How do I create audiences in Google Ads?

Go to Audiences in the Campaigns menu to see and manage them. Build your own segments (like site visitors or a customer list) under your data segments, and add any segment to a campaign or ad group with the Audience builder.

What is the target audience for Google Ads?

Whoever you choose. You can target by interests, purchase intent, life events, demographics, your own site visitors and your own customer list, depending on the campaign type.

What is optimized targeting in Google Ads?

A setting that looks beyond the audiences you picked to find more people likely to convert. Google turns it on automatically where it is offered, and you can turn it off in the ad group settings.

How do I create a lookalike audience in Google Ads?

Lookalike segments are only in Demand Gen campaigns. You pick a seed list, like your customers, and Google finds similar people. Through 2026 Google is turning the seed list into a signal rather than a hard limit.

How many audiences can I add to one ad group?

Google says each campaign and ad group can include only one audience at a time, but one audience can hold several audience segments.

Google Ads Glossary

Google Ads Audiences and Audience Manager

Every audience type in Google Ads, which campaigns can use it, how Customer Match and lookalikes work, and the setting that decides whether an audience limits who sees your ad.

Written and reviewed by Christopher Krassnig

Published 8 October 2026Last checked 8 October 2026

Definition

Audience segments are groups of people you can add to a Google Ads campaign, based on who they are, what they like, what they are shopping for, or how they used your business. Google lists 10 kinds, from in-market to Customer Match. Customer Match memberships expire after 540 days unless the list is refreshed.

Also called: Google Ads audiences, audience targeting, Customer Match, in-market audiences

The Audience Segment Types

Google's own one-line definitions:

Affinity segments: reach people based on what they are passionate about, their habits and interests.
Custom segments: reach people by entering relevant keywords, URLs and apps.
Detailed demographics: reach people based on long-term life facts.
Life events: reach people in the middle of important life milestones.
In-market: reach people based on their recent purchase intent.
Your data segments: reach people who have interacted with your business (this used to be called remarketing).
Website and app visitors: reach people who have visited your website or your apps.
Customer Match: reach your existing customers from your own customer list.
Lookalike segments: reach people who share traits with a seed list. Only in Demand Gen campaigns.
Google-engaged audiences: people who interacted with your website on Google Search, YouTube or other Google sites.

Which Campaigns Can Use Which Audiences

Not every type works everywhere. From Google's table:

Google Ads audience segment types available by campaign type
Campaign type	Can use	Cannot use
Demand Gen, Display, Video	Affinity, custom, detailed demographics, life events, in-market, your data	None of these
Search	Affinity, detailed demographics, in-market, your data	Custom segments, life events
Standard Shopping	Affinity, detailed demographics, in-market, your data	Custom segments, life events

Performance Max is different. Google says audience signals help speed up its learning, but ads can still show to people outside those audiences: "If it's determined that other segments of users are converting well, ads will be served outside of users specified in the audience signals." See how to add audience signals to Performance Max.

Where to Find Audience Manager in Google Ads

Audience manager is the place in your account where your own audience lists live. Google's path: click the Tools icon, open the Shared library menu, then click Audience manager.

There you create and manage your data segments, like website visitors or a Customer Match list. Google says you can "see all of your data segments in one place", check each one's type, status and size, and "quickly add your data segments to ad groups and campaigns."

Targeting vs Observation

This one setting decides what an audience does. "Targeting" narrows the ad group so only that audience can see the ad. "Observation" does not change who sees the ad; it only reports how that audience performs, so you can bid up or down.

On Search and Shopping, most stores add audiences as Observation first. You keep all your searches and learn which audiences buy more.

Customer Match

Customer Match lets you upload your own customer list, like emails from past orders. Google says it can reach those customers "across Search, the Shopping tab, Gmail, YouTube, and Display" when they are signed in.

Two rules to know. "Customer Match memberships expire after 540 days." To keep a list eligible, Google says to add or update at least 100 members in that window. And campaigns that use Smart Bidding and optimized targeting automatically include all the Customer Match lists in your account, unless you opt out.

Optimized Targeting and Lookalikes

Optimized targeting looks past the audiences you picked to find more people likely to convert. Google says it is "automatically turned on for all campaigns" where it is offered, and you can turn it off in the ad group settings. Your audiences become hints, not limits.

Lookalike segments find people like a seed list and only work in Demand Gen. Google is moving them to a "suggestion mode" through 2026: the seed list becomes a signal, and the system may reach people outside the old similarity thresholds.

Store example

Example: A Running Gear Store Layers Audiences

Made-up numbers, to show the method. A running gear store adds three audiences to its Search campaign as Observation: an in-market segment for athletic shoes, its site visitors from the last 30 days, and a Customer Match list of past buyers.

After 30 days, past buyers convert at twice the rate of everyone else, and the in-market segment shows no difference. The store raises bids for past buyers and leaves the in-market segment in Observation for more data.

For a new product launch it runs a Demand Gen campaign with a lookalike segment built from its buyer list.

Common Mistakes

Using Targeting when you meant Observation
Targeting on a Search campaign cuts every searcher who is not in the audience. Most stores want Observation there.
Letting Customer Match lists go stale
Memberships expire after 540 days. Refresh the list from your store regularly.
Expecting Performance Max to stay inside your audience
In Performance Max, audiences are signals. Google may show ads to people outside them.
Looking for lookalikes in Search
Lookalike segments are only available in Demand Gen campaigns.

Questions People Ask

Click the Tools icon, open Shared library, then click Audience manager. That is where you create and manage your data segments, like site visitors and customer lists, and add them to campaigns.

Related Terms

Google's Own Pages We Quoted

Every rule, limit and size on this page comes from these pages, read on 8 October 2026. Google changes them, so check the page itself before you act.

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