Why Display Campaigns Have The Best Strategy Using Retargeting in 2025
September 25, 2025 - 6 minutes read
If you’ve ever felt like an ad was following you around the Internet, you’ve seen the power of retargeting in action!
Retargeting reminds customers who you are and what they were interested in buying from you — all while they’re browsing another website, not even affiliated with your business. It’s one of the best strategies used in marketing to stay top of mind.
We’d go so far as to guess that you’ve probably experienced a few instances of retargeting today alone.
Maybe you were browsing for a new pair of shoes, weren’t quite ready to make the purchase, and decided to get some inspiration for a new deck on a different website. As you’re scrolling through design options, up pops those shoes you were looking at on the sidebar of the deck website!
While that may seem like a subtle experience for consumers, it represents a powerful marketing tool for businesses.
The Rundown on Display Ads
Did you know that digital ads can increase brand awareness by 80%?
You can use display ads to target your audience in a number of different ways – demographics, online habits, interests, and, most importantly, their keyword searches. Amazingly, a display network can reach 90% of internet users.
The reason display ads can hone in on targeting (and retargeting) so well is that we use sophisticated tools to ensure they’re seen by the right customers during the right phase of the customer journey.
Consumers are 155% more likely to look up your brand-specific terms after they’ve been exposed to your display ads because those ads are how they become familiar with you.
Beyond that, we can re-engage your audience by placing ads on websites that contextually make sense.
Let’s use the shoe example again. You’re browsing shoes, you don’t follow through with the purchase, but instead of seeing the ad on the website with decks you were browsing, you see an ad for shoes when you check out the sign-up page for your city’s next marathon.
That might get you thinking about how badly you need those new shoes, and you’ll be even more influenced to purchase them if the ad pops up as you’re reading about marathon preparation.
Why Does Retargeting Work?
When a customer visits your website, that’s them telling you that they’re interested in buying your product or, at the very least, that they’re interested in your business. After they land on your site, they might leave for some reason or another. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that they spent time thinking about what you have to offer.
That’s where retargeted display ads come in. Remind the customer why they came to your site in the first place. Bring your product back to the forefront of their mind, and they’re all the more likely to make a purchase. After all, customers are 70% more likely to purchase from a retargeting ad.
All About Unstructured Data
When you target and retarget your display ads, make sure that the data you’re using is as specific as possible. That’s where unstructured data comes in.
Unstructured data allows you to get into the nitty-gritty of who your ads are served to. Unlike segmented (structured) data, which is sold as blocked-off information, unstructured data is transparent and granular. At Federated Digital Solutions, we like to compare it to a bag of Skittles.
Segmented data is like an unopened bag of Skittles. Of course, you know there’s candy inside, but you have no idea what colors you’re in for. What if you want only the yellow ones, only the purple?
Unstructured data lets you access only the yellow, only the purple, or the purple AND the yellow. Whatever combination you want, you can access it by utilizing unstructured data when you target and retarget your display ads.
In action, unstructured data shows your customers’ actual behavior, presents recent data (including timestamps so you’re always working with current information), has improved data quality, allows for better optimization, and makes for increased audience flexibility.
Why Do You Need Display Ad Retargeting?
Display ad retargeting campaigns are the best way to ensure that you remain at the top of your customers’ minds when they’re searching for products and services they want to buy. This is how you concentrate on the right consumers and stop wasting time on those who won’t end up making a purchase from you.
Want to know more about display ad targeting and retargeting for your next 2025 campaign? Reach out to our experts at Federated Digital Solutions for help!