Ecommerce retargeting: Meta, Google and email for shoppers who left

In short: ecommerce retargeting shows an ad or sends a message only to people who already visited your store and did not buy. It runs on three channels. Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google Ads reach anonymous visitors through the pixel, the abandoned cart email reaches shoppers who left an email address, and everyone who bought is excluded. In the EU, the ad channels reach only visitors who accepted advertising cookies.

This guide is for stores that already get traffic, in one EU country or several. It shows what you set up in CloudCart and what in the ad platforms. CloudCart facts come from the platform documentation and the pricing page; consent rules come from EUR-Lex.

What retargeting is and how it differs from remarketing

Retargeting is a second contact with someone who has already interacted with your store: viewed a product, added something to the cart or started checkout. In practice "retargeting" and "remarketing" mean the same thing. Google calls the feature remarketing, and in Google Ads it now sits under "Your data" segments. Meta calls it a website custom audience. Some agencies use "retargeting" for ads and "remarketing" for emails, but the platforms do not draw that line.

There are five types: standard (a general store ad), dynamic (the exact products the person viewed), search (your Google ad for past visitors who search again), YouTube video, and messages to subscribers by email, Web Push, SMS or Viber.

The Meta pixel and the Google tag recognise the browser even when the visitor left no details. Email and Web Push reach only a known customer or subscriber, but they do not depend on advertising cookies.

Retargeting on Meta, Google and email: which channel reaches whom

Each channel covers a different slice of non-buyers: Meta and Google reach anonymous visitors, while email, Web Push and messaging reach your subscribers.

Channel	Who it reaches	In CloudCart	In the ad platform	Cost
Meta (Facebook, Instagram)	Visitors who accepted advertising cookies	Facebook Pixel and feed in Apps → XML Feed → Facebook	Catalog audience, product ads, buyers excluded	You pay Meta per impression or click
Google Ads	Visitors who accepted advertising cookies	Google Dynamic Remarketing app (depends on plan) plus a connected Google Shopping feed	"Site visitors" segment, campaign with dynamic ads	You pay Google per click
Abandoned cart email	Registered customers and subscribers with an email	Settings → Cart and checkout → Abandoned cart reminder	Not needed	Included in the plan, up to the notification limit
Automated campaign (email, Web Push, SMS, Viber)	Subscribers in the "abandoned cart" segment	Marketing → Segments and Marketing → Campaigns	Not needed	Web Push is unlimited; SMS and Viber are paid per message

Viber matters mainly where shoppers already chat in it, for example in Bulgaria and the Balkans; elsewhere email and Web Push carry the flow. The campaigns inside each ad platform are covered in the guides to Meta Ads for an online store and Google Ads for an online store. This guide connects the channels.

Which store events build your retargeting audiences

Retargeting audiences are built from the events your store sends to the ad platforms. CloudCart sends the standard events on its own, with no code in the theme and no separate switch for each event. Setup and testing are covered in the guide to Meta Pixel and Conversions API in CloudCart.

Visitor action	Sent to Meta	Sent to Google Ads	Segment in CloudCart	What it is for
Views a product	ViewContent	ecomm_pagetype = product, ecomm_prodid	"View" condition for a product, category or brand	The widest retargeting audience
Adds to cart	AddToCart	ecomm_pagetype = cart	"Cart" condition	The strongest intent before checkout
Starts checkout	InitiateCheckout	No separate value	Started order condition (begin_order)	People who stopped at delivery or payment
Abandons the cart	(AddToCart with no Purchase)	(cart with no purchase)	Cart → Cart abandoned = Abandoned	Email, Web Push and ads with the cart products
Buys	Purchase	ecomm_pagetype = purchase, ecomm_totalvalue	"Order" condition	Exclusion from retargeting, cross-selling

Two limits apply to every pixel audience. Purchase fires from the thank-you page, so a phone order entered by hand in the admin never reaches Meta and that buyer stays in your audience. And an audience holds only people the pixel has seen, so switch the pixel on and create audiences on day one. Test events in a browser not signed in to your admin: while the admin is open, CloudCart sends no events.

The 1-3-7-30 day windows: how long to retarget one visitor

The window is the number of days a person stays in the audience after their last action. The more recent the action, the stronger the intent, so give each time slice its own ad set, message and budget. The numbers below are our suggestion for a first test; check them against how long your customers take to decide.

Window	Who is in it	Message	Channel
Up to 1 day	Left a cart an hour or a few hours ago	A reminder with the personal link back to the cart	CloudCart abandoned cart email (after 30 to 180 minutes)
1 to 3 days	Added to cart or started checkout	The same products, stock, delivery time and cost	Meta and Google with catalog products; Web Push or a second email after 24 hours
4 to 7 days	Viewed a product, no cart	Similar products, reviews, return terms	Meta and Google, lower budget than the previous slice
8 to 30 days	All product viewers who did not buy	A new arrival, a category, a seasonal sale, a last email with a code	Meta and Google; email with a discount code after 72 hours

Build the slices with exclusions: the "1 to 3 days" audience is "AddToCart in 3 days" minus "AddToCart in 1 day". That way nobody sits in two ad sets at once.

