Retargeting Reimagined: How Smart Sequencing Turns Attention Into Action

Attention is the ultimate scarcity in advertising, and it’s never been more true than in today’s media ecosystem. Consumers toggle between apps, scroll through endless feeds, and stream on multiple screens simultaneously – which means the average brand message has mere seconds to make an impact. So how do modern marketers stay top-of-mind, let alone drive action?

Given this reality, marketers often turn to retargeting to reach consumers who’ve already seen their ads but weren’t impacted enough to take action. It can be highly effective – but only when done the right way, not as an afterthought. When executed strategically, retargeting can be a storytelling engine that turns passive exposure into meaningful brand engagement.

Retargeting Isn’t Just a Reminder – It’s a Narrative

Retargeting sometimes has a bad reputation. That’s because it’s often narrowly defined as chasing users with ads after they’ve bounced from a site, and no one wants to feel like they’re being intrusively followed. This view is outdated, and today there’s much more potential: You can think of retargeting less as hunting down consumers and more as telling the next chapter in your brand’s story.

The first step is to think about progression, not repetition. Retargeting should strategically advance the conversation, guiding consumers from passive interest to meaningful action.

By blending upper-funnel storytelling with lower-funnel performance – using sequenced creative across formats, platforms, and moments – retargeting becomes a personalized continuation of a brand’s experience. It provides an invitation to re-engage, explore, and convert.

When thoughtful sequencing replaces static repetition, retargeting stops feeling like an ad and starts feeling like an experience.

From Impressions to Impact: Four Types of Retargeting That Perform

Retargeting isn’t one-size-fits-all. Below are four proven strategies that deliver campaign impact – each built around smart sequencing, creative variation, and contextual precision.

1. Sequential Retargeting

Perfect for campaigns with multiple creative stages, sequential retargeting re-engages users exposed to your first ad with a complementary second one. For instance, for a top financial services client, we executed a sequential retargeting strategy that began with high-attention TrueX units to qualify engaged small business owners. We then retargeted only those who interacted with a second, consideration-focused unit – pushing them further down the funnel with tailored messaging. By starting with guaranteed attention, we ensured the follow-up reached a high-intent audience that was already primed to act.

Best for: Brands that need multiple touchpoints to educate and persuade
Avoid: Repeating the same creative, as variety drives performance

2. Campaign Retargeting

This approach reactivates audiences who were exposed to a previous campaign, even months later, to reinforce brand affinity or introduce new products. Paired with strong audience data, it becomes a precision tool for nurturing loyalty across the customer lifecycle. For example, take our national travel client: In Q4 2024, they used TrueX to drive top-of-funnel engagement. The real impact, however, came in Q1 2025, when we retargeted only those who had fully completed the initial ad engagement. Instead of restarting the conversation, we evolved it – using a second, viewer-initiated, interactive experience that built on the first to push users down the funnel to convert. The result was deeper resonance with the brand’s value as both a commuter and leisure travel partner.

Best for: Ongoing brand-building and product launches
Avoid: Gaps between campaigns without refreshing audience insights

3. Interaction-Based Retargeting

The gold standard for personalization, this method retargets users based on their prior engagement – like clicking “learn more,” watching a video, or interacting with a specific product line or SKU. The follow-up ad reflects their behavior, creating a tailored experience. Infillion’s interactive ad formats are perfect for this: Let’s say you’re a beauty brand that initially engaged consumers with an in-ad quiz to help them determine their skin type. You can then retarget those consumers with ads tailored to products suited to their skin type, rather than with broader messaging and visuals.

Best for: High-investment campaigns striving for personalization at scale
Avoid: Running campaigns without the right resources to support creative variants

4. Location-Based Retargeting

This bridges the gap between the digital and physical worlds. By leveraging geofencing and location data, brands can retarget consumers based on real-world visits – to stadiums, QSRs, retail locations, and more – with relevant, moment-specific messaging. Our award-winning Liquid I.V. client, for example, went to MLB and Minor League Baseball stadiums with a unique augmented reality game. Then, using our proprietary geofencing data, they reached fans who had attended the game – delivering follow-up messaging on mobile and CTV platforms over the following two weeks.

Best for: Brands connecting physical presence with digital engagement
Avoid: Niche geo-targets without scalable reach

Best Practices for Smarter Retargeting

• Integrate, don’t isolate: Retargeting should complement your overall media strategy. Ensure that messaging and creative align across all channels to deliver a consistent and cohesive experience.
• Sequence with purpose: Avoid ad fatigue by using a diverse mix of formats and messages that evolve over time, moving users from awareness to action.
• Start with engagement: Lead with formats that invite participation – interactive, video, or immersive experiences – to establish meaningful connections that can be amplified later.
• Future-proof your strategy: With third-party cookies on the decline, invest in contextual signals, first-party data, survey inputs, and real-world behavior to ensure targeting precision – without sacrificing privacy.
• Test, measure, and optimize: Every audience responds differently. Experiment with creative sequencing, timing, and formats – and use performance insights to refine over time.

Retargeting That Moves the Needle, and the Consumer

When executed with intention, retargeting doesn’t just drive results – it builds momentum. It keeps your brand’s story alive in the minds of your most valuable audiences, turning fleeting attention into sustained engagement.

At Infillion, we believe in bespoke brand experiences that are thoughtfully crafted for every user, every format, and every moment that matters. This means context-aware storytelling that adapts in real time, sequencing messages to match intent, mindset, and moment.

Retargeting can be a full-funnel strategy that guides consumers from awareness through conversion using creative intelligence, precision targeting, and smart sequencing. Whether you’re recapturing cart abandoners, re-engaging high-intent users, or reintroducing a brand message over time, the opportunity is clear: Smart retargeting delivers real impact.

With Infillion, retargeting won’t amount to chasing consumers around the internet with annoying ads. With the right strategy in place, it’s your next competitive edge.

Ready to turn your next campaign into a high-performance story? Contact your Infillion representative or get in touch to explore our retargeting solutions and start crafting your bespoke strategy.