Google Ads Audience Signals in Performance Max and Demand Gen

Everything here comes from Google's own Google Ads Help pages: About audience signals for Performance Max campaigns, Use optimized targeting, Demand Gen audiences overview, About exclusions, Performance Max campaign not running: Targeting is too narrow, About customer lifecycle goals, and two Google Ads announcements: search themes in Performance Max (October 2023) and new ways to steer Performance Max (April 2024). Where we add our own view, we say so.

What an audience signal is

In a Performance Max campaign you can attach an audience to each asset group. Google calls this an audience signal: audience suggestions that help Google AI optimize for the goals you select. Adding one is optional. Google says signals can help you guide machine learning models on the ideal way to optimize your campaign.

The part that matters most is in Google's note on the same page: Performance Max may show ads to relevant audiences outside of your signals if they have a strong likelihood of converting. A signal tells the system where to start looking. It does not decide who can see your ads. If you need hard limits, they come from campaign settings and exclusions, not from the signal.

Demand Gen uses the same idea in a different way. There, the audience you add to an ad group is targeting by default, and it only turns into a starting point when optimized targeting is switched on. Lookalike segments in Demand Gen are also moving to a "suggestion mode" that treats the seed list as a signal; our Demand Gen guide covers that change, so we do not repeat it here.

Signal or targeting: how each campaign type treats audiences

Google's optimized targeting page sums it up in one note: optimized targeting is only available for Demand Gen, Video action campaigns (VAC), and Display campaigns, and it is always turned on for App and Performance Max campaigns.

So the question "will my audience limit who sees the ad?" has a different answer for each campaign type. In Performance Max the answer is always no.

What goes into a Performance Max signal

You add a signal in the "Audiences" section under an asset group: choose an audience you have already built, or create one, give it a name, add your data and custom segments, and save. Google's signals page lists four kinds of input.

• Your data. First-party lists of people who have dealt with your business: website visitor lists, app user lists, customer lists (Google's examples are email and subscription lists) and video viewer lists. Our guides to remarketing audiences and Customer Match explain how to build them.
• Custom segments. Audiences you describe with keywords or phrases, URLs of sites similar to yours, or names of apps your customers are likely to use.
• Demographics. Google says these let you narrow the focus of your custom audience segment. Inside a signal, "narrow" means a narrower hint, not a limit.
• Additional segments. Google's own segments: detailed demographics (long-term life facts), life events, affinity (passions, habits and interests) and in-market (recent purchase intent).

Google's tip on the page: To enhance machine learning, use search term based custom segments. Since the search themes launch, that has a catch. Google's October 2023 announcement said that existing custom segments based on search activity would be upgraded to search themes in early 2024, and that you will no longer be able to add or edit custom segments based on past search activity in Performance Max. Custom segments based on interests stay available. In practice, the search words you know your customers use now go into search themes on the asset group. Our Performance Max guide covers search themes and how they rank against keywords in your Search campaigns.

A customer list is personal data you hand to Google, so check that your privacy notice covers that use. Our website privacy basics guide covers what the notice should say.

How we build signals

This section is our own practice, not Google guidance.

• One signal per asset group, matching its theme. An asset group for a single service gets an audience about that service. A broad, catch-all audience reused across every asset group tells the system little.
• Start with your best data. A list of past customers, or of people who sent an enquiry, says more about who converts than any interest segment. Add a custom segment built from the phrases and competitor URLs your buyers would use, then stop.
• Do not expect a signal to protect you. If a group of people must never see the ads, for example existing clients for a sign-up offer, that is a job for exclusions or campaign settings, covered below.
• Judge the campaign, not the signal. Because Performance Max reaches beyond the signal anyway, swapping signals every few days rarely tells you much. We give a change at least the two weeks Google asks for when it evaluates optimized targeting (see below), and use experiments when the answer matters.

Optimized targeting in Demand Gen

Optimized targeting, in Google's words, grants your campaign flexibility to explore which customers have the highest likelihood to convert. Any keywords or audience segments you add become signals used as a starting point. Google is open about the trade-off: it may reduce or stop serving traffic on your signals if it finds better performing traffic elsewhere.

