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Getting to know your audience segments better is key to running a successful ad campaign on Google Ads. With the right audience segmentation, businesses can target users more effectively, optimize costs, and increase conversions.
What Are Audience Segments?
Audience segments are groups of people who share certain characteristics or behaviours, such as interests, demographics, or online activities. These technical audience can help target ads more precisely, ensuring that only people who are genuinely interested or relevant to your ads will see them.
Types of Audience Segments in Google Ads
Affinity Segments
These audience reach users based on their interests, habits, and passions. Affinity segments can be used for Search, Display, Standard Shopping, and Video ads, as well as Gmail and Display & Video 360.
For instance, if you sell tech products, using affinity audience segments, you can show ads to people passionate about the latest technology and digital innovations.
Custom Segments
Custom your audience allow you to reach the right audience by including relevant keywords, URLs, or apps. These custom segments can be used in Display campaigns, Demand Enhancers, Gmail, Standard Shopping, and Video ads, making sure your ads reach users who are likely to be interested in your products or services.
For example, instead of targeting general segments like “Digital Marketing Paid Ads Services,” a digital marketing company can target users interested in SEO techniques using custom audience segments. By defining this segment with interests like “SEO optimization tips” or “latest SEO strategies,” the business can reach the right people.
Source: freepik
Detailed Demographics
This type of audience allows advertisers to target users based on specific demographic information like parental status, education level, homeownership, and more. These audience segments help target a broader group, while still being relevant for campaigns that need to cover a large but well-defined audience.
Life Events Segments
Audience based on life events allow advertisers to target users going through major life changes, such as getting married, moving, or graduating. These life event audience segments can engage users on platforms like YouTube, Gmail, and Display.
For example, a furniture store could use a life events audience segment to target users planning to move homes. By understanding these key moments, the business can adjust its ads to reach the right audience with relevant messaging.
In-Market Segments
These segments focus on users who are actively searching for products and are close to making a purchase. In-market audience segments help businesses reach users in the final stages of their buying journey, making them ideal for conversion-focused campaigns.
Your Data Audience Segments
This type of audience segment targets users who have already interacted with your business, such as past website visitors, app users, or customers who have shared their contact information. Using your data audience segments, businesses can retarget existing users with personalized ads.
How do Audience Segments work?
Google Ads groups users into audience based on their search activity, browsing history, and interactions with websites or apps. For example, if someone frequently searches for sports equipment, they may be placed into an audience segment for sports enthusiasts. This makes it easier to target them with relevant ads.
Businesses can also create custom audience segments by adding tags to their websites or apps to track user behaviour. Google further refines these segments by predicting users’ interests based on their activity on Google platforms.
Source: freepik
Campaigns that benefit from audience segments
- Display: Ads appear on websites, apps, and Google partner platforms.
- Search: Ads show up in Google search results based on relevant keywords.
- Video: Ads appear on YouTube before or during videos.
- Shopping: Product ads are displayed when users search for related products on Google.
By leveraging audience segments, businesses can fine-tune their ad targeting, ensuring they reach the most relevant users and increase the chances of achieving their advertising goals.
Setting Audience in Google Ads
- Open Google Ads Manager.
- Select the campaign, then from the menu on the left side of the screen, open the “Audiences, keywords, and content” option.
- Click the “Audience” tab and choose “Add audience segments.”
4. In the pop-up that appears, select the “Campaign” option.
5. The “Edit audience segments” window will open. Go to the “Browse” tab to see various available segmentation options.
6. Choose the segment type and the specific segment you want to target. The selected segment will appear in the list on the right.
7. If you want to change the segment, click the “X” icon next to the selected segment to remove it, then add the new segment you want.
8. Once done, click “Save” to save the settings.
Prepare Your Audience for Success in Google Ads!
Learning to use audience segments effectively might seem overwhelming initially, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a powerful tool for reaching your advertising goals. You can save on ad spend and improve campaign performance with the right audience segmentation. If you’re new to this, seeking professional help can be beneficial. Pixie Digital Agency is ready to assist you in mastering your audience and crafting ads that perfectly match your business objectives. Let’s run your campaigns precisely by leveraging audience segments’ power with Pixie Digital Agency!