Create a customer list

The "Linked Accounts" page under Admin Admin Icon

has been moved to "Data manager" under Tools Tools Icon

. Google Ads Data Manager is a data import and management tool with a point-and-click experience that lets you bring your customer data from outside of Google and activate it in Google Ads. Learn more About Data manager.

To provide a comprehensive and consolidated view of your Audiences and make audience management and optimization simpler, you’ll find the following improvements in Google Ads:

New audience reporting
Detailed reporting about audience demographics, segments, and exclusions is now consolidated in one place. Click the Campaigns icon and open the “Audiences, keywords and content” tab and click Audiences. You can also easily manage your Audiences from this report page. Learn more About Audience reporting.
New terms
We’re using new terms on your audience report and throughout Google Ads. For example, “audience types” (these include custom, in-market, and affinity) are now referred to as audience segments and “remarketing” is now referred to as “your data”. Learn more about the Updates to Audience terms and phrases.

Customer Match lets you target ads to your customers using the data they share with you. You can create a CSV file including customer data and upload it into Google Ads or you can connect a new data source to incorporate this targeting into your campaigns. This article explains how to upload your data files to create customer lists.

To successfully use your customer data file, it’s important to ensure that you format your file correctly. If you run into any issues with the upload process, learn how to fix customer list issues.

Before you begin

For an overview of how Customer Match works, refer to About Customer Match.

For more information about how Google uses the data files you upload and how the matching process works, visit How Google uses Customer Match data.

Instructions

The following instructions will guide you through the process of connecting a new data source to create a new Customer list.

In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
Click the Shared library drop down in the section menu.
Click Audience manager.
Click the plus button to create a new segment.
Select Customer list from the drop-down menu.

Note: If you already created a segment and skipped adding a data source, click Tools > Data manager > Connected products > + Connect Product.

Under Data source, select Connect a new data source and select from the list of data sources.

Amazon Redshift

Select Direct connection. then click Continue.
Select the data type, then click Next.
Enter your Redshift database location, port, username, password, and database, then click Connect. By default, Redshift uses database location URLs that follow this template:

cluster-identifier.account-number.aws-region.redshift.amazonaws.com.

Enter the Redshift schema and table (or view) that you want to use, then click Next.

Amazon S3

Select Direct connection, then click Continue.
Enter your Amazon S3 secret access key, then click Connect.
Click Next.
Select the data type, then click Next.
Enter the URI to the file you want to upload, relative to the host address, then click Next. See supported file types under Requirements, earlier in this article.

BigQuery

Select Direct connection, then click Continue.
- Note: If you previously linked a data source from the Data manager screen that you want to use, select Select an existing source.
Under Select a data type, select the data type, then click Continue.
Select the BigQuery project, dataset, and table that you want to use. An alert appears.
Click Apply to grant access, then click Next.

Google Cloud Storage

Select the data type, then click Next.
Enter the path to the file you want to upload, then click Next. Learn how to Format your customer data file.
An alert will appear if this is the first time you have connected this resource. Click Apply to grant access, then click Next.
- Note: you must have a role with permission to delegate storage.bucket.setIamPolicy for the relevant bucket.

MySQL

Select the data type, then click Next.
Select the MySQL database and table that you want to use, then click Next. Learn how to Format your customer data file.

PostgreSQL

Select Direct connection, then click Continue.
Select the data type, then click Next.
Enter your PostgreSQL database location, port, username, password, and database, then click Connect.
Enter the PostgreSQL schema and table (or view) that you want to use, then click Next. Learn how to Format your customer data file.

Salesforce

Learn more about Product Linking: Link Salesforce and Google Ads accounts.

SFTP

Enter your SFTP credentials.
Click Test connection, to make sure the connection is configured correctly, then click Next.
Enter the path to the file you want to upload, relative to the host address, then click Next.
- Note that port 21 is used by default. To specify a different port, append a colon and the port number to the path. For example, sftp://example.com/path/file.csv:2222.