What it still respects

Google lists the settings optimized targeting will not cross: your locations, your languages, your device choices, all exclusions (audience exclusions like first-party Customer Match lists you want to avoid, placement exclusions, and content and brand safety exclusions), and any placements you selected by hand. Our guides to location targeting, device targeting and placement exclusions cover those settings.

Bidding and how long to wait

Google recommends pairing it with Maximize conversions or Target CPA when you want conversions, and with Maximize conversions on site visits when you want traffic. It needs time to learn. For a new campaign, Google says to wait until it has at least 50 conversions or has been active at least 2 weeks before judging it; for an existing campaign, at least 2 weeks. It also warns that your average cost per action may move around at first.

Turning it on or off

1. Go to Ad groups in the Campaigns menu and pick the campaign and ad group.
2. Open the Settings tab and expand Optimized targeting.
3. Tick or untick the checkbox and select Save.

Google's Demand Gen audiences page frames the choice by goal. Advertisers focused on conversions can opt in and add audience hints. Advertisers who know their audience well can build it from segments instead. And for re-engaging existing customers it suggests adding first-party lists, connecting your YouTube channel, and adding relevant keywords, including your top 10-15 performing Google keywords.

Audience exclusions: the hard limit

A signal suggests; an exclusion removes. Google's exclusions page says you can exclude segments from Search, Display, Demand Gen, Standard Shopping, Video and Performance Max campaigns, with some conditions:

• Keyword and audience exclusions are only applicable for first-party data. In practice that means your own lists: website visitors, app users, customer lists.
• Audience exclusions aren't available during campaign creation. You add them to an existing campaign, and Google recommends watching performance with audience segments first.
• They may not apply to users who have opted out of ads personalization, so an exclusion is never a guarantee.

To add one, go to Audiences in the Campaigns menu, find the "Exclusions" module, select Edit Exclusions, choose campaign or ad group level under "Exclude from", tick the segments and save.

Do not overdo it. Google's page on Performance Max campaigns that do not run says adding too many exclusions may limit or prevent your ad from serving, and gives the example of excluding a remarketing list that contains most of your users.

Other ways to keep people out

• New customers only. In Demand Gen, Google suggests excluding your first-party lists to focus a campaign on new customers. In Performance Max, the customer acquisition goal's "New Customer Only" setting bids only for people Google judges to be new; Google says you should then run a separate campaign for existing customers. Our customer acquisition guide explains how it detects them.
• IP exclusions. Google's April 2024 announcement added account-level IP exclusions for Performance Max, for example to keep your own office from seeing and clicking the ads.
• Brand and placement controls. These limit where ads show rather than who sees them. See our guides to brand exclusions and placement exclusions.

Checking what the signals did

For Demand Gen, Display and Video campaigns, Google's optimized targeting page shows where to look: go to Audiences under "Audiences, keywords, and content", open the "Audience segments" or "Demographics" card, select Show table and find the row Total: Expansion and optimized targeting. Google calls these conversions additional conversions that you wouldn't otherwise have received. Weigh that claim against your own data, especially cost per conversion.

For both campaign types, the Audience insights on the Insights page show which Google audience segments are performing well. Google's April 2024 announcement added age and gender to asset audience insights in Performance Max. These reports are the best way to see who the campaign actually reached, which you can then feed back into the next version of your signal. Before reading any of it, make sure conversion tracking counts the actions you care about; a signal can only steer towards conversions Google can see.

Frequently asked questions

Do audience signals limit who sees my Performance Max ads?

No. Google says Performance Max may show ads to people outside your signals if they are likely to convert. Use exclusions or campaign settings for hard limits.

Are audience signals required?

No. Google describes them as optional, but says they can help guide its machine learning models.

Can I turn off optimized targeting in Performance Max?

No. Google says it is always on for Performance Max and App campaigns. You can turn it on or off in Demand Gen, Display and Video action ad groups.

Can I still add search-based custom segments to Performance Max?

No. Google's 2023 announcement said search-based custom segments in Performance Max would be upgraded to search themes and could no longer be added or edited. Interest-based custom segments remain.

Can I exclude an audience when I create the campaign?

No. Google says audience exclusions are added to an existing campaign, and only first-party data can be excluded.

Whatever audience Google finds, the ad still sends people to your site, and the page has to do the rest. See our website development service and all our services, or email [email protected].