The Creepy Salesman Problem
Imagine you walk into a boutique shop in James St, Fortitude Valley. You look at a leather jacket, check the price tag, decide it’s a bit steep for today, and walk out. Now, imagine the shop assistant follows you out the door. They follow you to lunch. They sit at the next table while you’re having a schooner at Felons. Every time you look up, they’re holding that same jacket, shouting, “Hey! Remember this? Buy it now!”
You wouldn’t buy the jacket. You’d call the police.
Yet, this is exactly how 90% of Brisbane businesses run their Google Ads remarketing. It’s lazy, it’s intrusive, and frankly, it’s burning your budget. I’ve seen more money wasted on “All Visitors - 30 Days” audiences than I care to admit. It’s the default setting, the path of least resistance, and the fastest way to make your brand a nuisance.
In 2026, the game has changed. Privacy regulations, the death of third-party cookies (mostly), and a general “ad fatigue” among Australians mean that the old “stalker” method doesn't just fail—it actively damages your reputation.
We need to stop thinking about remarketing as “reminding people we exist” and start treating it as a conversation that evolves based on where the customer is standing. Let’s look at the three dominant approaches to remarketing audiences and why most of you are choosing the wrong one.
Approach 1: The "Net Catcher" (And Why It’s Failing You)
This is the entry-level strategy. You place a tag on your site, create an audience of anyone who visited in the last 30 days, and blast them with a 10% discount code.
The Logic: They saw the site, so they must be interested. Let’s stay top-of-mind. The Reality: You are paying to show ads to people who accidentally clicked your link, bots, your competitors doing research, and people who already bought from you but didn't trigger the conversion tag properly.
I recently audited a local tradie’s account here in Brisbane. He was spending $400 a month on a remarketing list that included everyone who visited his “Contact Us” page. Sounds smart, right? Except he hadn't excluded people who had already called him. He was literally paying Google to show ads to people who were already on his books, asking them to “Get a Quote.” It’s a waste of money that makes the business look disorganized.
If you are operating on a small budget, this “spray and pray” remarketing is the first thing I’d cut. In fact, if you're struggling with limited funds, you should look at Smart Bidding on a shoestring to see how to actually prioritise your spend. The “Net Catcher” approach is for lazy agencies who want to show you a high “impression” count in your monthly report without actually delivering a single cent of incremental profit.
Approach 2: The "Segmentation Specialist" (Better, but Dangerous)
This is where things get interesting. Instead of one big bucket, you split your audiences based on the pages they visited.
- Category Viewers: People who looked at “Commercial Air Conditioning.” - Product Viewers: People who looked at a specific Daikin unit. - Cart Abandoners: The holy grail—people who almost gave you money.
This is a massive step up. You can show a specific ad for commercial services to the commercial crowd. But here is the contrarian truth: Most businesses over-segment until their audiences are too small for Google’s AI to learn.
Google’s algorithms are hungry for data. If you split your Brisbane plumbing business into 15 different remarketing lists (Hot Water, Blocked Drains, Gas Fitting, etc.), and each list only has 40 people in it, Google’s “Smart Bidding” will choke. It won't have enough data to know which of those 40 people is actually likely to convert today.
I see this all the time with B2B companies. They focus so much on lead volume that they thin out their remarketing pools to the point of irrelevance. If your audience size is under 1,000 active users, you’re often better off grouping them by intent level rather than product category.
Approach 3: The "Intent Architect" (The 2026 Gold Standard)
This is the approach we champion at Local Marketing Group. It’s not about what they looked at; it’s about how they behaved.
Instead of targeting “everyone who visited the site,” we build audiences based on high-intent signals. For example: - The Deep Divers: People who spent more than 2 minutes on the site AND scrolled 70% of the way down a page. - The Multi-Visitors: People who have visited the site 3+ times in the last 14 days. - The Video Watchers: People who watched at least 30 seconds of your brand story video on YouTube but haven't visited the site yet.
