy. Smaller placements may be more cost-effective but they are less visible to your user.

Additional factors to consider

Now that you are familiar with the many ways an ad can look like on a mobile device, you might wonder which ones would work best in helping you achieve your campaign goals. There are several criteria for you to consider when making your selection: how much budget you have at hand, how much time you can dedicate to building your ads, and how sophisticated your campaign should be. It’s a classic conundrum of balancing money, time, and detail. As you get started, here are some things to keep in mind.

Start from the end

Before you begin anything, establish what you want to achieve at the end of the campaign in specific numbers. Do you want to bump sales by 50% among users who have spent less than X amount of money in the past 12 weeks? Achieve 20,000 additional daily active users within the 20–35 age bracket by the end of the quarter? Get 80% of users who have downloaded your app within the last 5 days to enjoy 20% off their first purchase using a discount code? It’s easier to move forward when you have these numbers established, because there’s a lot to measure.

The devil is in the details

App users are people with preferences, experiences, and desires. It’s important to serve them ads that speak to these primal instincts while considering where they are in the marketing funnel. For example, the ads that are targeted to users who have downloaded your app but are yet to create an account should have different messaging compared to the ads that aim to upsell or increase your existing users’ spend.

On top of that, you must ask yourself how much research you are willing to invest in formulating your ads. One of the many things worth considering is determining your user segmentation; there should be a difference in communication tailored to users who last opened your app within the past week compared to within the past month, for example. Time is money–delaying your retargeting efforts will cost you users that could have become repeat customers.

Money talks

It’s important to be smart when managing the actual campaign budget. Now, the hunt to find a retargeting partner begins. Choose one that has extensive industry experience, is transparent with their reporting, and aligns with your business goals. Maintaining open communication is also a plus.

To outsource, or not to outsource?

That is the question, though not one that’s easy to answer. Even if your company is staffed by the thousands, you may never have enough designers and copywriters to create a volume of quality ads in a short amount of time. Consider outsourcing your ad production to an external party with experience in the programmatic industry and an in-house design team specialized in building app creatives.

1. Employ deep links

A deep link takes users to a specific page in your app. They are essential for enhancing user experience as they take users directly to the in-app content they want to see and play a major role in reducing churn rates.

2. Use a mobile tracking and attribution partner

Third-party mobile measurement partners (MMPs) attribute, collect, and organize your app data, and share it with your chosen retargeting partner so they create user segments for your campaigns. MMPs will help you understand your ROI and the data they provide will allow you to optimize your campaigns.

3. Customize your creatives and landing pages

Invest your time and budget in a partner that offers creative services and testing capabilities. Building a solid creative strategy and in-app landing pages are massive undertakings, which take expertise you may not have in-house.

4. Know the value of bringing back lapsed users

If a user installs your app but fails to complete an action like a sign-up, you might have missed the chance to learn more about them and start building a real connection. Are you asking for information such as an email address during the sign up process? Provided you are adhering to privacy regulations, you can use this data as part of wider campaigns that interact with your users across multiple channels.

5. Automate your processes

Pick a retargeting partner that replaces all manual processes. Not only does this provide easy and secure data access, it also involves dynamic audience segmentation, which optimizes your campaign audiences in real-time by removing users who have already converted via other channels.

6. Ensure your retargeting campaigns are privacy-compliant

Users are now increasingly concerned about how tech companies manage their personal information, so it’s crucial to stay informed about the latest mobile privacy developments and how everything works with the ATT and Privacy Sandbox frameworks. Also, team up with a retargeting partner who acts as a data processor to guarantee the highest level of data protection and to safeguard your user’s privacy.

7. Optimize your app for opt-ins

With the introduction of ATT, users now have more control over their privacy settings, including the ability to allow or deny app tracking. Especially if your app is only available on iOS, you’ll want to optimize for the opt-in as early as possible to get as much consented device-level data as possible  for the most seamless retargeting ads. Learn how to secure more opt-ins.

8. Define clear goals and KPIs

Before launching a retargeting campaign, clearly define your objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs). Whether it's increasing in-app purchases (IAPs), improving engagement, or driving sessions, having specific goals will guide your campaign strategy and measurement approach.