Each platform has its own limits. A Meta website custom audience keeps people for 1 to 180 days. In Google Ads a site visitor segment has a 30 day membership by default and up to 540 days, and to serve ads on Display, Search or YouTube it needs at least 100 active users in the last 30 days (Google Ads Help: how your data segments work). With low traffic, merge the short slices into one 30 day segment on Google.

Facebook and Instagram retargeting, step by step

Meta retargeting with the products a person viewed needs a pixel and a catalog in CloudCart and a catalog audience in Ads Manager. Meta now calls these ads product media ads (formerly Advantage+ catalog ads).

1. CloudCart: the pixel. Apps → XML Feed → Facebook → Settings. Paste the Facebook Pixel ID, only the number from Events Manager. The pixel is on every plan. The Conversions API is a separately paid service that sends the same events from the server when the browser blocks the pixel.
2. CloudCart: the catalog. In the same app, switch on the Facebook feed, choose the products (all, by category, brand or tag, with or without sold-out items) and copy the feed URL. The number of products in Facebook Dynamic Ads depends on the plan: 100, 2,000, 7,500 and 10,000 from Baby Pack to CC Master (pricing).
3. Meta: connect catalog and pixel. In Commerce Manager add the feed on a schedule and connect your store's pixel to the catalog. Without this link Meta cannot tell which product each person viewed.
4. Meta: the catalog audience. Ads Manager → Audiences → Create → Custom audience → Catalog (Meta Business Help: catalog custom audiences). Choose the catalog and product set, then the events: viewed, added to cart, initiated checkout, purchased. Set the number of days.
5. Meta: include and exclude. Include people who viewed or added to cart, exclude those who purchased. Create one ad set per window from the table above.
6. Meta: the ad. A Sales campaign with the catalog as the source. The text above the products states delivery time, returns and payment options. Mention the 14 days to withdraw from an online purchase, which applies in every EU country.

Selling in several countries? Keep one catalog feed per country store, so the ad shows the shopper's currency and language. CloudCart multistore runs a store per country from one admin (multilanguage and multicurrency stores).

Important: a customer list exported from CloudCart (Customers → Export) and uploaded to Meta is personal data under the GDPR. Include only customers with marketing consent. Anyone who unsubscribed never goes into an ad audience.

Dynamic remarketing in Google Ads: the steps

Dynamic remarketing in Google shows past visitors an ad with the products they viewed, with the image and price from Merchant Center. In CloudCart you switch it on with the Google Dynamic Remarketing app; segments and campaigns are built in Google Ads.

1. Google Ads: the tag. In Audience manager, set up the "Google Ads tag" data source with dynamic remarketing and business type Retail. Copy the ID in the AW-… format and the conversion label.
2. CloudCart: the app. Apps → Google Dynamic Remarketing → Settings. The app depends on your plan: if it is not in your app list, your plan does not include it. Fill in the Google Ads tracking ID (CloudCart adds AW- itself if you paste only the digits) and the Conversion label, and under Choose the type of the parameter select Retail.
3. CloudCart and Merchant Center: the products. Retail mode takes product data from Merchant Center, so Google Shopping must be connected. CloudCart does not check this: without the feed the segment fills, but the ad cannot show the product.
4. Google Ads: the segments. Create "product viewers", "cart visitors" and "purchasers", with the windows from the table. The purchaser segment is for exclusion.
5. Google Ads: the campaign. In a Display campaign, switch on dynamic ads in the additional settings and choose the feed. Exclude the purchaser segment from the campaign.

Connecting GA4, Merchant Center and Google Ads is covered in Google apps in CloudCart, step by step.

Abandoned cart email in CloudCart: the first reminder

The fastest retargeting is the abandoned cart email: it goes out within the first hour and costs nothing per click. In CloudCart you switch it on with one toggle, and it sends a personal link that reopens the cart with the products inside. Reports and email copy are on the abandoned carts page.

1. Switch on the reminder. Settings → Cart and checkout, the Abandoned cart reminder box. Turn on the toggle and choose Email under Send abandoned cart reminders via.
2. Choose the timing. Under Send abandoned reminder in (minutes) the options are 30, 45, 60, 90 or 180 minutes after the last change to the cart. CloudCart recommends 60.
3. Edit the copy. Marketing → Channels → Email notifications, the abandoned cart recovery row. The subject line decides how many people open it. If you run a store per country, write it in each store's language.
4. Build the segment for reminders two and three. Marketing → Segments, type Automated, with the condition Cart → Cart abandoned = Abandoned. The ready-made "Cart abandoners" template creates a one-time segment that does not refresh itself, so pick Automated from the start.
5. Launch an automated campaign. Marketing → Campaigns → an automated campaign for the segment, with up to 5 steps. Example: Web Push after 24 hours, an email with a discount code after 72 hours. Set the exit condition to "Makes an order", so a subscriber who orders through a link in the campaign gets no further steps.

