Retargeting vs Remarketing: What's the Difference?

Remarketing originally referred to Google's own product name for showing display and search ads to people who had previously visited a site, and separately to email-based re-engagement - sending emails to past customers or leads to bring them back.

Retargeting more specifically refers to ad-based re-engagement that uses a tracking pixel or cookie to show ads to people who visited a site or took a particular action, across any ad network, not just Google.

In practice, the two terms have blurred together. Most people in the industry now say "retargeting" for the ad-based version and "remarketing" for the email or CRM-based version, even though Google's own product is literally named "Remarketing" for its ad audiences. The distinction is still worth clarifying when it comes up: if someone says one term or the other, it's worth checking whether they mean paid ads shown to past visitors, or an email sequence sent to past leads. The tactics, channels, and setup involved are genuinely different, even when the terminology overlaps.