Retargeting and remarketing both help you reconnect with people who showed interest in your flooring store but didn’t buy. The main difference lies in how and where you reach them. Retargeting uses display ads that follow prospects across the websites they visit after leaving your site. These ads appear on news sites, blogs, and social platforms. Remarketing typically means sending emails or direct messages to people whose contact information you already have in your database. Both strategies aim to bring potential customers back to complete a purchase, but they use different channels and target different stages of the buyer journey.
This guide breaks down the definitions, highlights the key differences between the two approaches, and shows you when to use each strategy. You’ll see practical examples specific to flooring retailers and learn how to choose the right mix based on your business goals. By the end, you’ll know exactly how to stop losing sales opportunities to competitors and start converting more of the traffic you’ve already invested money to attract.
Why retargeting and remarketing matter
Most flooring shoppers visit three to five stores before making a purchase decision. When someone leaves your website after browsing carpet samples or checking vinyl plank prices, they haven’t rejected your store. They’re simply in the research phase. Without a strategy to reconnect, you lose those potential customers to competitors who stay visible during the decision-making process. Both retargeting and remarketing keep your flooring store in front of prospects when they’re still comparing options.
The cost of lost opportunities
Every website visitor represents advertising dollars already spent to attract them. When you fail to follow up with interested shoppers, you waste that initial investment. Your competitors don’t make the same mistake. They use retargeting ads and remarketing emails to stay top of mind while prospects continue their search. Studies show that retargeted visitors are 70% more likely to convert than first-time visitors.
The average flooring purchase takes 30 to 90 days from initial research to final decision, creating multiple opportunities to reconnect.
Building familiarity drives sales
Flooring purchases involve significant financial commitment and long-term decisions. Buyers need multiple touchpoints before they feel confident choosing a retailer. The retargeting vs remarketing debate matters less than understanding that both strategies build the familiarity necessary for conversion. When prospects see your store’s name repeatedly across different channels, you establish credibility. That recognition translates directly into more phone calls and showroom visits from people ready to buy.
How to use retargeting and remarketing
You implement retargeting by placing a tracking pixel on your flooring store’s website. This small piece of code tracks visitors and enables you to show them display ads after they leave. The ads follow prospects across websites they visit, keeping your flooring options visible during their research phase. You control which pages trigger the pixel and what ads those visitors see. Someone who viewed luxury vinyl plank pages sees different ads than someone who browsed carpet options. This targeting precision makes retargeting campaigns more effective than traditional display advertising.
Setting up retargeting campaigns
Start by installing a retargeting pixel from Google Ads or Facebook on every page of your website. Configure different audience segments based on visitor behavior. Create one segment for people who viewed product pages but didn’t request a quote. Build another segment for visitors who abandoned a contact form. You’ll serve different ad creative to each segment based on how close they came to converting. Someone who almost requested a quote needs a gentler nudge than someone who only viewed one product page.
Your retargeting ads should showcase specific products the visitor viewed along with your store’s differentiators. Include your phone number and location in every ad. Set frequency caps to avoid overwhelming prospects with too many impressions. Most platforms allow you to control how many times per day someone sees your ads. Three to five impressions per week typically builds awareness without causing ad fatigue.
Implementing remarketing tactics
Remarketing requires you to capture email addresses through quote requests, newsletter signups, or contest entries. Once you have contact information, you can send targeted email campaigns based on what prospects viewed or downloaded. Someone who requested a quote for hardwood flooring receives emails about hardwood care tips, installation processes, and current promotions on the specific products they considered.
The retargeting vs remarketing choice depends on whether you have direct contact information for your prospects.
Build automated email sequences that send helpful content over 30 to 90 days. Your first email thanks them for visiting and offers a consultation. Follow-up emails provide educational content about flooring durability, maintenance requirements, and installation timelines. The final emails in your sequence introduce limited-time promotions or financing options to create urgency. Keep your emails focused on solving the prospect’s flooring problems rather than pushing for an immediate sale. This approach builds trust and positions your store as the expert they’ll call when they’re ready to buy.
Key differences at a glance
The retargeting vs remarketing comparison becomes clearer when you examine the specific channels, audiences, and data requirements for each approach. Retargeting relies on anonymous website visitors tracked through cookies and pixels. You don’t need contact information to serve ads to these prospects. Remarketing requires direct contact details like email addresses or phone numbers that visitors provided through forms or purchases. This fundamental distinction determines which strategy you can deploy at different stages of the customer journey.
Channel and audience comparison
Retargeting uses display ads, social media ads, and video ads served through third-party platforms like Google Display Network or Facebook. These ads appear while prospects browse other websites or scroll through social media feeds. Remarketing operates through direct communication channels you control, primarily email but also SMS or direct mail. Your retargeting campaigns can reach anyone who visited your site, even anonymous visitors who spent 30 seconds browsing. Remarketing campaigns only reach people who gave you permission to contact them by submitting a form or signing up for your list.
