Remarketing Audience Setup in Google Ads (2024 Edition)

Remarketing, also known as retargeting, is a form of online advertising that allows you to show ads to people who have previously visited your website. 

The Benefits of Remarketing

- Keeps your brand top of mind with interested visitors after they leave your site

- Allows you to re-engage shoppers who didn't convert the first time

- Enables you to tailor your message based on pages they viewed or products they shopped

- Less expensive than targeting new visitors since they already know your brand (it is a great way to stop overspending in your ad account)

- Higher conversion rates compared to standard display advertising

How to Create Remarketing Audiences

There are two main ways to create remarketing audiences for your ads - directly in Google Ads or through importing audiences from Google Analytics.

Method 1: Create Audiences Directly in Google Ads

1. Navigate to Tools > Shared Library > Audience Manager

2. Click the "+" button to "Create remarketing list"

3. Choose "Website visitors" and name your list

4. Select the scope for your audience

- "Visitors to web pages" targets anyone who visited any or some of your website pages

- "Visitors to pages with specific tags" allows more advanced configurations

5. Set the time frame for visitors to include

- 30 days is the default, but you can adjust as needed

6. If you selected "Visitors to web pages", you can use 'Refine action; to filter by page URL or Referrer URL

7. Click "Create segment" and check audience size after 24-72 hours

Method 2: Create Audiences in Google Analytics and Import

1. In Google Ads Audience Manager, click the "+" button

2. Select "Google Analytics'

3. Choose your Analytics account, and select 'Continue'

4. Enable imports from your Analytics property (if you haven't already)

5. In Analytics, click "Create a custom audience' or select one of the prebuilt audiences.

6. Build inclusion/exclusion rules based on locations, technologies, behavior, demographic data, and more

7. Name your list, save it, and Google Ads will import it

Tips for Audience Creation

- Start broad with all website visitors, then refine into smaller segments

- Audiences under 1,000 may not be viable in Google Ads

- Let new audiences fully populate over 72 hours before targeting

- Experiment with custom combinations to identify your best customers

- Update audiences frequently as new users arrive on your site

Summary

With precise targeting from remarketing, you can maximize the impact of your ad spend by focusing on high-intent users who already know your brand.

Remarketing is a proven way to boost traffic, leads and sales from your advertising initiatives! One final thing! You can even create a remarketing audience for people who viewed your YouTube videos.