Create an audience segment for App campaigns for engagement

When you create an App campaign for engagement, you'll be asked to add audiences. 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.

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

In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
Click the Shared library drop down in the section menu.
Click Audience manager.
Click the plus button .
Click 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.
Click 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. 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

In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
Click the Shared library drop down in the section menu.
Click Audience manager.
Click the plus button .
Click 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).
Click Exclude action and select Any action.
Enter the number of days that is less than the number of days chosen in step 8 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.
Click Create audience.

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

In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
Click the Shared library drop down in the section menu.
Click Audience manager.
Click the plus button .
Click 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.
Click Create audience.

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

In your Google Ads account, click the Toolsicon.
Click the Shared library drop down in the section menu.
Click Audience manager.
Click the plus button .
Click 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.
Click Create audience.

Create a segment of uploaded mobile device IDs

Note: This only applies to eligible advertisers.

In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
Click the Shared library drop down in the section menu.
Click Audience manager.
Click the plus button .
Click 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.
Click Choose file.
Select the file you’d like to upload, and click Open.
Select the membership duration.
If desired, enter a description for your new audience.
Click Save and continue.

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 now be used for App Campaigns for Engagement. Learn more about linking Firebase and Google Ads accounts.

Note: Audiences that include web users are not supported in App campaigns for engagement.

Keep in mind

Choosing an audience segment for the incorrect OS won’t cause any immediate errors, but your App campaign for engagement ads may not serve as a result.
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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