PPC & Paid Advertising
The retargeting playbook has been rewritten. While Google's decision to keep third-party cookies in Chrome provided temporary relief, 30-50% of users remain unreachable through traditional tracking—Safari and Firefox already block third-party cookies by default, and Apple's App Tracking Transparency has permanently reduced iOS tracking to just 14-35% opt-in rates.
Retargeting in 2026: The Complete Guide to Privacy-First Remarketing
Retargeting in 2026 delivers an average 4.2x ROAS—up from 4.0x in 2024—despite the transformed privacy landscape. Third-party cookies survived Google's dramatic July 2024 reversal, but smart marketers have already pivoted to first-party data strategies that outperform traditional tracking. This guide covers the privacy regulations reshaping the industry, platform-specific capabilities from Meta and Google, and the measurement frameworks that prove ROI.
The financial consequences have been severe. Meta projected a £7.9 billion revenue loss from ATT in 2022 alone. GDPR enforcement has reached €5.88 billion in cumulative fines by January 2025, including Meta's €1.2 billion fine for EU-US data transfers.
But here's the opportunity: companies implementing first-party data strategies report 10-83% improvements across key metrics. The businesses winning in 2025 aren't those who found workarounds for privacy changes—they're the ones who used privacy constraints as the catalyst to build more sustainable, higher-performing retargeting infrastructure. At Whitehat, we've helped B2B clients navigate this transformation through HubSpot integration and strategic paid advertising.
The retargeting world marketers knew in 2019 no longer exists. Despite Google announcing in July 2024 that it would not deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome—citing regulatory concerns from the UK Competition and Markets Authority—the broader ecosystem has moved on. Chrome's 67% global browser market share keeps cookies functional for most desktop users, but mobile tells a different story entirely.
| Privacy Change | Impact |
|---|---|
| iOS App Tracking Transparency (2021) | 14-35% opt-in rates; estimated £7.9B Meta revenue loss |
| Google Cookie Reversal (July 2024) | Cookies remain, but Privacy Sandbox discontinued October 2025 |
| US State Privacy Laws | 19 states with laws; Maryland's October 2025 law prohibits targeted advertising to minors |
| GDPR Enforcement | €5.88B+ cumulative fines; Criteo fined €40M for ad-tracking failures |
Google's Privacy Sandbox—the initiative meant to replace third-party cookies with privacy-preserving alternatives—was officially discontinued in October 2025. Topics API, Protected Audience, and Attribution Reporting API were all retired due to "low levels of adoption" according to Google's announcement. This means the industry's fallback plan for a post-cookie world never materialised.
The industry response has been decisive: 71% of marketers are actively increasing first-party data collection. The path forward isn't finding workarounds—it's building infrastructure that doesn't depend on third-party tracking at all.
Both dominant advertising platforms have fundamentally redesigned their retargeting capabilities to work within privacy constraints—and in many cases, these new systems outperform what came before.
Meta's Conversions API (CAPI) enables server-to-server data transmission that bypasses browser limitations entirely. Brands with full CAPI implementation report 15-20% higher campaign performance compared to pixel-only tracking, according to multiple industry studies. The system supports web events, app events, and offline conversions, with Event Match Quality scoring to measure attribution accuracy.
In February 2025, Meta renamed Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns to Advantage+ Sales Campaigns, expanding beyond e-commerce to support lead generation and app installs. The campaigns leverage Meta's Andromeda deep learning architecture, introduced in late 2024, which has delivered an 8% improvement in ad quality across the platform.
New restrictions apply. Since September 2025, Meta proactively disables custom audiences containing health or financial attributes—audiences named with terms like "diabetes" or "high income" are automatically flagged and rejected.
Google's approach has shifted toward AI-driven consolidation. Performance Max campaigns now dominate, automatically serving ads across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps. Remarketing audiences function as "signals" that inform machine learning rather than exclusive targeting criteria.
Demand Gen campaigns replaced Discovery ads by end of 2024, offering full remarketing support with lookalike segments. Google reports advertisers using product feeds in Demand Gen see 33% conversion increases without CPA increases. For businesses running PPC campaigns, these updates fundamentally change how retargeting audiences should be structured.
