In brief
A custom audience is a group of people you already know: customer list, visitors to your website, people who have interacted with your videos or your account. A lookalike audience brings together people who resemble a source audience. They are created and tracked in Audience Manager.
Why it matters
- Including an audience lets you re-engage people close to buying.
- Excluding an audience avoids paying to reach customers who have already bought.
- A lookalike audience broadens reach from good customers.
The steps
- Open More tools, then Audience Manager: the list shows the name, type, number of people, availability and creation date.
- Create an audience with Create audience, choosing the source (customer list, website traffic, engagement, lookalike).
- Wait for its status to change to Ready: an audience that is too small can’t be used.
- In the ad group with manual targeting, open Custom audiences: Include audiences or Exclude audiences, with the Quick select, Custom and Lookalike tabs.
- Use Refresh if an audience has just been created.
Pitfalls to avoid
- Including and excluding the same audience, or audiences that overlap.
- Using a list that is too small or out of date.
- Importing people’s data without a legal basis: comply with the GDPR.
Frequently asked questions
Why doesn’t my audience appear? It may not be ready yet, or it may be too small: refresh the list.
What is the minimum size? It depends on the audience type; the tool shows the availability status.
Key takeaways
- Custom = your data; lookalike = "resembles".
- Include to re-engage, exclude to avoid waste.
- Always check the Ready status.
Practice in TRIALO
Open Audiences: six demo audiences are ready. Use them as an inclusion, then as an exclusion, in an ad group.