One of our favorite new AdWords features from 2015 was Customer Match.

In short, Customer Match gives advertisers the ability to upload email lists (ex: an existing customer list or a prospect list) and target them in search, YouTube, and Gmail. Email addresses will be matched to signed-in users on Google.

If you have created custom audiences on Facebook or tailored audiences on Twitter this feature will be familiar to you.

Does your business provide a product or service that requires repeat customer purchases? One example of a great use for Customer Match is to upsell your existing customers.

That is just one example of how you can leverage this powerful new feature. Similar to remarketing, you can even exclude your uploaded list. Stay tuned for a future blog post, where we will show a real example from one of our clients who is leveraging Customer Match.

Things You Need to Know About Customer Match

Here are some key things to know about customer match:

  • You may only upload email addresses that you collected in the first-party context (ex: information you collected from your website or store). More on the customer match policy here.
  • Your campaign must have at least 1,000 active users
  • To increase the reach of your lists, you can now use your customer email audience to generate Similar Audiences.

How to Upload Customer List in AdWords

1. Go to your “Shared Library” and select “Audiences”

adwords customer match setup step 1

2. Click “+Remarketing List” and select “Customer emails”

adwords customer match setup step 2

3. Fill in the details of your list and upload your CSV file of email addresses 

adwords customer match setup step 3

Google will require that you specify a URL where the visitor can unsubscribe from your list. This is where a visitor will be taken if they click on the “Why This Ad” link associated with your ad. The membership duration is how long the user will stay in your newly created list and should vary based on the product or service you are offering. Keep in mind that membership duration can not exceed 180 days.

 

You’re all set! With your new customer list successfully uploaded, you can create a “Search Network only” campaign that targets this new list.

As a Google Partner, we are committed to driving profitable traffic to our client’s websites. Contact us today to talk to an AdWords Certified professional!

 

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