Snowflake

Select Direct connection, then click Continue.
Select the data type, then click Next.
Enter your Snowflake account identifier, username, and password, then click Connect.
Enter the Snowflake database, schema, and table (or view) that you want to use, then click Next. Learn how to Format your customer data file.
Select the MySQL warehouse, database and table that you want to use, then click Next.

To map fields, select the data source fields from the dropdown lists that match the destination fields and click Continue.
- Optional: To apply transformations, click and Transform.
Click Next.
Enter a name for this connection.
- Optional: Edit connection details.
Click Finish.
Enter a name for the segment, confirm policy compliance, then click Save and continue.

Keep in mind

Membership duration

Customer Match segments don't expire, so membership duration is unlimited by default. You can control how long your customers are kept in a Customer Match segment, but it's best to refresh your segment regularly. Google Ads will send you an email if your segments haven't been refreshed in a while.

Data sharing across accounts

You can share audience segments across multiple managed accounts if:

You have a Customer Match segment or Similar segment in your manager account, or
A client account shares their Customer Match segment or Similar segment with your manager account.

All accounts using a Customer Match segment must comply with the Customer Match policy. Google does not allow sharing or usage of this data outside of your managed account. Only account owners and administrators with administrator access may add or remove customer data from Customer Match segments.

Similar segments

Similar segment targeting that is based on your Customer Match segments is available for Search, YouTube, Gmail, and Display. These Similar segments will be created if your Customer Match segments meet the minimum eligibility criteria. You can use a Similar segment the same way you'd use a Customer Match or your data segments: by adding it to an ad group or campaign.

When a Similar segment is available, it will show the segment size on each available network in your "Audiences" table. Once it's active, you can add your Similar segment list to your targeting. If a segment says "Incompatible" in one of the columns, that means the segment isn't able to target that property.

Note: It may take up to 48 hours for your campaign to start serving.

Zapier Customer Match integration

You can integrate your customer relationship management (CRM) system data sources with Customer Match using Zapier as your integration partner.

Zapier automatically uploads new contact details from your CRM system, eCommerce, or marketing automation tool where you collect a user's information to your Google Ads customer lists. This means you don’t have to manually upload contacts to Google Ads, sort them into the right lists, or remove them from a list. You can automatically keep your uploaded customer lists refreshed and in sync with your CRM.

Using the Google Ads API

Account owners or administrators can also use the Google Ads API to upload data files and manage their Customer Match segments. Advertisers can upload a data file, add or remove customer data, or edit configurations through the API. To learn more, visit your data section of the Google Ads API on the Google Developers website.

Conversion-based customer lists

You can opt in to conversion-based customer lists at the Account Level in Google Ads by going to Account Settings and checking the box next to “Turn on conversion-based customer lists”. Once you opt into conversion-based customer lists, Google will generate Customer Match lists for each specific conversion goal (e.g. purchases). These lists will be categorized as automatically created conversion-based customer lists in Audience Manager. These lists will be updated in real-time as hashed user-provided data, as new conversions are captured.

Upload a customer data file

The following instructions will guide you through the process of uploading a customer data file to create a new Customer list.

In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
Click the Shared library drop down in the section menu.
Click Audience manager.
Click Your data segments tab on top of the page.
- Note: If you choose “Turn on conversion-based customer lists” in your account settings, you will see customer lists here generated for you by Google for each specific conversion goal.
Click the plus button to create a new segment.
Select Customer list from the drop-down menu.
Choose a name for your new segment.
Upload your new CSV file.

Note: Google will identify whether your data is hashed or unhashed when you upload it.

If you agree, check the box “This data was collected and is being shared with Google in compliance with Google's Customer Match policies”.
Set a membership duration. The default membership duration is unlimited, but you can set a custom time limit.
Click Upload and create.
You can assess the progress of uploading your data file under "Audiences lists". This process may take up to 48 hours to complete.
Once your data has uploaded, you’ll be directed to a file upload success page. It will provide information about the number of rows that successfully uploaded and your match rate percentage.

Link Customer Match partners when creating a customer list

You can connect your Customer Match partners when creating a customer list. To learn how to link a Customer Match partner when creating a new customer list, refer to the following instructions.

Having issues related to your Customer Match lists?

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