[brandnewlow]

You're not far off at all. Think about how you use the web. Right now I personally have 9 tabs open in my browser and I'm flitting from task to task. Lots and lots of people browse that way.

Imagine you have an online store or a web service. You are working hard to drive traffic to your site, but only 5-6% might be "converting" in the desired way.

There's many reasons for this including outright lack of interest.

But for many, conversion doesn't happen because the time just wasn't right, or they got distracted, or life intervened. And seeing a reminder about that service a day or two later can be enough to bringing someone back to convert, when they're ready and clear-headed.

All that said, at end of day, it comes down to ROI. And with retargeting, folks are able to spend $1 and get $8-12 in sales back from that dollar. It works, and can work really, really well.

Happy to answer any other questions you might have!