You need remarketing for warm leads who shared contact information, while retargeting captures everyone else who showed interest but didn’t convert.
Retargeting typically costs $0.50 to $2.00 per click depending on your industry and competition. Remarketing through email costs pennies per message, making it the more affordable option when you have an established contact list. Both strategies deliver higher conversion rates than cold advertising because you target people already familiar with your flooring store.
Examples for flooring retailers
Both retargeting and remarketing work differently in practice, so seeing concrete examples helps you understand which approach fits specific situations. The retargeting vs remarketing question becomes easier to answer when you see how each strategy targets different buyer behaviors and produces different results. These examples show exactly how flooring retailers use both methods to capture lost sales opportunities and bring hesitant shoppers back to their stores.
Retargeting display ads in action
Picture a homeowner who visits your website, spends five minutes comparing luxury vinyl plank options, checks your hours and location, then leaves without requesting a quote. Your retargeting pixel tracked this visit and placed them in a specific audience segment for luxury vinyl shoppers. Over the next two weeks, they see display ads featuring the exact vinyl plank styles they viewed, along with your store’s tagline and phone number. These ads appear while they browse home improvement blogs, read local news sites, or scroll through Facebook.
Your ads remind them of your selection and expertise while they continue researching other flooring options. One ad shows before-and-after photos of vinyl plank installations. Another ad highlights your free in-home measurements and lifetime installation warranty. The visitor clicks through one of these ads, requests a quote, and schedules a showroom visit. The retargeting campaign kept your store visible during the critical research phase when they easily could have forgotten about you.
Remarketing email sequences
Email remarketing starts when someone requests a quote or downloads your flooring buyer’s guide. They provide their email address and enter your remarketing database. Your automated sequence sends the first email within one hour, thanking them for their interest and offering a free consultation. Three days later, they receive an email about hardwood versus engineered flooring durability, addressing common concerns about water damage and maintenance.
Remarketing emails educate prospects about flooring decisions while keeping your store at the top of their consideration list.
The third email arrives after one week, featuring customer testimonials and photos of completed installations in local homes. Your final email offers a limited-time discount on installation services to create urgency. Each message provides value while moving the prospect closer to a purchase decision. This sequence converts significantly more prospects than a single follow-up email because it builds trust through education rather than aggressive sales pitches.
Choosing the right mix for your goals
Your marketing budget and sales timeline determine whether you should prioritize retargeting, remarketing, or both strategies. Small flooring stores with limited budgets often start with retargeting because it captures everyone who visits your website, regardless of whether they shared contact information. You reach more prospects per dollar spent compared to building an email list from scratch. Larger retailers with established customer databases benefit from combining both approaches to cover every stage of the buyer journey.
Budget-based decisions
Start with retargeting if you spend $500 or less monthly on digital marketing. Your pixel captures all website visitors and keeps your store visible while they research flooring options. Add remarketing when you consistently generate 30 or more quote requests per month, giving you enough contacts to justify email automation costs. The retargeting vs remarketing debate becomes irrelevant once you have sufficient traffic and leads to support both channels simultaneously.
Your flooring store needs retargeting for anonymous shoppers and remarketing for prospects who shared contact details, creating a complete follow-up system.
Timeline considerations
Retargeting works best for immediate results because you deploy campaigns within days of installing your tracking pixel. Display ads start appearing to website visitors almost instantly, bringing prospects back to your site within the first week. Remarketing through email requires more time because you must build your contact list first through quote forms, newsletter signups, or in-store visits. Plan for 60 to 90 days to collect enough email addresses for meaningful campaign results. Combine both strategies when you want immediate visibility from retargeting ads while simultaneously nurturing longer-term relationships through educational email sequences that convert over several months.
Final thoughts
The retargeting vs remarketing debate simplifies when you recognize both strategies work together to capture different stages of the buyer journey. Retargeting keeps your flooring store visible to anonymous website visitors who aren’t ready to share contact information yet. Remarketing nurtures prospects who expressed enough interest to provide their email address or phone number. Most successful flooring retailers use both approaches because each strategy addresses a specific gap in the sales funnel that causes lost sales opportunities.
Your investment in driving traffic to your website produces better returns when you follow up with every visitor using the appropriate channel. Start with retargeting if you need immediate results from current website traffic. Add remarketing once you build a contact list of at least 100 qualified prospects. IFDA’s AI-driven targeting technology identifies flooring consumers during each phase of their buying journey, helping you reach the right prospects with the right message at the right time.
