what information is used to identify similar audiences?

If nosotros've learned anything in the performance marketing earth annihilation, information technology's that advertizing platforms like Facebook and Google Ads have much more (and much better) data than any individual advertiser or tertiary-party vendor. Because of the big amount of data that these platforms accept, they are able to provide improved tracking and targeting tools directly to advertisers.

A tool that nosotros find valuable is the lookalike model. With a lookalike model, advertisers provide a source of audition information to an ad network which then matches it to other users on their network, with the goal of finding new audiences that well-nigh resemble the characteristics of the source audience data.

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The theory behind lookalike models is that people who exhibit sure characteristics or perform certain actions (i.e. sign upwards for a trial, purchase a product, etc.) will tend to have some commonly identifiable traits that the advertizing platforms can parse. This theory has been proven true: the lookalike model has been such a success, in fact, that it's get one of the chief targeting methods for Facebook advertisers.

And although Facebook Lookalike Audiences tend to get the most attention when discussing lookalike modeling, Google Ads has a comparable simply extremely under-utilized targeting method of their own: Like Audiences.

What Are Like Audiences?

Similar Audiences are essentially Facebook Lookalike Audiences for the Google Display Network (GDN), YouTube Ads, and Gmail Ads.

To figure out which people "wait" most similar an existing audience, Google uses a machine-learning algorithm to scrutinize a source audience (similar a website visitor list) to notice shared member characteristics, and so it finds new people with characteristics similar to those of the source audition.

For example, Google Ads Display Like Audiences utilize cookie data from people who visit third-political party websites that are part of Google's Display Network to make up one's mind the browsing behavior, and characteristics unsaid by that beliefs, of a source audition. It then looks for users whose browsing behavior indicates they have similar characteristics or interests to this source audience and places them into a Similar Audience that advertisers can target inside Google Ads.

Here's how the process works in Google's words:

Google Ads looks at browsing activeness on Display Network sites over the last 30 days, and uses this, forth with our contextual engine, to understand the shared interests and characteristics of the people in your remarketing list.

For example, if a large number of your converters take an automobile comparison website in their browsing history, Google will look for people who've either directly been browsing automobile comparison websites or sites that concenter visitors with like characteristics to auto comparing site visitors in order to build a "similar to converters" audition.

Practise Similar Audiences Work?

Facebook advertisers take seen a lot of success with lookalike audiences, but do Google'south Similar Audiences show the same potential?

Starting time, the performance information. According to both our own internal data and external benchmarks, Similar Audiences certainly do provide a heave compared to other prospecting methods.

According to Google, for instance, Similar Audiences can heave performance to the tune of sixty% more impressions, 48% more clicks, and 41% more conversions.

The relative functioning of Similar Audiences will vary on a case past instance basis, merely our ain operation information shows that Similar Audiences tend to outperform other prospecting methods on GDN. Here'southward an case from i of our Display-heavy accounts that utilize Similar Audiences:

For this client, Similar Audiences testify a clear operation comeback with a CPA that is 23% lower than other prospecting and conversion rate which is a full 122% better.

Another account showed an even more pronounced operation increase when Similar Audiences were utilized, as shown hither:

In this example, cipher was working for prospecting until Like Audiences were introduced – in that location wasn't a unmarried conversion. But with the use of Similar Audiences, conversions started coming in at a favorable CPA and CVR. Again, Similar Audiences are the clear winner over other prospecting.

In fact, our internal data shows Similar Audiences can near friction match the functioning of remarketing.

Fifty-fifty though the remarketing CPA is slightly better, for this item account Similar Audiences slightly outperforms remarketing in terms of conversion rate. Not every advertiser will experience the same results, but our internal data does show that Similar Audiences tend to perform ameliorate than other prospecting methods, and tin can rival remarketing functioning.

How To Add Similar Audition Targeting To Your Campaigns

Creating Like Audiences

For every pixel-based Remarketing List with at to the lowest degree 500 cookies, or for every Customer Match list you upload with at least 1000 emails that Google can match to users, Google will automatically generate a Similar Audience.

Keep in mind, withal, that if yous upload beginning-party data using Google Ads' Customer Friction match characteristic, it volition not be possible to build a Brandish Network Like Audition based on that data. This is because GDN needs cookied browsing behavior on its users in guild to build a Similar Audience.

The skilful news is that since Google is the sole owner of Gmail and YouTube, it's still possible to build Like Audiences using first-party data for both Gmail and YouTube. Google can match the e-mails you provide with Gmail or YouTube users and build a similar audience based on those users' characteristics.

