Create an audience segment for App campaigns for engagement

When you create an App campaign for engagement, you'll be asked to add audience segments. This article goes over how to create a new audience segment for App campaigns for engagement.

Note: You can easily target potential customers with a simplified way to create your data segments comprised of app users. This builds on what’s already available in your Audience manager tools. Learn more About Audience manager.

The simplified flow lets you create complex audience segments easily by displaying all available app actions with the ability to combine multiple inclusion and exclusion conditions.

Instructions

To create a new audience segment for App campaigns for engagement, you’ll need to use one of the supported audience segment types. You can also use a combination of one (or more) of the supported segments to create a custom audience.

Click one of the segment types below to reveal the instructions for how to create it.

Create a segment of all app users

Go to Audience manager from the Shared library drop down menu within the Tools icon.
Select the plus button .
Select App users.
Enter your audience name.
In the "App" section, select your app.
Select Any Action and enter the number of days to include all app users who've been active in that range (the default is 30 days and 540 days is the maximum number of days supported).
Select a pre-fill option.
If desired, enter a description for your new audience.
Select Create audience.

Pre-filled segments

Google Ads can pre-fill your segment with people who've interacted with your business in the previous 30 days. Additional active users get added to the audience segment over time based on the number of days specified.

It usually takes 24-72 hours for audience lists to fully populate after creation or a sync. For a segment to be eligible for targeting, it must meet the minimum size requirements: typically 100 active members for Display and 1,000 for Search or YouTube. Google Ads only counts active users who have ad personalization enabled.

However, you may be able to avoid audience population delays by following these steps to create a fully populated all users audience segment (if applicable):

If you've implemented the Firebase SDK and are using Google Analytics for Firebase to create audiences, when your Firebase project is linked to your Google Ads account, an “All users” audience segment for your app gets automatically created and becomes available in Google Ads. Learn more about linking Firebase and Google Ads accounts.
Additionally for Android, when you link your Google Play Account to your Google Ads account, this will automatically create an “All users” audience segment for you as well. This segment will appear in your Audience Manager. Learn more about linking Google Play and Google Ads accounts.

Create a segment of users who haven't used your app recently

Go to Audience manager from the Shared library drop down menu within the Tools icon.
Select the plus button .
Select App users.
Enter your audience name.
In the “App” section, select your app.
Select Any Action and enter the number of days to include all app users who've been active in that range (the default is 30 days and 540 days is the maximum number of days supported).
Select Exclude action, then select Any action.
Enter the number of days that's less than the number of days chosen in step 6 to exclude all app users who've been active in that range.
Select a pre-fill option.
If desired, enter a description for your new audience.
Select Create audience.

Create a segment of users who've used your app recently

Go to Audience manager from the Shared library drop down menu within the Tools icon.
Select the plus button .
Select App users.
Enter your audience name.
In the “App” section, select your app.
Select Any Action and enter the number of days to include all app users who've been active in that range.
Select a pre-fill option.
If desired, enter a description for your new audience.
Select Create audience.

Create a segment of users who took specific actions within your app

Go to Audience manager from the Shared library drop down menu within the Tools icon.
Select the plus button .
Select App users.
Enter your audience name.
In the “App” section, select your app, select the app actions based on which users you’d like to include or exclude.
Combine multiple actions as required.
Select a pre-fill option.
If desired, enter a description for your new audience.
Select Create audience.

Create a segment of uploaded mobile device IDs

Go to Audience manager from the Shared library drop down menu within the Tools icon.
Select the plus button .
Select Customer list.
Enter your audience name.
Next to “Data to upload," select Upload mobile device IDs.
Select your app’s platform.
In the field under “Look up your app,” enter your app name and select your app when it appears.
Select Choose file.
Select the file you’d like to upload, then select Open.
Select the membership duration.
If desired, enter a description for your new audience.
Select Save and continue.

Eligibility requirements

To target users with Customer Match (uploaded mobile device IDs), your account must have at least 90 days of history and a lifetime spend of at least $50,000 USD. If you use a manager account (MCC), ensure the audience list is owned and created at the specific sub-account level being used for the campaign, as shared MCC-owned lists may have restricted eligibility for targeting in app engagement campaigns.

Create a custom combination audience

To create a custom combination audience, follow the instructions in Create a custom combination segment.

Note: For App campaigns for engagement, any audiences you add to this combination segment must be one of the audience types listed above. If you add another kind of audience segment, your App campaigns for engagement ads may not serve. Combining different types of audience segments can lead to unexpected targeting results. For best results, attempt to only use custom combination audiences of similar types of segments.

Use audiences created in Google Analytics for Firebase

Audiences including app users that have been created in Google Analytics for Firebase and exported into your linked Google Ads account, can be used for App Campaigns for Engagement. Learn more about linking Firebase and Google Ads accounts.

Note: Audiences that include web users aren't supported in App campaigns for engagement.

If user counts appear lower than in Google Analytics, verify that your SDK is correctly sending necessary identifiers like AAID or gclid, and that "Import app and web metrics" is enabled in settings. Google Ads only counts active users with ad personalization enabled, while Google Analytics counts total users. For better alignment, compare data using the "Advertising Segments" report in Google Analytics.

Keep in mind

Select the correct OS for your audience segment. If you choose an incorrect OS, it won’t cause any immediate errors, however, Google Ads may not serve your App campaign for engagement ads.
Be sure to check that your audience segment contains the correct device IDs for your app’s operating system (for example, ADID for Android, and IDFA for iPhone and iPad).

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