How to plan your 2026 acquisition mix (without over-relying on paid social)
Retargeting still plays a critical role in acquisition — but scaling it through paid social alone is getting harder.
Cookie pools are shrinking.
CPMs fluctuate week to week.
And on-site banners increasingly distract rather than convert.
So brands are starting to ask a different question:
how do we retarget people without interrupting them?
What we’re seeing work: email retargeting in action
Using email retargeting, brands like Secret Sales and Discount Dragon are turning anonymous site visits into measurable revenue — without relying on cookies or paid social retargeting.
Recent results we’ve seen:
1,000+ sales driven in December for Secret Sales from email retargeting alone
5–10% conversion from identity match → subscriber
Conversion rates from email retargeting consistently outperform on-site banners and pop-ups
Same visitors.
A very different outcome.
How email retargeting actually works
Instead of chasing users around the web with ads:
A consumer visits a brand’s website
Their visit is matched to a real email identity
They continue browsing with no disruption — no pop-ups, no overlays
After they leave, a relevant email lands in their inbox
That email can:
Prompt a return visit
Encourage a purchase
Or invite them into CRM via a frictionless opt-in
If they click, they become a first-party contact — ready to be:
Nurtured through email
Used for segmentation
Activated across other channels
Built into lookalike audiences
Why this matters for your 2026 acquisition mix
Email retargeting gives brands something paid social increasingly can’t:
One-to-one communication, not one-to-many ads
No competition in a crowded feed
Durable identity you can reuse elsewhere
It’s the same retargeting objective —
just powered by people, not pixels.
The bigger shift we’re seeing
This is why email retargeting has scaled so quickly in the US — and why we expect it to become a core part of UK acquisition strategies in 2026.
Retargeting isn’t disappearing.
It’s evolving — away from cookies, and back to owned, identifiable audiences.
If you’re planning your 2026 acquisition mix, this is one channel worth testing early.