LinkedIn's retargeting suite has matured significantly for B2B marketers. The Conversions API enables server-side tracking for both online and offline conversions—critical for businesses with longer sales cycles. Matched Audiences support website retargeting with 30-365 day lookback windows, contact list uploads, and account targeting for up to 300,000 companies.
The platform discontinued lookalike audiences in February 2024, replacing them with AI-powered "Predictive Audiences" that find users likely to convert based on existing customer patterns. Lead Gen Form retargeting allows targeting users who opened or submitted forms—ideal for nurturing high-intent prospects through inbound marketing campaigns.
Minimum audience size: 300 matched members (lowest among major platforms)—making LinkedIn accessible even for niche B2B targeting.
TikTok's Events API mirrors the server-side approach of Meta and LinkedIn. The platform requires 1,000 matched users minimum for custom audiences—higher than competitors—but offers unique audience types including Shop Activity (for TikTok Shop interactions) and Business Account audiences targeting organic profile engagers.
New 2024-2025 TikTok features include Developer Mode for flexible event configuration (January 2025), Spark Ads integration allowing retargeting users who engaged with creator content, Live Shopping integration with real-time shoppable stream overlays, and Automatic Advanced Matching (beta) for improved data matching.
Microsoft Advertising is the only platform outside LinkedIn offering LinkedIn Profile Targeting—reaching decision-makers by company (80,000+ companies), industry (148 industries), and job function (26 functions). Microsoft reports this targeting delivers 16% higher CTR and 64% higher conversion rates versus non-audience-targeted ads.
Client-side tracking now sees only 60-70% of conversions; server-side tracking achieves approximately 95% event capture. The difference is stark: server-side implementations report 10-30% higher pageview events and up to 100% higher purchase events compared to browser-only tagging.
| Platform | API | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Meta | Conversions API (CAPI) | Widely adopted, recommended |
| Enhanced Conversions | Server-side tagging supported | |
| TikTok | Events API | Available |
| Conversions API | Available | |
| Pinterest, Snapchat, X | Conversions APIs | Available |
Google Consent Mode V2 became mandatory for EU remarketing in March 2024, requiring two new parameters: ad_personalization and ad_user_data. Google-certified consent management platforms (Usercentrics, CookieYes, OneTrust) are now required for EEA/UK personalised advertising.
The CDP market has grown to £1.9-5.8 billion (2024) with projected growth to £9.5-22 billion by 2032. CDPs enable retargeting by unifying customer profiles from multiple sources (website, app, CRM, offline), creating real-time audience segments, and activating suppression lists to prevent showing ads to recent purchasers.
79% of companies achieve ROI within 12 months of CDP adoption, and 93% report reduced customer acquisition costs. For businesses using HubSpot, the platform's native CDP capabilities can handle much of this functionality without additional tooling.
While Google reversed cookie deprecation, the industry continues building alternatives. Unified ID 2.0 uses encrypted email data as a universal identifier, with adoption expanding in 2024 to iHeartMedia, Pandora/SiriusXM, LG Ad Solutions, and Adobe Advertising DSP.
Data clean rooms enable privacy-safe audience matching without exposing PII. Google Ads Data Hub, Amazon Marketing Cloud, and Snowflake lead adoption, with 87% of ad executives viewing clean rooms as strategically important for future campaign measurement.
Research reveals most consumers have neutral-to-positive views on retargeting when executed appropriately. 75% of consumers notice retargeted ads, but only 11% report disliking them. A Gartner survey (April-May 2024) found 63% of consumers agree that brands infer their purchase interests fairly, and 75% don't feel negative after receiving retargeted ads. Meanwhile, 38% enjoy getting better deals through retargeting.
The implication is clear: frequency capping and timing matter significantly. CTR declines by nearly 50% after 5 months of retargeting the same users. This is why proper attribution and measurement is essential—you need to know when to stop as much as when to start.
Progressive profiling—starting with minimal information and building profiles over time—outperforms aggressive data collection. Email capture with genuine value exchange (ROI calculators, industry reports, demo access) creates sustainable retargeting audiences that don't depend on third-party tracking.
