Retargeting keeps your brand in front of prospects even after they’ve left your website or engaged with your content. But for B2B companies and industries where the sales process can stretch across weeks or months, retargeting isn’t as simple as showing the same ads repeatedly and hoping for a quick win.

Long sales cycles bring unique challenges—buyers conduct extensive research and involve multiple stakeholders. Your retargeting strategy needs to evolve accordingly, balancing persistence with relevance, and using every touchpoint to build understanding and trust.

What is retargeting and how does it work?

Ad retargeting targets users who have already shown interest in a company’s digital content, such as a website page, social media post, digital ad or email. Retargeting ads can be used to redirect users back to the web page of interest or similar company content. Email can also be another means to retarget prospects via list-based retargeting.

Common B2B challenges faced.

When buying decisions take longer, it can be difficult to maintain relevance. And measuring the true impact of your retargeting efforts can be challenging. Prospects might interact with your brand dozens of times over weeks or months, making it tough to determine which touchpoints influence progression and conversion.

It's important to note that these same challenges exist whether you advertise or not. The value of retargeting ads comes from the fact that you’re targeting higher quality leads—users who already indicated interest. Studies show retargeting campaigns can lead to a 1046% increase in branded search and a 726% increase in site visits after just four weeks of exposure.

Here are best practices for ad retargeting in long sales cycles.

Go beyond surface-level segmentation.

Refine your targeting beyond “visited our website.” Segment by funnel stage, behavior (e.g. content consumed), industry and persona to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. Regularly review and refresh your audience lists as prospects progress through the funnel, retargeting them with new and relevant content.

Map out the optimal ad sequence.

Plan a sequence of messages that nurture leads all the way to a decision. Then you can “drip” ads in a logical order as prospects interact with your site and move through different lists. Use time delays, event triggers, and exclusions to ensure buyers see content that’s fresh and contextually appropriate rather than repetitive or irrelevant.

Stay fresh and engaging to reduce ad fatigue.

When retargeting users over weeks and months, ad fatigue or banner blindness can set in. To sustain engagement, provide new reasons for prospects to interact. Develop multiple versions of your ads with different visuals, headlines and call to actions, and then rotate ad variations weekly or biweekly. Incorporate videos, carousels, testimonials and downloadable content. Set limits on how many times a prospect sees the same ad per day or week to avoid frustrating prospects with overexposure.

Leverage CRM and behavioral data.

Use what you know—such as company, industry, job title, recent website activity, or CRM status—to inform your creative and messaging. For example, show a manufacturing-focused case study to a prospect from that vertical, or reference the specific product page they last viewed. You can also set up automated retargeting flows based on specific actions. For example, if someone downloads a whitepaper, show an ad for a related webinar.

Personalize ads for account-based marketing.

Create tailored retargeting campaigns for high-value companies or even specific decision-makers to demonstrate that you understand your prospect’s unique needs. Use company logos, custom offers or executive-focused messaging to improve ad relevance and engagement.

Use multiple channels to maximize reach.

Expand your reach, increase recall, and re-engage buyers as they move between platforms. Social platforms like LinkedIn enable precise targeting by company size, job title, professional interests, industry and more. Ensure a unified narrative across each channel by aligning messaging, offers and visuals. Prospects who move from your website to LinkedIn should see a consistent brand story and next-step CTA. If a prospect interacts heavily on one platform but not another, adjust your strategy and creative to focus where your message resonates most.

Prove value with tracking and stage-appropriate KPIs.

Track engagement metrics such as impressions, clicks, website return visits, gated content downloads, demo requests, and time on site. These signals help you understand whether your retargeting is nurturing and moving prospects forward—even if they’re not ready to buy yet.

Setting stage-appropriate KPIs is critical for extended campaigns. Identify key milestones in the buyer’s journey to define where micro-conversions happen—such as downloading a resource, registering for a webinar, or returning to the pricing page—and set up tracking for each. Micro-conversions provide early indicators of campaign effectiveness, even before the final sale.

Approach retargeting as a strategic, evolving process.

Mastering retargeting for long B2B sales cycles is as much about patience and persistence as it is about strategy and technology. With buyers taking their time, engaging multiple stakeholders, and demanding relevant experiences, your retargeting approach needs to be smart, adaptive, and highly personalized. When done right, retargeting becomes an integral asset—nurturing leads, accelerating pipeline growth, and driving meaningful results over time.