With Customer Match, you tin can take advantage of your first-political party information to build Like Audiences that tin can exist targeted with Gmail ads or YouTube ads, merely not with Google Display ads since GDN operates through third-party sites.

Alternatively, you can use pixel-based Remarketing Lists which are congenital from either Google Ads conversion and remarketing pixels or from linked Google Analytics remarketing audiences. Pixel-based Remarketing Lists can serve equally source audiences for Similar Audiences on the Display Network and on YouTube, but not on Gmail due to Google's privacy restrictions.

In order to create a Similar Audience, y'all must first either build a Remarketing Listing in Google Ads or a remarketing audience in Google Analytics.

You can create a new Remarketing List in Google Ads by clicking on the red button in the top left of the "audiences" department of an account shared library, which gives you the following options in a dropdown menu:

To create a remarketing audience in Google Analytics, become into the Admin tab and select the property view in which you want to create your remarketing audience. From at that place, click "Audience Definitions" > Audiences and y'all'll see the options below:

Once you create an audience in Google Analytics, information technology will populate in the shared library for the linked business relationship in Google Ads.

In the Google Ads shared library audience section, y'all tin can come across a total list of both existing Remarketing Lists and the auto-generated Similar Audiences that accompany them. Here'southward an example of a remarketing audition, "GP Converters", and a Similar Audience built from it: "Similar to GP Converters."

At that place are a few things to observe here. Offset, y'all'll see that the estimated list size for each audience is subdivided by columns according to the blazon of campaign: YouTube, Display, and Gmail but Display.

You lot'll also find that the Gmail only Display column says "unavailable" for both GP Converters and Similar to GP Converters. This label indicates that there are no converters eligible for remarketing on Gmail because of the privacy restriction mentioned higher up. An "unavailable" label volition also testify when at that place aren't enough members in the Remarketing List used equally a seed audience to build a Similar Audience.

How to Add Similar Audience Targeting to Google Ads Campaigns

Using Google Ads Editor

To add a Similar Audience to a entrada or ad group using Google Ads Editor, follow these steps.

1. Select the campaigns or advertising groups you would like to add Like Audition targeting to. Reminder: you can layer bid-just Like Audience lists to existing campaigns or ad groups, but you should create new, audition-specific campaigns or ad groups for "target and bid" Like Audition lists.
2. In the lower-left "manage" window, select "Keywords and targeting".
3. Select "Audiences". You lot will then see your existing audiences for the selected campaigns or advertisement groups.
4. Click the "+ Add audience" push button in the top right and select the Like Audience you wish to add together.
5. For a "bid just" Similar Audience, gear up a bid adjustment based on the conversion event the seed audition is built on and where that conversion outcome lies in the funnel, or set a 0% bid aligning if y'all'd simply like to assemble data. For a "target and bid" Like Audiences, choose the max CPC bid for the audience.

Using the Google Ads Web Interface

To add Similar Audiences using the Google Ads web interface, follow these steps.

1. Go into the "Display Network" tab and click the red "+targeting" button in the top left.
2. Select the relevant advertizement group (currently information technology's only possible to add together exclusions at the campaign level, not targeting).
3. Cull "interests & remarketing" in the targeting section of the adjacent page.
4. Adjacent, select the "like to Remarketing Lists" option if yous're building a Similar Audience off a pixel, or the "similar to video viewers lists" option if you're building a Similar Audience off of video viewers.
   1. Of import Note: Although at that place'due south an pick on this page to create a "similar to customer email list" Similar Audience (selected in the screenshot above) or a "customer email listing" remarketing audience, Display campaigns can't target these audiences. Currently, client electronic mail lists tin just exist targeted on Search (RLSAs), YouTube and Gmail. If you go into the shared library audiences for the account, y'all'll see that the Display column is marked "Unavailable" for client email lists.
5.  Google will automatically populate the list with Similar Audiences built from eligible Remarketing Lists that can be applied to the campaign or advertising group you're currently in. Select the audiences you'd similar to add from this listing, which is shown below:
6. Finally, choose either the "target and bid" or the "bid only" option and hit save.

Making The Almost Of Similar Audiences

Like Audiences Best Practices

As with Facebook Lookalike Audiences, Like Audiences are peachy for prospecting since they tend to perform better than standard involvement-based audiences, in-market audiences, and other audience targeting.
A Similar Audition works a lot like remarketing. Every bit with remarketing, a Similar Audience will probably take less reach than other prospecting audiences. But what'due south sacrificed in reach is offset past relevance. Of class, the quality of a Similar Audience depends on the outcome/audience it'southward built from and where it lies in the funnel. For example, a "like to cart abandoners" audience will exist much more qualified than a "like to site visitors" audience and therefore probably merits a higher bid.

