{"id":1556965,"date":"2025-10-05T11:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T15:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/?p=1556965"},"modified":"2025-10-06T07:18:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T11:18:32","slug":"better-audience-targeting-in-google-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/better-audience-targeting-in-google-ads","title":{"rendered":"Better Audience Targeting in Google Ads"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google Ads continues to shift its focus <a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/keywordless-search-ads-are-coming\">from keywords<\/a> to campaign types such as Performance Max and Demand Gen, making audiences more critical than ever. Google has enhanced its audience targeting capabilities in Display campaigns to resemble those on Meta, LinkedIn, and other social channels.<\/p>\n<h3>Custom audiences<\/h3>\n<p>Search and Shopping campaigns take advertisers only so far. Display campaigns can help by building top-of-funnel prospects via custom audiences.<\/p>\n<p>A &#8220;custom audience&#8221; is any group of consumers chosen by an advertiser, such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Visitors to a contact-us page who don&#8217;t convert,<\/li>\n<li>Email newsletter subscribers,<\/li>\n<li>Searchers with specific needs, such as queries for &#8220;electrician services&#8221; or &#8220;wireless headphones,&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Shoppers who browse a category of websites, such as those similar to ESPN,<\/li>\n<li>Searchers who query &#8220;wireless headphone&#8221; terms but don&#8217;t browse ESPN-like sites.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Depending on the campaign type, Google either targets these audiences or uses them as a signal. For example, a Display campaign would target prospects in &#8220;electrician services&#8221; for an in-market audience. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/google-pmax-unveils-optimization-tools\">Performance Max campaign<\/a> would use &#8220;electrician services&#8221; as a signal and show ads to prospects inferred by Google.<\/p>\n<p>Custom audiences are limitless, which is why advertisers should continually test to identify the top performers.<\/p>\n<h3>Creating custom audiences<\/h3>\n<p>The most common custom audience is visitors to a website \u2014 individual pages or combinations. For instance, here are visitors to a product page who did not convert. They viewed the &#8220;\/products&#8221; URL but not the &#8220;\/thank-you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1556980\" style=\"width: 580px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Web-page-visits.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1556980\" class=\"wp-image-1556980 size-large\" title=\"Screenshot of the Google Ads admin page to build the audience.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Web-page-visits-570x461.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of the Google Ads admin page to build the audience.\" width=\"570\" height=\"461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Web-page-visits-570x461.png 570w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Web-page-visits-300x243.png 300w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Web-page-visits-768x621.png 768w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Web-page-visits.png 817w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1556980\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This custom audience is visitors who viewed the &#8220;\/products&#8221; URL but not the &#8220;\/thank-you.&#8221; <em>Click image to enlarge.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Yet targeting is more creative with custom <em>segments<\/em>, which, like website audiences, are located in the Audience Manager. There are two types of custom segments:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;People with any of these interests or purchase intentions,&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;People who search for any of these terms on Google.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The options are similar, but &#8220;interests&#8221; includes websites visited, apps used, and content consumed, versus searchers who query specific terms. Thus &#8220;interests&#8221; are macro targeting while searches are micro.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a custom interest segment for wireless headphones. I&#8217;ve included a few headphone terms and sites that prospects visit.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1556982\" style=\"width: 580px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Custom-Interest.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1556982\" class=\"wp-image-1556982 size-large\" title=\"Screenshot of the Google Ads admin page for the custom segment.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Custom-Interest-570x378.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of the Google Ads admin page for the custom segment.\" width=\"570\" height=\"378\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Custom-Interest-570x378.png 570w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Custom-Interest-300x199.png 300w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Custom-Interest-360x240.png 360w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Custom-Interest-768x509.png 768w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Custom-Interest.png 967w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1556982\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This custom interest segment includes prospects&#8217; headphone terms and related websites. <em>Click image to enlarge.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>I could narrow the segment by <em>excluding<\/em> prospects interested in Apple AirPods. I could then create a separate segment targeting &#8220;AirPod&#8221; terms, and even combine the two for a new segment.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1556983\" style=\"width: 580px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Combined-Segment.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1556983\" class=\"wp-image-1556983 size-large\" title=\"Screenshot of the Google Ads page excluding AirPods \" src=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Combined-Segment-570x295.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of the Google Ads page excluding AirPods \" width=\"570\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Combined-Segment-570x295.png 570w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Combined-Segment-300x155.png 300w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Combined-Segment-768x397.png 768w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Combined-Segment.png 820w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1556983\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Segments can exclude other segments or interests. This example excludes prospects who are interested in AirPods. <em>Click image to enlarge.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Combined segments can include &#8220;Interests &amp; detailed demographics,&#8221; not just other custom segments. Hence I could add Google-defined headphone users to my combined segment.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1556981\" style=\"width: 580px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/In-Market.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1556981\" class=\"wp-image-1556981 size-large\" title=\"Screenshot of &quot;Interests &amp; detailed demographics&quot; interface in Google Ads\" src=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/In-Market-570x100.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of &quot;Interests &amp; detailed demographics&quot; interface in Google Ads\" width=\"570\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/In-Market-570x100.png 570w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/In-Market-300x53.png 300w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/In-Market-768x135.png 768w, https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/In-Market.png 1055w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1556981\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Combined segments can include &#8220;Interests &amp; detailed demographics,&#8221; not just other custom segments. <em>Click image to enlarge.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>The result is seemingly endless potential audiences, general and specific, to test across campaign types. Perhaps one custom segment works better as a signal in Performance Max than as a target in Display.<\/p>\n<p>Be creative! That&#8217;s the takeaway. Targeting in Google Ads may not be as granular as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/directness-wins-in-advertising\">Meta<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/fox-rocks-on-linkedin\">LinkedIn<\/a>, but it is essential for scaling your account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The search giant has enhanced its targeting capabilities to resemble those on Meta, LinkedIn, and other social channels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":390,"featured_media":1556990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[58297],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1556965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-google-ads",""],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.2 (Yoast SEO v25.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Better Audience Targeting in Google Ads - 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