This is where you stop being a stalker and start being a helpful guide. If someone spends 3 minutes reading your blog post about “How to choose the right solar panels for a Queensland summer,” they don't need a “Buy Now” ad. They need an ad that offers a “Solar Comparison Checklist” or a “Local Rebate Guide.”
The "Time-Decay" Strategy
One of my favourite tactics for Brisbane-based service businesses is the time-decay audience. It looks like this:
1. Days 1–3 post-visit: High-frequency ads. The problem is fresh in their mind. Use a strong testimonial or a “Quick Response” hook. 2. Days 4–10 post-visit: Lower frequency. Switch the message to educational content or authority building. “Did you know 40% of Brisbane homes have this hidden electrical fault?” 3. Days 11–30 post-visit: Very low frequency. Offer a specific, time-bound incentive to bring them back.
This mirrors how humans actually make decisions. We don't want the same aggressive pitch for 30 days straight. We want different information as we move through the psychological stages of buying.
The Elephant in the Room: Your Landing Page
You can have the most sophisticated remarketing audience in Australia, but if you’re sending that high-intent traffic back to a generic, slow, or confusing page, you’re throwing money into the Brisbane River.
Too many agencies focus 100% of their energy on the ad and 0% on the destination. If you’re sending remarketing traffic to a page that doesn't immediately acknowledge why they’re back, you’ve lost them. We call these ghost town landing pages, and they are the #1 killer of remarketing ROI.
If someone abandoned a cart, don't send them to your homepage. Send them back to the cart with a “Need help finishing your order?” message. If they were looking at your “Strata Management” services, send them to a page specifically for Strata Committees, not your general “About Us” section.
Why AI is Making Your Remarketing Lazy
Google is pushing "Performance Max" and "Optimised Targeting" hard. They want you to just tick a box and let the machine find your audience.
Here’s the problem: Google’s AI is designed to spend your budget. If you give it free rein over your remarketing, it will find the “cheapest” impressions—which usually means showing your ads on dodgy mobile apps where kids are accidentally clicking on banners while playing games.
I’ve seen accounts where 80% of the remarketing budget was spent on "Flashlight App" or "Calculator Pro." Do you really think someone is going to hire a commercial lawyer because they saw a banner while trying to find the square root of 144?
You must take control of your placements. Exclude the junk. Limit your remarketing to the Google Display Network’s high-quality sites, YouTube, and Gmail. Don't let the machine treat your brand like digital litter.
Practical Steps for Brisbane Business Owners
If you want to fix your remarketing this week, here is your checklist:
1. Audit your exclusions: Ensure you are excluding people who have already converted. There is nothing more annoying than being served an ad for something you just bought. 2. Check your 'Membership Duration': If you’re a locksmith, a 30-day remarketing window is useless. If I’m locked out of my house in Ascot, I’m making a decision in 10 minutes. If you’re a kitchen renovator, a 90-day window is much more appropriate. 3. Use 'Observation' Audiences first: Not sure if a specific audience will work? Add it to your search campaigns as an “Observation” audience. This lets you see how that group behaves without restricting your ads only to them. If you see that “Previous Visitors” have a 400% higher conversion rate, then you can bid more aggressively for them. 4. Stop the 'Discount' Addiction: Remarketing isn't just for sales. Use it for brand affinity. Show them a video of your team working on a local project. Show them a community event you sponsored in South Bank. Build trust, not just a bargain-basement price.
The Verdict
Remarketing is either your most profitable channel or your biggest waste of money. There is no middle ground.
If you continue to use the “All Visitors” approach, you are leaving money on the table and annoying your future customers. By shifting to an intent-based strategy—focusing on how people interact with your site and tailoring your message to their journey—you’ll see conversion rates climb and your cost-per-acquisition drop.
At Local Marketing Group, we don't believe in "set and forget." We believe in aggressive, data-backed testing that treats every dollar of your marketing budget like it’s our own. If your current agency hasn't mentioned "audience signals" or "placement exclusions" in the last six months, it’s time to ask why.
Ready to stop stalking and start selling? Let’s talk about a strategy that actually fits the Brisbane market.
Contact Local Marketing Group today to audit your current Google Ads setup and find the hidden leaks in your funnel.