The email reaches only shoppers with a known address; anonymous visitors are the ones Meta and Google reach. The follow-up emails are promotional, so each carries an unsubscribe link and unsubscribed customers never receive them. Under the GDPR, once someone objects to direct marketing, their data can no longer be used for it (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Article 21(3), EUR-Lex). Codes for the last step are created in Marketing → Discounts, and the full chain, field by field, is in the guide to the abandoned cart report and automatic email.

Plan (billed annually, excl. VAT)	Incomplete order notifications per year	Marketing Suite subscribers	Products in Facebook Dynamic Ads
Baby Pack	100	50	100
Starter Pack	500	100	2,000
CC Pro	5,000	500	7,500
CC Master	10,000	1,000	10,000

The limits come from the plan comparison. The notification counter runs for a year from the date you bought the plan. Web Push notifications are unlimited on every plan, while SMS and Viber are paid separately, per message.

Excluding buyers and capping frequency: how retargeting stops annoying people

Every retargeting campaign excludes buyers: an ad for a product someone already ordered is wasted budget.

• Buyers of the last 7 to 14 days. Exclude them from every retargeting ad set on Meta (catalog or website audience with the Purchase event) and on Google (the purchaser segment). The window should cover at least the delivery time, which is longer for cross-border orders.
• Exit on order in CloudCart. With the "Makes an order" exit, the automated campaign stops for a subscriber who orders through one of its links. The built-in email goes out once per cart and not if the cart already became an order.
• Phone orders. Orders entered by hand in the admin send no Purchase event. If you take many phone orders, upload a weekly list of those customers (only those with consent) as an exclusion audience.

Frequency is the average number of times one person sees one ad, and in a small audience it rises fast. When frequency climbs in Ads Manager and clicks fall, change the creative, cut the slice's budget or widen the window.

What the cookie banner and Consent Mode change

In the EU, retargeting on Meta and Google works only with visitors who accepted advertising cookies, so the audience is always smaller than the visits in your analytics. Storing or reading cookies on a visitor's device needs their consent, unless the cookie is strictly necessary for the service they asked for (Directive 2002/58/EC, Article 5(3), EUR-Lex). The rule is the same in Vienna, Warsaw and Milan. Email and Web Push still reach visitors who declined cookies, as long as they are your subscribers.

In CloudCart consent is managed by the GDPR app (Apps → GDPR → Cookies). The rules that affect retargeting:

• Meta. If the visitor declines the advertising (Targeting) cookie group, neither the browser pixel nor the Conversions API sends anything to Meta. One rule covers all events, with no partial sending.
• Google. Google Consent Mode v2 is the Google Consent Mode group in Apps → GDPR → Cookies. It is off by default and needs a subscription to the GDPR app, not a one-time purchase. When active, the store sends four denials on page load (ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad_personalization, analytics_storage) and switches them to granted after consent.
• What the signals mean. According to Google's Consent Mode guide, ad_personalization is consent for personalised advertising, and with ad_storage denied no new advertising cookies are set. A visitor who declined does not enter a cookie-based retargeting segment.
• Without the GDPR app the pixels fire unconditionally and there is no consent banner. A store with customers in the EU needs one; what it must contain is in the guide to GDPR and cookies in an online store.

How to tell whether retargeting brings orders

Measure each channel separately and use store orders as the common measure, because Meta and Google sometimes both claim the same order.

1. The cart email. The recovery link carries its source, and recovered orders show in Orders under the Recovered source filter.
2. CloudCart campaigns. Each campaign's statistics in Marketing → Campaigns show sent, opened, clicks, orders and revenue per step.
3. The ads. Add UTM parameters to ad links (utm_source=facebook, utm_campaign=retargeting-1-3). UTM tracking in CloudCart is on CC Pro and CC Master (pricing), and segments have conditions on the order's utm_source and utm_campaign.

6 retargeting mistakes to avoid

1. Ads to buyers. Budget goes to people waiting for their parcel.
2. One 180 day audience. Yesterday's cart and a view 5 months ago get the same ad.
3. Google Dynamic Remarketing without Merchant Center. The dynamic ad has no products to show.
4. A discount code in the first reminder. Shoppers who would have ordered anyway learn to wait for the code. Keep it for the last step.
5. The cart email switched off. The global toggle for customer email notifications stops this email too. Check it before you launch ads.
6. A customer list without a consent check. An unsubscribed customer never goes into an ad audience.

How email, Web Push, SMS and Viber work together as one system is on the CloudCart campaigns page, and channel by channel in email, SMS, Viber and Web Push campaigns. Questions about the setup: support@cloudcart.com.

Frequently asked questions