This article will help you understand and troubleshoot audience population issues for App campaigns.
Before you begin
App campaigns for engagement (ACe) in Google Ads will require you to create a new audience segment from one of the 4 supported audience segment types:
- All users
- Users who’ve used your app recently
- Users who haven’t used your app recently
- Users who took specific actions within your app
You can use the pre-fill option or upload your customer list to create audience segments.
Learn how to Create a customer list.
Pre-filled audience segments
Google Ads can add users who have engaged with your business within the past 30 days to your segment. Over time, this list will be supplemented with additional active users based on the specified number of days.
However, to avoid delays in audience population, you can follow the steps below to create a fully populated audience segment of all users (if applicable):
- If you have implemented the Firebase SDK and are using Google Analytics for Firebase to create audiences, linking your Firebase project to your Google Ads account will create an "All users" audience segment for your app. This segment will become available in Google Ads. Learn how to Link Google Ads to Firebase.
- Additionally, for Android, linking your Google Play Account to your Google Ads account will also create an "All users" audience segment for you in your Audience Manager. Learn more about Product linking: Link Google Play and Google Ads accounts.
Reasons why your audiences may not be populating
Your audiences may not be populating due to the following reasons:
Your Google Ads account is not linked to the Google Play Store
Link your Google Play account to your Google Ads account for the “All users” list to be created.
In-app conversion tracking is not set up
You need to have valid conversion tracking set up to track in-app events and link it to Google Play or a third-party analytics tool. If this is not set up, you’ll get the error message, “To create audiences based on specific app actions, you'll need to track actions in your app and send the data to Google Ads.”
Linking your app with Google Play or a third-party analytics tool helps sync your data to Google Ads. Syncing your data reduces potential discrepancies and tracking issues in Google Ads, and may resolve any issues with your audience list.
Your tracking code is not working properly
If the in-app action you selected for conversion tracking doesn’t send pings to Google Ads to confirm the action, you may face issues creating an audience list. You’ll get an error message stating, "To create audiences based on specific app actions, you'll need to track actions in your app and send the data to Google Ads."
Check with your third-party analytics provider to find out if the pings are being sent properly to Google Ads. If there seems to be an issue, work with your third-party analytics partner to fix the issue before attempting to create an audience list.
App analytics is not configured as an audience source
Use Google Analytics to check and ensure that the parameters or values that are being used match the parameters or values being sent to Google Ads. If they don’t match, the app analytics won’t be configured as an audience source. You can fix the name of the parameter or value in Google Analytics or send pings using the App Conversion Tracking and Remarketing - Request/Response Specifications.
Customer data file issues
The size of the customer data file you upload and the one shown in Google Ads may vary.
- Some records may not be associated with an active Google account.
- Customer data files may not be in an acceptable format which may cause entries to be invalidated and may prevent them from being uploaded to Google Ads.
Here are some common issues and their fixes:
|
Error |
Fix |
|---|---|
| There’s no data in your file | Ensure that your file contains data, then re-upload. |
| Formatting errors |
Review your file for the following errors:
|
| Your file doesn’t have all the required column headers for mailing address matching |
Email addresses matching only requires email addresses. Mailing address matching requires customer data for all of the following columns: “First Name”, “Last Name”, “Country”, “Zip”, and "Phone". Re-upload your file using all of the required columns and column header names for your customer data type. |
| Your file has rows with too many or too few values |
Ensure that the number of values per row equals the number of column headers in your file. For rows with partial data, fill in each remaining value with a null character (a character with the value zero) and a comma. For example, if your customer list has the column headers “First Name“, “Last Name”, “Country”, “Zip”, and "Phone", each row in your file should have 5 values, each separated by a comma. For scenarios where you have only partial data, like a customer’s first name but no last name, use a null character in place of the missing value. |
| The following columns in your file have incorrect data | Ensure that the values in your rows correspond with the column header. For example, all of the data in the column titled “Email” should contain valid email addresses only, not zip codes or first names. |
| Column headers in your file are labeled incorrectly | Google Ads requires specific column header names. Ensure that your file is using the correct column header names: “Email”, “Phone", "First Name”, “Last Name”, “Country”, “Zip”, "Phone", and "Mobile Device ID". Postal codes can be used as zip codes. |
Learn how to Format your customer data file.
