Most people who have dipped into Google Ads will probably already know about keyword targeting. But fewer people know about targeting demographic groups through audience segmentation. Improve your Google Ads performance by presenting your ads only to those who are most likely to take the action you want, whether that’s making a purchase or filling in a contact form.
What are Audience Segments and Why are They Useful?
Audience segments are groups of criteria that narrow down the number of people who see your ads. This means that you can target more niche groups and present them with ads that are more relatable to them so that they’re more likely to convert.
Audience Segmentation: An Example
Imagine you run an online gift shop. You sell lots of items that appeal to a range of people.
You have some lower-priced gifts like chocolates that are usually brought by women in their early 20s who are looking for something nice but budget-friendly to buy for their partner.
On the other end of the scale, you sell expensive jewellery that tends to appeal to middle-aged men buying something for their long-term partners: people with more income to spare.
Imagine both of these people were looking for “gift ideas for my partner” and your advert appeared. Without audience segmenting, your headline would have to be something quite general like “Gifts for all budgets” to ensure it’s reasonably relevant to both people.
That’s fine, but it’s not very specific and probably won’t stand out amongst your competitor’s ads.
On the other hand, if your advert headline was something like “Luxurious jewellery to gift to your loved one” or “Budget-friendly gifts for the one you love”, you’re speaking more directly to a certain demographic. They see something more specific to them and so are more likely to click through to your website and buy.
Audience segmentation is how you make sure the right adverts are seen by the right people. And there are more options available than just those above. You can segment your audience based on past customer behaviour, interests, recent purchase intent, and even the types of apps they use.
Getting Started: How to Set up Audience Segments
Firstly, you will need to set up a Google Ads account and then log in.
Once logged into your account, from the left menu, select Campaigns > Audiences, keywords and content > Audiences.
If you don’t have any already set up, you’ll see the option to Add audience segments. If you’ve experimented with segmenting in the past, you’ll see the option to Edit audience segments. Click on either of those links and then select to edit at either Campaign level (which will apply segmentation to all the Ads within the Campaign) or Ad group (segment for that specific set of Ads). Select the campaign or ad group you would like to create an audience for.
You will be presented with two options and you’ll need to choose one or the other to proceed:
- Targeting will only show your ad to anyone who fits the selected criteria. This is good if you’re certain of your target audience and want to really niche down.
- Observation is the default choice and will show your ad to people outside the chosen criteria, but will bid lower for those. This is a good option if you’re trialling different audiences and want to track how your segment does against a wider audience.
Next, choose your segment criteria. You will see a list of options that you can use to create your segment. Select one or more options, remembering that the more options you select, the narrower your audience.
Options you can choose include family status, age, interests, behaviours, jobs, and more. The better you know your customers, the more specific you can be when segmenting.
Save once you’re happy with your audience.
Tracking Audience Segments
Of course, once you’ve created and applied your audience segments, you need to track how they perform. That way you can adjust them or stop targeting them altogether if the returns aren’t sufficient.
To find your audience data, select Campaigns > Audiences, keywords and content > Audiences.
Select the time period you would like to review, then scroll down to the Audience segments section, where you can view a performance graph. Below that is a toggle that you can use to view a table with even more data broken down per segment.
From here, you can dig into segment performance. For each audience segment, you’re provided with data that includes number of impressions, number of clicks, cost, conversion rate, and return on investment.
So how do you use this information?
Well, ads are there to promote your business, so if a certain audience segment isn’t effectively helping you to achieve that goal, then you could be wasting money by continuing to use it. In that case, you can pause the segment in order to stop targeting it.
On the flip side, if a particular audience performs very well, you can adjust your budget to invest more in a segment (or segments) that see better returns.
Don’t make decisions based on a couple of weeks of data, however. Audience demographics will alter through time depending on season and a number of other factors. Make sure a segment has data that covers at least three months before making a decision on pausing it or increasing the budget.
Conclusion
Using audience segmentation, you can more closely target the types of people who are likely to convert on your website or app. Personalise ads for different audience groups for more effective campaigns, and adjust your campaigns based on audience performance. By utilising audiences correctly, your ads become more relevant, more successful, and more profitable.