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5 Critical Retargeting Mistakes and How to Fix Them
#BlogPost
Published: 21 April, 2025
Contents:
Mistake #1: Choking Your Reach With Tight Targeting
Mistake 2: Ignoring Frequency Capping
Mistake #3: No Personalization in Creatives
Mistake #4: Retargeting at the Wrong Time Window
Mistake 5: Ignoring Post-View Attribution
Retargeting ads are one of the most valuable tools in the digital marketer’s arsenal—specifically in the highly competitive iGaming environment. Well-executed retargeting ads bring back engaged users, increase deposit rates, and optimize lifetime value. Poorly executed retargeting ads waste budget, pester users and damage your performance.
If your retargeting campaigns aren’t performing as expected, the likelihood is that one or more of these typical errors are the culprits. And the good news? They can be remedied—with the proper strategy.
Let's examine five typical retargeting blunders that iGaming marketers often make and what you can do about them.
Mistake #1: Choking Your Reach With Tight Targeting
Perhaps the most prevalent issue with retargeting in iGaming is segmenting audiences too tightly. It’s simple enough to segment down into micro-niches—e.g., only funds-adders who didn’t play or visitors who came into one particular game—however, if you segment too tightly you reduce both reach and potential effect.
This problem is most acute in programmatic advertising where scale means so much for performance. If you have only a few hundred retargeting audience members, CPMs will rise, the frequency will spike, and users will start ignoring you.
How to fix it:Begin wide and add behavioral filters progressively. Instead of simply segmenting "depositors who didn’t bet," segment "site visitors who viewed multiple game types" or "users who spent over X minutes on the site." You're broadening the base while still being relevant. Leverage dynamic segmentation tools that refresh audiences at regular intervals so you're not wasting impressions on stale visitors.
Mistake 2:Ignoring Frequency Capping
Too many retargeting campaigns fail because of one simple oversight—no frequency capping. When the same player sees your banner 20 times a day, it doesn’t increase the chance they’ll return. It just annoys them, creates ad fatigue, and leads to banner blindness.
In iGaming, where users are already bombarded with offers, excessive ad frequency can harm brand perception—and cause users to actively avoid your brand.
How to fix it:
Set sensible frequency caps across all platforms. A good starting point is 3–5 impressions per user per day, depending on your offer and vertical. Test different caps and monitor click-through and conversion rates—if engagement drops, it’s a sign you’re showing the ad too often. Most retargeting best practices recommend prioritizing reach over repetition.
Mistake #3:No Personalization in Creatives
One-size-fits-all does not work in retargeting—specifically in iGaming, where user behavior and interest are all over the map. If you're presenting the same blanket ad to all members of your audience based on interest in sports wagering, slots, or poker, you're missing the point.
Lack of creative personalization leads to decreased engagement, poor performance, and ultimately greater cost per action.
How to fix it:
Segment users based on their site behavior—games browsed, time spent, device used, etc.—and tailor your creatives accordingly. Someone who viewed jackpot games should see promotions related to that. A player who visited your sportsbook shouldn’t see a slots bonus ad.
Use dynamic creative optimization (DCO) wherever you have the opportunity. It allows you to automate the customization of items like images, headline copy, and calls-to-action based on user segment. Personalized ads are more relevant—and relevance means better performance.
Mistake #4: Retargeting at the Wrong Time Window
Timing is everything in retargeting strategies. You lose the players who needed just that little extra time to commit if the window is too small. If the window is too large, you're retargeting users who have lost interest or worse—already churned.
A short retargeting window (like 24 hours) usually works only for impulse-driven users. A long window (like 90 days) risks targeting users who’ve either already converted or stopped caring.
How to fix it:
Segment the audience based on the last visit duration i.e., 1–3 days, 4–7 days, 8–14 days, and 15–30 days. And craft the message accordingly for each segment. The sooner the visit, the more aggressive the call-to-action would have to be (e.g., "Visit now and claim a 50% bonus"). And for the old ones, for re-engagement ("We've missed you. Here's one free spin as a welcome gift.")
Test across different windows of time within campaigns and find where the conversions are the highest. Optimize based on results, not speculation.
Mistake 5: Ignoring Post-View Attribution
Many iGaming marketers only track clicks when measuring performance. But in retargeting in programmatic advertising, a lot of value comes from impressions, not clicks.
That means if you’re only using post-click attribution, you’re likely undervaluing your campaigns. Players often return later, via direct visits or branded searches. If you don’t track post-view attribution, those conversions go uncredited—and your reports give you a false picture.
How to fix it:
Integrate post-view attribution into your measurement stack. Collaborate with platforms and partners that include this by default. Ensure that you have both click-through and view-through conversions in the data so you're able to view the complete effect that retargeting ads have.
This is even more critical in iGaming where the choice may not always be immediate. Post-view tracking helps in uncovering the hidden value in the impressions that might not have converted into the click, yet planted the seeds for the conversion.
Final Thoughts
Retargeting is powerful—unless you're doing it wrong. These five retargeting mistakes are easy enough to commit, yet have the potential to sneakily knock down your performance, increase prices, and reduce engagement.
Whether you're developing retargeting campaigns for new players, reactivating inactive players, or supporting brand campaigns, having the fundamentals right makes all the difference. The main points?● Broaden the audience base without losing relevance● Cap the frequency of ads before annoying the user● Personalize each creative.● Timing the outreach effectively● Avoid underrating the value added by post-view attribution
Follow these retargeting best practices and you won’t just win back lost players—you’ll create more robust, more intelligent, and more cost-effective campaigns that scale.
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