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Google Ads Remarketing Lists Destination


Destination Info
  • Accepts Track calls.
  • In Cloud-mode, refer to it as PERSONAS - Google AdWords, or Adwords Remarketing Lists, or Google Adwords Remarketing Lists (Customer Match), or Google AdWords Remarketing Lists (Customer Match), or Google Ads Remarketing Lists in the Integrations object
  • This destination is only compatible with Twilio Engage.
Components
  • Server

Overview

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Use Google Ads Remarketing for use cases related to exclusion, acquisition (using Similar Audience), remarketing, and more.

This destination can send audiences created in Engage to Google Ads as a Customer List(link takes you to an external page). Once you set this destination up, Segment sends an initial user list of users to the Google Ads API(link takes you to an external page). As users move in and out of the audience, Segment automatically updates the list in Google. This allows you to run advertising campaigns without having to manually update the list of users to target in your Google Ads campaigns.

You can send either an email address or mobile device ID (IDFA) from Engage to Google as custom matchers. You can set an email address on the user profile by including email as a trait on an Identify calls, as a property on a Track calls, or as an external id for the user. If you use Segment's mobile SDKs to collect events from a mobile app, the user's IDFA is automatically captured. If you don't use Segment's mobile SDKs, you can set the user's IDFA by setting it within context.device.advertisingId. You must also collect context.device.type and context.device.adTrackingEnabled on the event payload. Additionally, ensure android.idfa and ios.idfa are enabled as identifiers in your Identity Resolution settings in Engage.

When you send an audience to Google Ads Remarketing Lists, you can choose which custom matcher (email or mobile device ID/IDFA) to match with. If a user has multiple emails or IDFAs on their account as external_ids, Engage sends the ID that was most recently added to the user profile to Google Ads.

You can use these audience lists to serve content on Google Search, YouTube, and Gmail. You can only target users with email addresses associated with a Google account, and you can target users in Gmail only if they have an @gmail.com address.

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Twilio Engage is a paid feature

You must have access to Engage as part of your Segment plan to use this destination. Contact Segment's sales team(link takes you to an external page) to try this out.

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Consent mode

Google enforced consent on March 6, 2024 for European Economic Area (EEA) users. Learn more about consent mode and how to set it up.


  • Supports Engage: Yes
  • Must create audience_name field before Engage can update those values?: No, Engage creates the audience for you.
  • Audience appears as: A Customer list, in the Audience manager under Audience lists.
  • Destination rate limit: No
  • Lookback window allowed: Yes
  • Identifiers required : Email or Mobile Device ID (IDFA)
  • Identifiers accepted : Email and Mobile Device ID (IDFA)
  • Client or server-side Connection: Server-side
  • Minimum audience size required: 100

Use cases for known users

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Google Ads Remarketing Lists allows you to efficiently run several marketing and advertising operations. The list below contains the most popular use cases when you know personally identifiable information (PII) about your users, such as email addresses or mobile device IDs (IDFA). When you send an Engage audience to Google Ads Remarketing Lists with email addresses or mobile device IDs (IDFA), Segment hashes the PII values before sending them to Google. Google then uses these identifiers to match with users on their ad network to allow the following use cases.

Exclusion audiences (suppression audiences)

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Create an audience of users that signed up, purchased a product, or otherwise performed some conversion event. You can then send those users to Google in a timely manner to prevent advertising to users that already converted. You can do this by creating an audience in Engage, syncing it to the Google Ads Remarketing Lists, and setting it as an Exclusion List(link takes you to an external page) in your Google Ads campaign.

You can use Engage to create a detailed profile of your most loyal customers (sometimes called a "seed audience") and then send this list of customers to Google. In Google, you can then use Google's Similar Audience(link takes you to an external page) features to find similar users to target. For example, you might want to create a group of high-value users who have spent a certain amount of money on your product, and then use Similar Audiences to find users who might also spend that much.

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Warning

A "seed audience" must have at least 100 members.

You can use Engage to target users who completed some initial action, but didn't follow through on a purchase or other conversion event. You can create audiences to re-target these individuals and remind them to complete the purchase or other process. For example, you might send an email to someone who didn't complete a signup form or who didn't complete a shopping cart checkout.


When you create an audience in Engage and connect it to Google Ads Remarketing Lists, Segment performs the following actions:

  1. Creates a Google Ads User List (Customer List) with the name you entered in Engage.
  2. Adds any users that fit the audience definition based on email or mobile ID (IDFA). Google uses these identifiers to match users in your list to users in the Google system who can be served ads.
  3. Either adds or removes users from this audience based on the same identifiers.

Before you start, make sure you have administrative access to the Google Ads account so you can set up and link this destination.

1. Add Google Ads Remarketing Lists as an Engage Destination

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  1. Navigate to the Destinations tab in the Engage Settings, and click Add Destination.
  2. Search for "Google Ads Remarketing Lists" and click Configure.
  3. Click Connect to Google Ads Remarketing Lists and sign in to a Google Ads account with administrator access.
  4. When prompted, click Allow. Segment needs this to update your Google Ads Remarketing Lists.
  5. Select the Google Ads account or sub-account to connect with Engage.
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What are sub-accounts?

