What is RLSA? How remarketing lists for search ads work for B2B SaaS

RLSA — Remarketing Lists for Search Ads — is a Google Ads feature that lets you modify bids, show different ads, or target different keywords based on whether the user searching is a previous visitor to your website. A cold searcher and a visitor who spent 4 minutes on your pricing page yesterday can both trigger your keyword. RLSA lets you treat them differently — bidding significantly more for the warm visitor who already knows your product.

How is RLSA different from regular Display retargeting?

Display retargeting shows your ads (banner ads) to previous visitors as they browse other websites. RLSA operates within Search — it modifies how your Search campaigns behave when a previous visitor happens to search one of your keywords. RLSA doesn't create new placements or change the fact that your ad appears in search results. It changes the bid price and potentially the ad copy shown to a user Google recognises as a past visitor. The user still has to be actively searching; RLSA just makes your bid more aggressive when they do.

How do you set up RLSA?

Step 1: Make sure your Google Ads remarketing tag (or Google Analytics audience, which can be imported to Ads) is tracking site visitors. Step 2: In Google Ads, navigate to your Search campaign → Audiences → click the pencil icon → Add audience → select your remarketing lists (e.g., "All Website Visitors," "Pricing Page Visitors," "Demo Page Visitors"). Step 3: Set the targeting setting to "Observation" — this lets you collect data on how these audiences perform without restricting who sees your ads. Step 4: After 2 weeks, check which lists show higher conversion rates and apply positive bid adjustments.

What bid adjustments make sense for RLSA audiences in B2B SaaS?

All website visitors (viewed any page, any duration): +20–30% bid adjustment. Pricing page visitors: +50–70% — these users showed strong buying intent. Demo request page visitors who didn't convert (reached the page but didn't submit the form): +60–80% — they got close. Past converters (people who already requested a demo but didn't become customers): create a separate list and test re-engagement messaging with higher bids. The adjustment logic: the stronger the intent signal from the original visit, the higher the bid when they search again.

What is RLSA-only targeting and when should you use it?

Beyond bid adjustments, you can use RLSA to show ads only to people on a specific list — this is called "Target" rather than "Observation." This is useful for keywords you wouldn't normally bid on for cold traffic but make sense for warm visitors. For example: competitor keywords. You might not bid on "HubSpot alternative" for cold searchers at $8/click, but for someone who already visited your pricing page and is now searching competitor alternatives, bidding on that term makes strong economic sense.