Here is a number that surprises most business owners: on a typical local service website, somewhere around 95 of every 100 visitors leave without calling or filling in a form. They were interested enough to click. They were not quite ready, or they got interrupted, or they wanted to compare one more company first.
Retargeting is advertising to those 95 people specifically. It is the cheapest, most targeted audience you will ever buy, because every one of them has already told you they were looking.
How it works
When someone visits your site, a small piece of code from Google or Meta notes that their browser was there. For the next few weeks, you can show that person ads on the sites, apps and feeds they already use: a banner on a news site through the Google Display Network, a short video in their Instagram feed, a pre-roll on YouTube. They do not get a sales call. They just keep seeing your name.
The same thing works for people who watched your videos but never visited the site. Watched more than half a video about furnace repair? That person can see your next one.
Why it matters for local
Local buying decisions are rarely made in one sitting. A homeowner with a leaking tap might look at three plumbers on Saturday and call one on Monday. If your name is the one they have seen four times since Saturday, you are the familiar choice, and familiar wins more often than cheapest.
It also costs very little. You are advertising to a few hundred or a few thousand people, not a whole city, so the budget behind retargeting is usually a small fraction of the search budget it supports.
What to show them
Not the same ad they already ignored. The best retargeting creative answers the doubt that stopped them. A short clip of a real job finishing. A customer saying how fast you came. A line about being licensed and insured. An offer with a date on it. The goal is to move someone from "I'll think about it" to "fine, I'll call."
Keeping it from getting creepy
Frequency caps, so nobody sees you eight times a day. A time limit, usually two to four weeks, after which the person drops out of the audience. And excluding people who already converted, so your existing customer does not get chased for a job they already booked. Done this way, retargeting feels like a company that is around, not a company that is following you.
Where it fits
Retargeting is stage two of the funnel we run for social and display clients: video gets you seen, retargeting keeps you familiar, and search catches the call when the need finally hits. On its own it is a small, steady win. Combined with the other two, it is the reason your name feels obvious when it matters.