Audiences & targeting
Prospecting
Prospecting is media activity aimed at people who have not yet interacted with the brand - new potential customers rather than existing ones or recent visitors. It grows the pool that retargeting and CRM later convert, and typically carries higher CPAs than warm audiences.
In practice
Judging prospecting by retargeting's efficiency numbers guarantees it gets defunded, after which retargeting slowly starves. The two play different roles and need different KPIs.
Always exclude existing customers and recent converters from prospecting; paying to acquire people you already have is the quietest form of waste.