Why am I getting low impressions on remarketing audiences?

Start with the audience: is it building, is it eligible, and is it the right “type” for the network?

1) Your list may be real, but not “active” enough to serve

Remarketing impressions don’t come from your total audience size; they come from how many active users are currently eligible to be reached on a specific network. That’s why you can “have a list” and still see low impressions. In practice, eligibility depends on recent activity (typically the last 30 days) and the network you’re trying to show on (Search vs YouTube vs Display), which is exactly why the same audience can look healthy in one column and tiny (or even zero) in another.

As a baseline, many remarketing lists need at least 100 active users in the last 30 days to be eligible to serve on major networks. If you’re sitting at 80–150 users, you’ll often see unpredictable delivery because normal day-to-day fluctuations can drop you under the threshold at the moment an auction happens.

2) Search remarketing has an additional privacy threshold that surprises people

If your “low impressions” problem is specifically on Search remarketing (RLSA-style use of “your data” on Search campaigns), there’s a common gotcha: certain Search use cases require a higher privacy threshold (commonly referenced as needing 1,000 cookies) before the list can be used to tailor Search ads. In plain English: you might see the audience in your account, you might even be able to add it, but delivery can still be limited if the list doesn’t meet the higher Search privacy minimum.

3) Your membership duration and “Open vs Closed” setting can quietly shrink reach

Two settings can cause a list to decay faster than you expect. First is membership duration: if you set it to 30 days, users fall out quickly unless they revisit and “reset the clock.” Second is list status: if a list is Closed, it won’t keep accumulating new users, so your reach naturally drops over time.

Also watch for inactivity. If a list isn’t used in targeting for a long period (commonly cited as 540 days), it can be automatically closed. If you’ve inherited an account or relaunched after a long pause, this alone can explain “we used to get impressions, now we don’t.”

4) Timing delays: new lists and fresh changes don’t populate instantly

Even with perfect setup, list growth and usability aren’t immediate. New or edited audiences can take 48–72 hours to reflect more accurate sizing. If your audiences come from analytics-based segments that export into your ad account, those exports are often available for use within about a day on average, but sizes may lag behind what you expect during the first day or two.

The biggest modern cause of low remarketing impressions: consent and personalization signals

1) If personalized advertising consent isn’t granted, remarketing won’t behave like you think

Remarketing is a personalized advertising feature. When consent settings deny personalized advertising signals (for example, ad_personalization set to denied), remarketing features won’t receive data, which means your lists may not build properly and your campaigns may struggle to serve to those users even if site traffic looks fine in analytics.

There’s a second consent layer that impacts scale in a very real way: if ad_user_data is denied, it restricts measurement and personalization use cases that rely on user-provided data and certain identifiers. That can further reduce matchability and reach, especially as browsers and platforms limit identifiers by default.

2) If you use a consent banner framework, misconfiguration can disable remarketing

If your site uses a consent framework where specific purposes must be granted to store/access information on device and build ad personalization profiles, missing those permissions can prevent cookies from being created/used and can stop events from being used for remarketing list population. Even worse, if the consent platform fails to respond quickly enough in certain setups, tags can fall back into a restricted mode where remarketing features are effectively disabled.

If remarketing impressions dropped suddenly around a consent banner change, treat that as a prime suspect—especially if only certain regions, devices, or traffic sources are affected.

3) Analytics-based remarketing audiences can be throttled by account linking and personalization settings

If you build remarketing audiences in analytics and push them into your ad account, you need the link between systems configured so that ads personalization is enabled. To maximize coverage when cookies or other identifiers aren’t available, enabling signals such as Google Signals and/or user-provided data collection can materially improve audience completeness (assuming you collect and use that data appropriately and with proper consent).

Campaign setup mistakes that turn a healthy list into low impressions

1) You’re stacking targeting, shrinking the audience to almost nothing

This is the #1 in-account configuration mistake I see: advertisers add a remarketing list and then layer on additional targeting (extra audiences, tight demographics, narrow locations, specific placements, content exclusions, device-only delivery, and more). Targeting layers typically combine in a restrictive way, meaning the user must match all criteria. That can crush impressions even when the base remarketing list is fine.