Key first-party data sources to integrate include CRM purchase history, website behaviour via GA4 and tracking pixels, email engagement data, loyalty programme activity, and app and point-of-sale interactions. B2B lead generation strategies should prioritise these owned data sources over rented third-party audiences.
Segmented retargeting delivers a 76% increase in CTR and 147% conversion boost versus standard display advertising.
| Segment | Strategy |
|---|---|
| Cart abandoners (0-3 days) | Urgency messaging, limited-time offers |
| Product page viewers | Dynamic product ads showing exact items viewed |
| Pricing page visitors | ROI-focused content, competitive comparisons |
| High-value customers | Premium offers, exclusive access |
| Cold visitors (90+ days) | Brand reintroduction, thought leadership |
The first 3-5 impressions generate approximately 80% of conversion potential; impressions 6-10 contribute only 15%. Proper frequency caps increase conversion rates by 27%.
Recommended frequency caps vary by campaign type: display ads should cap at 1-3 per day, video ads at 2-4 per day, brand awareness campaigns at 3-5 per week, cart abandoners can handle 8-10 per day for 2-3 days (high intent), and B2B campaigns should limit to 3-4 per month given longer buying cycles.
Multi-touch attribution alone no longer provides accurate measurement. The recommended framework combines three approaches: Multi-touch attribution (MTA) for real-time operational decisions, Marketing mix modelling (MMM) for weekly/monthly channel-level analysis, and Incrementality testing quarterly to measure true causal impact.
Conversion lift studies from Meta, Google, and LinkedIn offer built-in incrementality measurement by comparing exposed vs. holdout groups. For more on building robust attribution, see our guide on attribution reporting fundamentals.
The 2025 retargeting landscape bears little resemblance to 2019. Despite Google's cookie reversal providing breathing room, the fundamental shift toward first-party data, server-side tracking, and AI-powered optimisation is permanent. Companies implementing these changes report 15-20% performance improvements from server-side tracking alone, with first-party data strategies delivering 10-83% improvements across acquisition costs, satisfaction, and ROI.
The marketers thriving in 2026 aren't those who found workarounds for privacy changes—they're the ones who used privacy constraints as the catalyst to build more sustainable, higher-performing retargeting infrastructure. At Whitehat, we help B2B companies implement these strategies through HubSpot integration, PPC management, and comprehensive inbound marketing programmes.
Retargeting and remarketing are often used interchangeably, though some marketers use remarketing specifically for email-based re-engagement and retargeting for display and social ads. Both describe the practice of showing ads to users who have previously interacted with your brand but didn't convert, using tracking pixels or email lists to identify them across the web.
Retargeting costs vary significantly by platform and industry. Meta retargeting typically costs £0.25-£1.50 per click, Google Display Network ranges from £0.20-£1.00 per click, and LinkedIn B2B retargeting averages £3.50-£7.00 per click. Most businesses achieve 4.2x ROAS on retargeting, making it one of the highest-ROI advertising channels when properly implemented.
Modern retargeting uses server-side tracking (like Meta's Conversions API) that transmits data directly from your servers rather than relying on browser cookies. First-party data from CRM systems, email lists, and logged-in user behaviour provides tracking that privacy measures can't block. CDPs unify these data sources for cross-platform audience activation.
Research shows the first 3-5 impressions generate 80% of conversion potential. Recommended caps are 1-3 impressions per day for display, 3-5 per week for brand awareness, and 3-4 per month for B2B campaigns with longer sales cycles. Cart abandoners can tolerate 8-10 daily impressions for 2-3 days given their high intent.
LinkedIn offers the lowest minimum audience size (300 members) and AI-powered Predictive Audiences for B2B. Microsoft Advertising provides exclusive LinkedIn Profile Targeting with 64% higher conversion rates. Google's Demand Gen campaigns work well for mid-funnel content. Meta remains effective for awareness despite being consumer-focused, especially when integrated with HubSpot for lead scoring.
As a HubSpot Diamond Partner, Whitehat helps B2B companies implement privacy-first retargeting that delivers measurable ROI. Let's discuss your paid advertising strategy.
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