“I trust Google’s default audiences to reach the most relevant users for my campaigns while minimising wasted spend.” - No one, ever.
In a perfect world, we would all be running accounts that fit neatly into Google’s default audiences. Targeting would be as simple as selecting the relevant audience, applying it to the campaigns and then watching the conversions roll in. Unfortunately for many marketers, while Google’s default audiences are useful, the categories are too broad to ensure that they’ll only contain the users who are most relevant to their specific business.
So what if there was a better way? Enter, Custom Segments.
One of the most underutilised and underrated targeting options available in Google Ads, Custom Segments allow marketers to create their own Interest & In-Market Audiences based on chosen search terms and even create audiences of users who browse competitor websites. These can then be applied to campaigns to create highly relevant audiences and drive better performance across an account.
To find the Custom Segments tab, select Tools and Settings in the top menu in the Google Ads interface, followed by Audience Manager and Custom Segments.
So how does it work?
Search Term Audiences
Custom Segments allow marketers to build their own audiences based off specific search terms they select. Whatever the industry, building an audience around customised search terms will help place ads in front of the most relevant users possible and drive more conversions. What’s more effective for a high end casual clothing brand - Google’s default Men’s Clothing Interest audience, or a custom segment built using search terms specific to the style, type and material of clothes on offer?
Even better, you only need to add a single search term to get started before Google will provide additional suggestions based off related searches for that term. While your own audience research is always useful, Google’s suggestions help to fill any potential gaps in coverage based off other searches they know users are likely to make.
Website Audiences
Along with search term audiences, Custom Segments also give the option of entering URLs potential customers might be browsing. Building this audience allows campaigns to be restricted to users who have visited those, or similar, URLs. As always, the definition of “similar” is slightly vague but 10-15 URLs will provide a strong base for Google to build a user profile from and will essentially allow marketers run a remarketing campaign for their product to users who have visited competitor’s sites.
Competitor analysis is a routine part of any account, so there should already be a list of competitor URLs available to add into this field. However, if that data is missing, the Auction Insights report is a great tool to identify competitors URLs for upload into a custom segment. Splitting the Auction Insights report by product type is an even better idea as it will allow you to build Custom Segments with competitors specific to each area, further increasing the relevance of targeting and increasing the likelihood of success.
Custom Segments are an incredibly useful tool and their effectiveness, coupled with their simplicity of setup, makes including them in any account a simple decision. Whether it’s highly specific In-Market audiences or a special offer running to potential customers who’ve visited competitor’s sites, there’s always a place for this targeting option in a well run account.
For more information and to learn how to reach high quality customers, get in touch.