Google Ads Audiences: 8 Audiences to Target with Google Ads

Are you targeting the right people with your pay-per-click (PPC) services? If you don’t see the results you desire with your paid ads, you may need to refine who you’re targeting. With Google Ads audiences, you can set more refined parameters to reach more qualified leads for your business.

On this page, we’ll cover:

• What are Google Ads audiences?
• Types of Google Ads audiences
• How to create and apply Google Ads audiences
• Tips for using Google Ads audiences
• Google audiences FAQs

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What are Google Ads audiences?

Google Ads audiences are the different groups you can target with your ad that is specific to your business. These audiences encompass anyone who fits in your target market.

These audiences are based on hobbies and interests, how they interact with your company, and what they search.

Types of Google Ads audiences

There are multiple types of audiences you can target on the Google Ads audiences list. Before we dive into the audience types, let’s quickly go over the three types of ads we’ll mention:

• Display ads: These are visual ads that appear on Google’s partner sites.
• Search ads: Search ads are all-text ads that appear at the top of search results.
• Video: These are video ads that appear at different points in YouTube content.

Now, let’s look at the Google Ads audiences you can target with these ads:

1. Affinity audiences

Ad types: Display, video, and search ads When you target an affinity audience, you target people based on their personal choices. These personal choices include their lifestyle preferences, buying habits, and personal interests. Affinity ads are a great option if you’re looking to target people based on a more personal level.

2. Custom audiences

Ad types: Display and video ads with custom audiences, you target people based on what they like to buy, their shopping habits, and their online interests. You can also reach people based on their recent purchase intent. This targeting enables you to reach people based on the way they shop online.

3. Customer match

Ad types: Display, search, and video Next on our Google Ads audiences list is customer match. Customer match enables you to reach your existing customers by using your customer relationship management (CRM) software.

4. Detailed demographics

Ad types: Display, video, and search If you use detailed demographics as part of your Google Ads audience targeting, you can target people based on shared traits. For example, you can target people that are college students, homeowners, or first-time parents.

5. Life events

Ad type: Display Next on the Google Ads audiences list is life events. With life events, you target people who experience common and important milestones, like graduating from college, getting married, or moving into a new home.

6. In-market

Ad types: Display, search, and video With in-market ads, you reach people based on their recent purchase intent. These ads are geared more towards people who shopped similar products you offer.

7. Remarketing

Ad types: Display, search, and video With remarketing ads, you target people who interacted with your business previously. You remind them of your business and get them to come back and convert.

8. Similar audiences

Ad types: Display, search, and video Last on our Google Ads audiences list is similar audiences. If you use similar audiences for your targeting, you focus on new users that have similar interests to your current customers and visitors.

How to create and apply Google Ads audiences

Before you can target an audience in Google Ads, you first need to create that audience in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) or directly within Google Ads. Once the audience is built and synced, you can apply it to your campaigns in just a few clicks.

Here’s the complete process from start to finish.

Step 1: Create your audience in GA4

When building your audience, think about:

• Your ideal customers
• Your top products or services
• Your business goals
• How users behave on your site (pages visited, events triggered, conversions)

Make sure your GA4 property is linked to your Google Ads account and that personalized advertising is enabled so your audiences can be shared.

To create an audience in GA4:

1. Click Admin in the bottom-left corner of GA4.
2. Select Audiences under the property column.
3. Click New audience.
4. Choose to create a custom audience, use a template, or select a suggested audience.
5. Define the conditions based on user behavior (for example, users who visited a product page but didn’t submit a form).
6. Save the audience.

After 24–48 hours, this audience will populate inside Google Ads’ Audience Manager.

Step 2: (Optional) Create custom segments directly in Google Ads

You can also create audiences without GA4 by using Custom segments in Google Ads.

Navigate to Audience Manager → Custom segments to build audiences based on:

• Websites people have visited (including competitor sites)
• Apps they use
• Search terms they’ve recently used

Google automatically refines these segments based on reach, performance, bidding strategy, and campaign goals, helping improve targeting efficiency.

For example, targeting users who have visited competitor websites allows you to reach high-intent users who are actively comparing options.

Step 3: Apply your audience to a Google Ads campaign

Once your audience is created and available in Google Ads:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. Click Audiences in the page menu.
3. Click the + button.
4. Select the campaign or ad group you want to modify.
5. Choose the audience you created.
6. Check the box to apply it.
7. Click Save.

Your campaign will now target the specific group of users you defined.

By creating audiences based on real user behavior and applying them strategically to your campaigns, you can improve targeting, increase relevance, and drive better PPC performance.

4 tips for using Google Ads audiences

Now that you know the Google Ads audience types, you’re ready to start running more successful PPC ads. If you want to use your Google Ads audiences right, check out these four tips:

1. Know who you’re targeting

This tip may seem obvious, but you must know who’s in your target audience. Just like with any type of smart content, you won’t see success with your Google Ads audience types if you don’t have the right core audience. To establish your target audience, look at your current customers.

You’ll want to establish relevant information about your existing audience, like:

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Location
4. Occupation
5. Income
6. Interests
7. Hobbies
8. And more

You can take this information and form marketing personas. Marketing personas are fictitious representations of your customers that you use to target new leads. When you know your target audience, you use Google Ads audience targeting more effectively for your business.

It will help you choose the right targeting parameters, so you can reach more interested leads.

2. Don’t over segment your audience

When you use Google Ads audiences, you may feel eager to try different audience groups and segment your audience immediately. While this may seem like a good idea, it can end up leaving you feeling discouraged if your ads don’t drive the results you desire. Instead of segmenting your audience into small, niche groups, create audience groups of two to three different types of people and choose your Google Ads audiences based on those groups.

After running ads and seeing what works, you can start to segment your audience into smaller groups and try different audience targeting to see if you can drive better results.

3. Track ad performance

When you try different Google Ads audiences, make sure you track your ad performance. You want to ensure that your current segmentation is working for your business. If you don’t track it, you won’t know if it’s a useful option for your business.

Not every audience option will work for your business. It will depend solely on your audience and how they interact with your business. By tracking your ads, you can see if you need to readjust your campaign and try targeting differently.

4. Test and change your ad targeting as needed

With Google Ads audience targeting, you must test different ad targeting options to see which ones work best for your business. You may think that one type of targeting appeals most to your audience, only to find out it doesn’t drive success for you. It’s critical to test and adjust your strategy as needed so you can drive the best results.

Not only do you need to worry about targeting your audience the right way, but you also need to ensure that your ad content delivers successfully to that audience. You may have the right target audience, but if your ad message doesn’t get across to them, you may not see success with your ads. It’s always crucial that you make sure your ad content is relevant to your audience by testing it consistently to put out the best ads.

Start using Google Ads audiences to ramp up your Google Ads

With Google Ads audiences, you create new ways for your business to reach people interested in your business.

If you aren’t sure which audience targeting is right for you, WebFX is here to help. As a Google Premier Partner, you can feel confident that our team of 750 experts will create a PPC campaign you love. We’ve managed over 650 PPC campaigns, so you can feel confident that we can help you target the right audiences.

Ready to get started? Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our PPC management services!