What retargeting is and how it works in Direct and VK Ads

What retargeting means, in plain terms

Someone picks out a sofa in an online store, adds it to the cart, and closes the tab. Later, while reading the news on a different site, they see an ad for that same sofa. That’s retargeting: the ad «catches up» with someone who has already shown interest. Yandex gives a similar abandoned-cart example.

The word «retarget» is a casual shorthand for the same term. In marketing, retargeting serves several purposes. Yandex names three: bringing back people who interacted with the brand but didn’t buy; nudging customers toward a repeat purchase; and offering a pricier or related product.

It’s important to understand that retargeting isn’t a separate «for everyone» campaign; it’s a way of choosing who to show ads to. Direct’s help documentation describes audience segments as a way to show ads only to the users you’re interested in. The ad copy, bids, and landing page are configured as usual — what changes is the audience.

How retargeting works

The mechanics are the same across most ad platforms and consist of four steps.

1. Data collection. A piece of code installed on the site records visits and actions. In Yandex, that’s the Metrica tag — code embedded on the site’s pages. In VK Ads, it’s the VK Ads pixel, added to the site, which tracks user actions.
2. Goals. Actions that matter to the business are marked as goals. Metrica defines a goal as a visitor action the site owner is interested in: visiting a specific page, clicking a button, paying for an order.
3. Audiences. Visitors and their actions are grouped — for example, «viewed the pricing section» or «added a product to the cart but didn’t check out.» In Direct these are audience segments; in VK Ads, audiences.
4. Delivery. The ad system shows ads to the people in that audience, based on the condition you set.

People often search for a «Yandex Metrica pixel,» but it’s actually the Metrica tag that collects site-visitor data in Yandex. The pixel in Yandex Audiences is a separate tool: it’s embedded in display ad creatives and collects the people who viewed them. In VK Ads, by contrast, the pixel is placed on the site itself.

Retargeting vs. remarketing: what’s the difference

According to Yandex’s materials, retargeting used to refer to a specific ad platform’s tool for bringing a user back to a site, while remarketing referred to the broader strategy that solved the same problem. The two terms now mean the same thing.

The term «remarketing» was long used in Google Ads. It now uses «your data segments» instead of «remarketing audiences»: they exist to re-engage users who have already interacted with the company. Yandex Direct and VK Ads both call the mechanism retargeting.

Sometimes you’ll see a different split: retargeting as ads based on on-site behavior, remarketing as working with a contact database, for example through email campaigns. That’s a common informal interpretation, not a definition from the ad platforms themselves. If a contractor uses the terms differently, ask which audience and which channel they actually mean.

Which audiences get shown the ads

Below are typical scenarios. For each one: who to show it to, what to show, and why.

• All site visitors. Show a reminder about the company or the core offer. Why: to bring back people who left without taking any action.
• Visitors of specific pages — a service section, pricing, a promotion. Show an ad specifically about that section. Direct’s help documentation gives an example of a segment built on the goal «Visited a promotion page.» Why: to carry forward the interest someone has already shown.
• Started but didn’t finish. For example, added items to the cart but didn’t check out — that’s another example from Direct’s help documentation. Show a reminder about the unfinished action, or address a common hesitation: shipping, payment, warranty. Why: to help them finish what they started.
• Already bought. Show a related product or a reason to buy again — this is one of the purposes of retargeting that Yandex names. Or, conversely, exclude them from ads urging them to buy the same thing.
• Your customer database. In Yandex Audiences, you can upload a file with email addresses, phone numbers, and other identifiers; in VK Ads, user lists. Why: to work with people who already know the company but haven’t been on the site recently. Before uploading a database, check what the customers actually consented to — more on this in the FAQ section.

Dynamic retargeting

Dynamic retargeting shows a person the exact products or offers they looked at. In Direct, this mechanism is called offer retargeting: users who viewed offers or catalogs on the site see them again, plus new recommended offers in ads across the Yandex Advertising Network. If e-commerce is set up, the system matches product identifiers from the feed — a file listing products and their attributes — against what the user viewed.

In VK Ads, dynamic retargeting campaigns need a product catalog, a pixel, and on-site events: viewing a product page, visiting the cart, and reaching the purchase-confirmation page. Dynamic retargeting is most useful for stores with a large catalog. It works only as well as the feed is kept up to date: if it has outdated prices or stock levels, the ad will promise something the site doesn’t actually have.

Excluding audiences

Retargeting can also be used the other way around — to avoid showing ads to certain people. Direct has a «None met» rule option for this. Its help documentation gives an example: you can’t create a goal called «Product not bought,» so you create a goal called «Purchase completed» and add a negation. There’s a limit: a segment where every rule is negative can only be used for bid adjustments. For a segment to work as a display condition, it needs at least one rule set using «All met» or «At least one met» — for example, «visited the site» while not meeting the «Purchase completed» goal. In VK Ads, when setting up an audience, you can choose «Exclude source.»

Exclusion exists so you don’t spend impressions on people who already bought and are unlikely to buy the same thing again. It also lowers the risk of annoying customers with ads for something they already have.