9. Optimize frequency and duration

Finding the right balance in the frequency and duration of your retargeting ads is vital. Too many ads shown too frequently can annoy users, while too few exposures may not have the desired impact. Test different frequency caps and campaign durations to identify the optimal settings that maintain visibility without overwhelming or alienating your audience.

Continuous testing and optimization are crucial for maximizing the effectiveness of your retargeting campaigns. Experiment with different ad formats, creatives, messaging, or audience segments to identify what resonates best with your dis-engaged users. Analyze campaign performance regularly, make data-driven adjustments, and iterate to improve results.

10. Personalize ads and messages

Personalization is key in retargeting. Leverage engaging rich media ad formats that showcase products or content users have shown interest in, and craft compelling calls to action that align with their specific needs and preferences.

Launching and optimizing campaigns: An MMP’s time to shine

The importance of carefully strategizing your retargeting campaigns and considering every aspect of ad design and placement cannot be understated. However, when it comes to launching and optimizing these campaigns, your mobile measurement partner (MMP) must provide the accurate and reliable measurement that you need to be able to react to campaign performance and boost ROI.

From the perspective of measurement, retargeting campaigns are similar to other user acquisition campaigns–essentially, you’re focusing on reaching the right audience to drive quality interactions, continually optimizing your methods to boost success rates. Tracking and measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) allows you to gain valuable insights into the performance and impact of your campaigns–by analyzing metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, churn rates, and LTV, you’re able to get a complete picture of your campaign effectiveness in real time and make tweaks to strategy or ad setup.

Setting up retargeting campaigns within your Adjust dashboard is as straightforward as setting up regular user acquisition campaigns. One difference you might notice is the links you’re generating and using. Fundamentally, these links will operate in the same way as the links used for your user acquisition campaigns–however, because retargeting focuses on specific app users, each link will include a user's advertising ID. This also allows you to verify that your campaigns are reaching the intended audiences.

Retargeting in the privacy-first era

Consumer demand for increased protection and transparency over how tech companies manage personal information has forced the advertising industry to transition to a privacy-first world.

Major players within mobile marketing have been quick to adapt, with new solutions and safer data usage standards already in place and in the works for early 2025. Apple made the first move in 2021 with the introduction of its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework and now Google is preparing to launch its privacy-focused ad framework called the Android Privacy Sandbox.

Although many users have already opted-out to ad tracking and ID-less campaigns are set to become the norm, app retargeting will remain a crucial part of a full-funnel mobile marketing strategy.

Android in the privacy-first era

The Android ecosystem, yet to experience the effects of any stringent privacy frameworks, currently offers over 200 billion daily bid requests with an ID–meaning the opportunities that come with showing users personalized ad content remain intact.

However, Google will soon roll out a cookieless browser future and an ID-less future on Android with its Privacy Sandbox initiative. The company is collaborating with organizations across the ad tech space to ensure advertisers experience a smooth transition to this setup, which will offer solutions for tracking and reporting via the Attribution API, targeting through the Topics and Protected Audiences API, and data collection and handling via the SDK Run Time.

The Protected Audiences API will enable advertisers to continue running app retargeting campaigns on Android in 2025. Part of this solution involves adding users to audiences (called “custom audiences”) and storing associated data directly on their device. Luckey Harpley, Staff Product Manager at Remerge, explained how this will work in a recent Adjust blog post:

“Google’s Protected Audience API will allow us to target our clients’ users in a privacy-preserving way, because it doesn’t rely on cross-app IDs. Instead, users will be added to what Google is calling a “custom audience”. These are groups of users that correspond with interests and desired in-app actions determined by the advertiser. Android will store information about these groups on the user’s device and will not reveal which custom audience a user is a member of. We’ll work with our clients to define specific in-app behaviors for a retargeting campaign, such as adding an item to a shopping cart or making a first purchase. When a user completes a desired action like this, they’ll land in a custom audience and we’ll use this information to bid on and show them a relevant ad.”