Information technology's a proficient idea to experiment with the size of a source audience, since the output Similar Audition size tin can vary on a case by case footing (seemingly without a clear blueprint). This is a clear dissimilarity with Facebook Lookalike Audiences, which scale equally a percent of user population in the target country – a one% Lookalike in the US, for instance, has a size of ii one thousand thousand regardless of how large the seed audition is (although the quality of Facebook lookalikes is impacted past the size of a seed audition).

Using Similar Audiences to Optimize Bids

Using Similar Audiences is too a great manner to optimize bids inside your existing campaigns. You can exercise this easily and with little risk by layering all of your existing advertizing groups with your everyman-funnel Similar Audiences and implementing a +0% bid modifier for those Similar Audiences.

This volition permit you segment out performance information for any given ad group by how the performance of the layered Similar Audiences compares to the boilerplate performance of those ad groups as a whole.
Say, for example, that advertisement group A has a CPA goal of $20 which is being met. But for the layered "similar to past converters" audience with a 0% bid modifier, the CPA is actually much lower at $10. This ways you can set a bid aligning of +100% for that Like Audience in order to get more volume from the audience while still achieving the same $20 CPA goal.

Conversely, you could add a negative bid modifier to the not-Similar Audience traffic to increment efficiency if you're looking to lower costs. Google recommends that you lot utilise the following formula in order to calculate bid modifiers for audiences:

(Non-Audition ÷ CPA Audience CPA) – 1 = Bid Modifier

Once you lot have gathered data on your bid-only Similar Audition layers, use the to a higher place formula to optimize your bids for bid-but Like Audience layers.

Target and Bid vs. Bid But

With Like Audiences, marketers accept the choice to select either "target and bid" or "bid only" as bidding strategies.

The bid only choice allows marketers to layer an audience in an existing ad group and manage targeting via bid adjustments.

If ad group A, for example, has a default max CPC bid for $four and you wanted to target a "similar to converters" audience for that ad group more aggressively than non-members, you could set a +l% bid aligning (for example) which means your max CPC bid for "similar to converters" audience members would be $6.

You can besides layer multiple Like Audiences in the same ad grouping. For case, in advert group A yous could set up a +10% bid aligning for "similar to cart abandoners" (a $4.40 bid) in addition to your +l% bid adjustment for "like to converters" which is lower in the funnel than a cart abandoners audience. This will ensure yous capture as much volume equally possible for your highest value audiences.

Keep in mind that Google Ads will automatically identify an audience member in the highest value audience – the ane that you've bid the most for – and then in that location's no need to fear bidding multiple times for a member of more than one Similar Audiences as long every bit your bid adjustments aren't exactly the same for each Similar Audition.
The target and bid pick, on the other hand, means yous'll exclusively exist targeting the Similar Audience in question to the exclusion of all other traffic. This can give you granular control over the CPC bid for that audition, liberating your bids so they don't have to be anchored downwardly past a relative bid adjustment.

Test Similar Audiences For Yourself

While Google Ads Like Audiences aren't likewise understood or highly utilized as their Facebook counterpart, they are definitely worth implementing to help improve your GDN, YouTube, and Gmail prospecting campaign performance. In our own accounts, nosotros've been seeing a definite improvement in prospecting efficiency when nosotros utilize Like Audiences; in some cases, Similar Audiences have even rivalled the efficiency of a remarketing campaign.

Getting started with Similar Audiences is both piece of cake and low-chance. Simply navigate to the audiences section within the account shared library and decide on a source audience from existing Client Match lists for Gmail Sponsored Promotions and YouTube Ad campaigns, or from existing pixel-based remarketing lists for YouTube Advertising and Display campaigns.

If the source audience meets the minimum number of cookies or emails, you will exist able to select the respective Similar Audience built from that source audience to layer within your campaigns. To begin with, yous can layer Similar Audiences with a 0% bid modifier to start collecting performance information without risking whatsoever inefficiency and adjust bids from in that location according to the resulting information.

Google's Chief Evangelist explains how to wait into the future to make sure yous're connecting as finer equally possible with your high-value customers. Find out the details of his forecast in our recording of Rise to the Claiming of… The Vision: The Future of Marketing.

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Source: https://www.wpromote.com/blog/paid-media/similar-audience-targeting-adwords