Because the Google My Client Center (MCC) account allows a user to access multiple Google Ads accounts through a single user account, Segment has updated the selector to include these additional "sub-accounts." By default, Segment syncs the "primary" Google Ads account connected to your Google account, but when using Google MCC, you can select any of the Google Ads accounts managed by your primary Google Ads account. If you're not using MCC, your primary Google Ads account is connected. MCC is typically used by advertisers or agencies that manage multiple client accounts.

2. Create an audience in Segment and connect it to Google Ads Remarketing Lists

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  1. Navigate to the Engage Audiences tab and create a new audience.

  2. Give your audience a name, some event and trait criteria, then click Preview.

  3. Select "Google Ads Remarketing Lists" as a destination for your audience.

  4. Select either email or mobile ID to use as a custom matcher.

    A screenshot of the AdWords Remarketing Lists setup page in the Segment app, with the Connection settings dropdown showing Email and Mobile ID options.
  5. Give your audience a name, and click Create.

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Warning

If you change the audience name in Engage, the change will not be reflected in Google Ads.

3. Confirm that the list is building in Google Ads Audience manager

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Open Google Ads and navigate to Tools & Settings > Shared Library > Audience manager > Audience lists.

A screenshot of the Google Ads Audience lists page, with one list currently populating.
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Google Ads can take 24+ hours to fully process initial audience uploads before they can be used for a campaign

If the audience is still processing, the list status appears as "Populating".


Not seeing an audience in Google Ads Audience manager

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  • Make sure you authorized Google Ads and selected the correct account.
  • Make sure you have administrator access for your Google Ads account. You can check that your credentials are correct by navigating to the Google Ads Remarketing Lists destination in Engage Settings > Destinations, and viewing the settings.
A screenshot of the Segment destinations page, with the Google AdWords Remarketing Lists destination selected.

Audience size smaller than expected

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Engage matches users in your audience using email and mobile device ID (IDFA) values. Make sure you are tracking these with Segment to have as high a match rate as possible.

You can set an email address on the user profile by including email as a trait on an Identify call, as a property on a Track call, or as an external id for the user. If you use Segment's mobile SDKs to collect events from a mobile app, the user's IDFA is automatically captured. If you don't use Segment's mobile SDKs, you can set the user's IDFA by setting it within context.device.advertisingId.

If a user has more than one email address or IDFA on their account as external_ids, Engage sends the most recent id on the user profile to Adwords for matching. The match rate will be low if Google can't identify users based on the data that you provide.

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ID Sync

Segment's ID Sync, you can send additional identifiers to Actions destinations. However, due to Google's restrictions on identifier limits per request, the Google Ads Remarketing Lists destination can only include one additional identifier in audience payloads. If the Google Ads Remarketing Lists destination is already receiving data from an audience and you enable ID Sync afterward, the new identifiers won't be applied retroactively to existing users. To update identifiers for the entire user base, a full resync is required. Contact Segment support(link takes you to an external page) to request a resync with your new ID Sync configuration.

Invalid Settings error in Event Delivery

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Make sure that this destination was created in Engage, as it requires additional event data not available in standard destinations.

Invalid user list ID error in Event Delivery

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When you first connect a destination to an audience, Segment triggers a call to the destination to create the audience downstream. Once Segment creates the audience, the destination API returns an audience ID. For subsequent updates to the audience in the destination (adding or removing users), Segment uses this ID to send requests to the destination. The invalid user list ID error usually means that the audience ID no longer exists in the destination. To resolve this, you'll need to either recreate the audience or create a new instance of the destination and link it to the audience. Removing and re-adding the same instance of the destination won't work.


What Google Ads campaigns does Engage support?

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Engage audiences can only send to Google Ads Remarketing Lists for Google Search, YouTube, and Gmail campaigns. Gmail campaigns can only target users with an @gmail.com address.

How many users must be in an audience to use Google Ads Campaigns?

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You must have at least 100 users in your audience to use Google Ads Campaigns.

What custom matchers does Engage send to Google Ads?

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Engage sends either email or mobile device ID (IDFA) to Google Ads for matching. Segment may add support for additional matchers in the future.

If a user has multiple emails or IDFAs on their account, which IDs get sent to Google Ads?

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Engage sends the most recent ID added to the user profile to Google Ads.

How do I enter multiple Mobile App IDs when exporting mobile IDs to Google Ads?

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If you have more than one App ID (such as a separate App ID for Android and iOS apps), add a separate Google Ads Remarketing Lists destination for each App ID, and make sure the settings for these destinations include the correct App IDs.

When you create Engage audiences, add conditions to specify which App ID to send the audience to. For example, you might add a property condition of "where device.type contains iOS" to send only your iOS users to a specific destination.

Why is there a schemaType validation error when I test an event?

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Typically, this is a validation error and the permissions need to be reauthorized. Ensure the user who is authorizing has administration permissions.

Limitations on identifiers and traits for Google Ads Remarketing Lists with Trait Activation

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When configuring ID Sync and Trait Enrichment for Google Ads Remarketing Lists, you can include one additional identifier in the payload. In the Customized Setup, only one Trait can be mapped, and it must be assigned to the phone field.