A mapping and systematic review of retargeting ads in digital marketing research: implications for Islamic marketing

Purpose The purpose of this study is to systematically analyze the existing literature on retargeting ads in the context of digital marketing. This paper has focused on the features characterizing the advertising retargeting strategy by the firms including benefits, risks/disruptive effects, activities and techniques used in the retargeting ads. Besides, it aims to provide some implications for Islamic marketing that has been hardly addressed before. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a mapping study and a systematic literature review to answer nine research questions. The authors identified 379 primary studies, dated from January 2000 to February 2024, and 142 out of them were coded them via a thematic analysis. Related studies were obtained through searching in Web of Science and Scopus. Findings The results identified 17 themes for benefits, seven themes for risks/disruptive effects, eight themes for activities and six technique-related themes. Through the thematic analysis, the major benefits of retargeting ads in the digital marketing setting were found to be: shortening moves through marketing funnel, learning more about customers and higher productivity of marketing efforts. Furthermore, the risks/disruptive effects were identified: psychological risks, potential invasion of privacy and security and user experience disruption. The study also recognized activities-related themes; aligning content and offers, acquiring data from active users and being transparent about data collection. In addition, the major techniques of retargeting campaigns were found to be: information availability-based retargeting, offer change retargeting and platform-specific retargeting. Practical implications This study provides evidence of retargeting campaigns adopted from the remarketing literature to provide the practitioners with the requirements of retargeting ads. This study makes an essential contribution to the remarketing literature by identifying retargeting characteristics and suggesting future research themes. Also, the important role of data-driven marketing will have significant practical implications for digital marketers. From the findings it can be concluded that understanding retargeting ads is a key to business success in Islamic marketing operations. Originality/value This review provides the first systematic exploration of the existing literature on retargeting ads in the context of digital marketing efforts. Furthermore, this is the first study, to the best knowledge of the researcher that conceptualizes and clarifies the various elements of retargeting ads for Islamic context with strong emphasis on Islamic markets.