• Critical diagnostic step: temporarily run a test where the ad group/campaign targets only the remarketing audience (no extra audiences, no tight demographic filters, no aggressive exclusions) to confirm the list can actually serve.

2) You chose “Targeting” when you really needed “Observation” (or vice versa)

On certain campaign types and audience setups, you’ll be prompted to choose between modes like Targeting and Observation. If you choose Targeting, you’re restricting delivery only to that audience. That’s correct for pure remarketing—but if the list is borderline small, it can starve the ad group. Observation doesn’t restrict reach; it lets you measure and optionally adjust bids, which can be a smarter bridge strategy until list sizes stabilize.

3) Your bids/budgets (or automation learning) can be the bottleneck, not the audience

Remarketing doesn’t guarantee impressions; it only makes you eligible to enter auctions when those users appear. If your bid is too low, you’ll lose auctions and see minimal impressions. If your budget is too tight (or your bid is too close to your budget), delivery can be constrained. And if you recently made major changes (new strategy, big targeting edits, new creatives), some campaigns can need a short learning period before delivery smooths out.

Also verify the basics that still catch experienced teams: campaign/ad group enabled, ads eligible (not restricted from serving), and the date range you’re viewing actually includes the time the campaign has been active.

Fixes that reliably increase remarketing impressions (without turning it into wasted spend)

1) Grow the right lists, not just bigger lists

If you’re under-serving because your audience is too small, the fastest win is usually to broaden list rules while keeping intent intact. Start with “All visitors” or “Key page visitors,” then layer in more specific segments (cart abandoners, pricing page visitors, repeat visitors) once volume supports it. If your sales cycle is longer than your membership duration, extend the duration (within allowed limits) so users don’t fall out before you can reach them.

2) Audit consent and tagging before you touch bids

If lists aren’t accumulating, bidding changes won’t help. Prioritize confirming that your consent settings allow personalized advertising for users who accept, and that your implementation isn’t inadvertently denying ad personalization or ad user data for large portions of traffic. Then confirm your site is tagged consistently across key templates so visitors are actually added to lists within seconds of visiting tagged pages.

3) Remove artificial restrictions that are common in remarketing builds

Remarketing works best when you let the audience do the narrowing. Over-filtering is the enemy of impressions. In most accounts, loosening tight location, language, and placement exclusions immediately increases delivery. If you need controls, add them back deliberately after you confirm you can serve.

4) For YouTube remarketing, fix the non-obvious blockers

If your remarketing audiences are based on YouTube engagement, low impressions often trace back to setup gates: channels/videos not properly linked, data collection not enabled at link time, personalized ads turned off for the YouTube account, or content restrictions (including content marked as made for kids or otherwise ineligible). Also be aware that some YouTube-based audiences can show confusing size diagnostics across networks; focus on whether the audience is eligible on the network you’re actually buying on.

5) If you’re using Customer Match, reduce narrowing and respect “active users” reality

Customer Match delivery depends on how many users from your list are active on the surfaces where ads can serve at the moment of the auction—so active users will often be lower than the total uploaded count. Keep your lists comfortably above minimum thresholds (I generally aim for well above 100 matched users to avoid volatility), and avoid stacking extra targeting restrictions on top of Customer Match unless you have substantial scale.

• Fast triage checklist: confirm the list is Open, membership duration matches your buying cycle, the list meets network minimums (and Search-specific minimums when applicable), consent/personalization signals allow remarketing for opted-in users, and your campaign isn’t stacking extra targeting or exclusions that collapse reach.

Low remarketing impressions usually come down to a few practical blockers: your “active users” may be under (or fluctuating around) network-specific privacy thresholds even if the total list looks large, especially on Search and YouTube where minimums are often higher; your list may be decaying because membership duration is too short or the segment is set to “Closed”; recent audience changes can take 24–72 hours to fully populate; consent mode or CMP setup may be limiting ad_personalization/ad_user_data so fewer users are eligible for personalized ads; and campaign settings can unintentionally choke reach by stacking too many targeting layers, using “Targeting” instead of “Observation,” or running with bids/budgets that can’t win auctions. If you want a faster way to spot which of these is actually happening in your account, Blobr connects to Google Ads and runs specialized AI agents that continuously check audiences, consent signals, and campaign restrictions, then surfaces clear, prioritized actions you can review and apply on your terms.