Retargeting in Yandex Direct

Retargeting in Direct isn’t set up with «one checkbox.» Data needs to be prepared before launch, and what you can prepare determines which audiences you’ll be able to build.

What to prepare:

• The Metrica tag on every page of the site. Tag data is used to configure strategies and audiences in Direct campaigns.
• Goals in Metrica. Any goal created in Metrica can be used as a retargeting condition. If an agency or a specialist runs the campaigns, you can grant them access to use the goals without giving them access to the tag itself.
• Metrica segments. Segments created in Metrica’s interface can be used in Direct and in Yandex Audiences. But not every segment qualifies: for example, segments from the «Direct, costs» report can’t be used for audience selection in Direct.
• Yandex Audiences segments — for cases where you need your own customer data, AppMetrica data, or geolocation.

What the setup consists of. In Direct, you build an audience segment from rules based on Metrica goals and segments, Audiences segments, and special segments for CRM data. The rule options are «All met,» «At least one met,» and «None met.» A finished segment can be added to any ad group in one or several campaigns.

Where the ads show up. Based on audience segments, ads are shown in search and across networks — the Yandex Advertising Network and external networks. Where ads appear outside of search is covered by a separate article on the Yandex Advertising Network. On search, retargeting works together with keywords or automatic targeting through a logical AND: someone from the segment who searches your phrase will see the ad. Across networks, segments combine with other display conditions through OR.

Section and button names in Direct change over time, so check the help documentation. This is only the principle; a step-by-step walkthrough of launching a campaign in Direct is covered separately.

Retargeting in VK Ads

In VK Ads, the pixel is the foundation of on-site retargeting. Its code is added to every page of the site, and it records actions: viewing a product page, starting checkout, clicking on contact details, moving to a messenger. These events are used to build retargeting audiences and track conversions.

VK Ads has more audience sources than just the site:

• on-site events;
• user lists — uploaded customer contacts;
• community followers;
• ad events — interactions with your ads;
• events in a lead form and in a mobile app.

Any source can be excluded as well as added. Setting up the campaigns themselves is a separate topic, covered in another article about the formats and settings available in VK Ads.

When retargeting makes sense, and when it doesn’t

Retargeting is a tool, not a mandatory part of every ad campaign. It’s useful wherever there’s a gap between the first spark of interest and the purchase.

Situation	Retargeting	Why
A long decision cycle: an expensive service, comparing contractors, B2B	Usually a good fit	People rarely decide on the first visit; a reminder helps them come back to the decision
Repeat purchases and related products	A good fit	You can show buyers the next logical step
A store with a large catalog	A good fit, including dynamic retargeting	The ad shows the specific products someone looked at
Few site visitors	Limited	The audience may not reach the minimum size, and there will be almost no impressions
Goals aren’t set up, and it’s unclear what counts as a result	Measurement first	Without goals, you can’t build action-based audiences or tell if the ads are working
A one-time purchase with no repeat	Only for people who didn’t finish the action	There’s nothing more to offer buyers, and they should be excluded

Common mistakes

• Being intrusive. The same ad, seen over and over, tends to annoy rather than remind. In Direct, the condition for a Metrica goal lets you set the period over which the action is counted: limit that window and rotate your ads.
• Buyers aren’t excluded. Someone pays for an order and keeps seeing «Check out now.» That’s wasted impressions and a bad impression of the company.
• One audience for every purpose. People who abandoned a cart and people who read one blog post need different messages.
• The tag and goals weren’t checked. If a goal doesn’t fire, the audience behind it won’t build. Before launch, it’s worth understanding how to track target actions on a site, and checking that the data is actually coming in.
• The ad links to the homepage. If someone looked at a specific product or service, send them to that page instead of making them search again.

Frequently asked questions

Is it legal to show ads to site visitors?

Ad platforms operate under their own data-processing rules. For example, uploading your own database to Yandex Audiences requires confirming you agree with the service’s rules and accepting a data-processing agreement. Whether you can share customer contacts, and how to set up a personal-data processing policy and a cookie notice on your site, is best checked with a lawyer.

Can retargeting be launched without the Metrica tag?

Partly. Yandex Audiences segments can be built from uploaded data, for example a customer database, and used in Direct’s conditions. But you can’t build an audience based on on-site behavior without the tag: for that, Direct needs data from a tag installed on the site’s pages.

How many visitors are needed for retargeting?

Ads won’t be shown to an audience that’s too small. Direct’s help documentation states a minimum of 100 users per segment for Metrica segments. A Yandex Audiences segment built from uploaded data must contain at least 100 records, and a VK Ads user list needs at least 100 unique records. These requirements change, so check the help documentation before you launch.

Is retargeting shown only in search?

No. In Direct, ads based on audience segments are shown in search, across the Yandex Advertising Network, and on external networks. Yandex describes the inventory more broadly: mobile apps, websites, search results.

How does retargeting differ from targeting?

Targeting selects an audience by attributes: region, age, interests. Retargeting selects people by their past interaction with your business: a site visit, an action, a purchase.