It’s likely that Google’s move to the Android Privacy Sandbox will be an easier process for advertisers compared to Apple's ATT rollout, where publisher monetization was reduced by 50% for all inventory without an ID. The ATT launch made it hard for many advertisers to adapt, as they were given little time to test and understand how to optimize mobile marketing campaigns for ID-less inventory. On top of that, it was quicker to move budgets to other channels, where existing strategies still yielded results. On this occasion, supply-side platforms are playing a defining role in the development of the Android Privacy Sandbox, and there is enough time to fully test the new framework before it comes into effect.

iOS in the privacy-first era

Introduced in 2021, Apple’s ATT framework requires users to opt-in to add tracking via a prompt to share their IDFA/device ID with an app developer or marketer. Users who have not provided their consent are ineligible for app retargeting campaigns. Without an identifier, advertisers are unable to gather or track a user's in-app activity across the other apps they are using, meaning they do not have the necessary data to show highly personalized ads.

This may sound bleak for those looking to retarget their iOS audiences, but the reality is that, even now, there are still enough identifiable users to run high-performing engagement campaigns on this operating system. Data from Remerge’s post-IDFA dashboard shows that over half of all global bid requests on iOS come with an ID. While much lower than pre-ATT numbers, major markets such as the United States, Canada, and Brazil continue to provide healthy volumes of ID traffic.

In light of advertising revenue shifting from iOS to Android, Apple may become more active in the mobile privacy space and look towards building an ecosystem that does not compromise its in-app advertising business.

Given the efforts Apple has put into its own advertising platform, app retargeting is almost certainly a key element of their strategy to remain competitive with other market offerings. In fact, at WWDC (Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference) in 2023, Apple teased SKAN 5 having retargeting capabilities. This is something to monitor as mobile advertising evolves.

Remerge and Adjust’s role in shaping the mobile privacy-first future

Remerge and Adjust are working closely together to make sure their clients are fully prepared to run privacy-compliant app retargeting campaigns. In early 2024, the companies collaborated to conduct testing for Google’s Protected Audience API. This involved using Adjust’s SDK to build custom audiences for re-engagement campaigns.

Under our Analyze pillar, Datascape and InSight take your data analysis to the next level. Datascape, our all-in one data dashboard for your cross-channel campaigns, instantly provides you with all the information you need to understand which users need a nudge to help meet your post-install goals. InSight, our new, AI-driven incrementality solution, provides next-gen insights to determine the true value of your retargeting efforts. The power of InSight lies in its ability to pinpoint the conversions that were the result of a specific campaign, and those that would have taken place organically.

You can use Adjust to discover which users are falling off the conversion chain, and at which points in the funnel users start to leave your app–users you want to target with retargeting campaigns. You can also use Adjust link URLs to measure the user activity driven from any of your retargeting campaigns. Focus on reattributions to assess which retargeting campaigns are most effective in compelling users to revisit your app. Then, assess their in-app activity and determine which user groups are more likely to proceed with their purchase or level up.

Remerge

Large-scale in-app retargeting campaigns

Remerge’s advanced infrastructure processes more than 4.5 million bid queries per second (QPS) — twice as much as the ad tech industry average. High bid request capabilities allow you to access more ad inventory, target more users, and optimize your retargeting ad spend by converting high-value users at lower costs.

Combined with machine learning and optimized by more than 10 years of retargeting experience, Remerge lets you access premium ad inventory that helps you find the right users at optimal price points on both Android and iOS. Remerges reaches up to 2.5 billion mobile users across more than 1 million apps worldwide and is integrated with more than 25 supply-side platforms.

Privacy-first and future-proof advertising solutions

Remerge is the most active demand-side platform developing and testing solutions for Google’s Android Privacy Sandbox. This will prepare you for the significant shift in retargeting on this operating system. Remerge built the first proof of concept for re-engagement campaigns by testing custom audience segmentation with Mobile Measurement Partners like Adjust.

End-to-end personalized retargeting campaign management

Remerge was among the first companies to introduce retargeting to the mobile industry. By working with hundreds of the world’s leading apps, the team has gathered invaluable insights and best practices to successfully manage client campaigns.

Remerge tailors consultations to every customer. This includes working on the initial strategy consultation, custom-built reporting solutions, data interpretations, and workshops, as well as providing free access to an in-house creative agency.

Ready to get your retargeting campaigns off the ground? Request a demo and we’ll show you how to take your campaign optimization and marketing measurement to the next level.