Inside Google Ads podcast: Episode 9 - Custom Segments

If you want to get really specific with your Google Ads targeting, going beyond the built-in features to create the perfect audience for your business, you are going to need to use custom segments.

What's that, you ask? It's one of the truly mind-blowing things you can do in Google Ads, which the social platforms just can't live up to since they aren't powered by a search engine.

Let's go Inside Google Ads to answer your burning questions about custom segments.

I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales, bringing you more than a decade of Google Ads experience. I worked at Google for six years, and now I make a living showing business owners and marketers how to make more money from their marketing.

In each episode, I answer three questions that you've asked me on social media, sharing my best strategies, tips, tactics, and examples so you can make your Google Ads more effective.

Our first question about custom segments comes from Hazelnut 2194 on YouTube, they ask, how do you actually apply a Custom Segment to an ad

To apply a custom segment to an ad, you have to create it first. You can do that in Google Ads under Tools, Shared Library, Audience Manager, Custom Segments, and hit the plus button.

You can create a Custom Segment using one of three targeting options, and you can use just one of these, two of these, or all three for each segment you create.

The first is for things people searched for, so you can type an actual search and then show ads to people who have searched for those things on Google.

Note that that functionality only works when you're applying a Custom Segment to a YouTube campaign or to a Demand Gen campaign.

If you use a Custom Segment in a Display campaign instead, those things people searched for will be treated like things people are interested in. Similar, but not the same. Important little distinction. 

The other two things you can do with the Custom Segment are people who visited websites similar to and people who use apps similar to.

To apply the segment to your campaign or ad group you want to go to Audiences, Keywords and Content (on the left-hand side), Audiences, and then Edit Audience Segments (that’s in smaller writing). It can be a little tricky to find, it’s usually more towards the right-hand side of the screen.

Once that window pops up you can search for the Custom Segment you've created by name, or you can go to Browse and it'll be under your Custom Audience Segments.

An important thing to note is you can use Custom Segments with Display, Demand Gen and Video, but you can't use Custom Segments with Search and Shopping campaigns. So, that is how you apply a Custom Segment to your ad. 

And hey, listener, if you're not already following me on social media, you can find me on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Threads, and LinkedIn. The links to those are all in the show description. And in most of those places, you'll find me as @the_google_pro. Drop your burning question on any of my posts, and you just may get your answer in an upcoming episode. 

Next up, we have a question from Ideal Home Offer on YouTube. They ask, how do you use Combined Segments for YouTube ads? 

First, create the Combined Segment, and then you can apply it to your ad.

You're going to want to go to Tools, Shared Library, Audience Manager, and then choose Combined Segments. 

When you create a Combined Segment, it's sort of like what Detailed targeting in Meta ads used to be: you can use AND, OR and NOT logic.

So for example, you can create a Combined Segment of people who match this audience OR this audience AND this audience OR this audience, but NOT this audience.

It can get quite complex, but as a result of that, quite specific. You can use Google's audiences, like in-market, life events, affinity, and detailed demographics. You can use your remarketing segments, whether that's website, YouTube, app, or customer list. And then you can use Custom Segments in Combined Segments for inclusion.

So, you can't exclude based on a Custom Segment, but you can include your AND or OR with a Custom Segment.

As an example, I’m using Custom Segments right now in my YouTube campaign. I am running some very, very low-budget YouTube ads for people who are searching for things like “google ads course” or “google ads coach”. Rather than doing a Search campaign, I have a YouTube campaign with a Custom Segment of people searching for those things.

So, whether you want to apply a Custom Segment or a Combined Segment to your YouTube ad, you do that by going to Audience, Keywords and Content, Audiences, Edit Audience Segments, and then go into your ad group (I definitely recommend keeping your targeting at the ad group level), apply your Combined Segment, and you're ready to go. 

Last but not least, we have another question from YouTube from Jaro Atry. Hello, and thank you for the tutorial. This is a response to a video I did where I showed how to do more personalized targeting. I tried your approach but the ad got blocked by Google because they don't allow religious belief in personalized advertising. How did you get around this?

This is true. Google has a very strict personalized advertising policy to protect its users.

So, things that are like… political, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, you can’t target based on those beliefs. And, if you are selling or advertising a product or service related to that, let's say you're a church, for example, there will be real limitations around the targeting you can do.

That being said, if you get creative, you can still achieve your goals. And so let's just walk through an example here. This is something that I call non-linear targeting. That's Jyll language, not Google language. 

Basically, you have a destination of mind. You know who you want to advertise to, and because of policies, your way there is blocked. Rather than just giving up and saying, “I guess I can't get there,” we find another route around.

Perhaps a long way around, but another way around to get to where we want to go. That's why I call this non-linear targeting.

So let's say, for example, this was another question I received before, you sell halal food and your customers are mostly Muslim.

Now, we can't target Muslims with Google Ads. You could imagine how that could be exploited, but we can target things that people who are Muslim are likely to be interested in.

So for example, maybe there are certain kinds of restaurants that serve halal food. If you're selling halal food, you would want to target people searching for those kinds of restaurants. 

Maybe there are certain newspapers that people who are Muslim are more likely to read. Maybe there are certain apps they would have on their phones, like prayer timings. I know people who are Muslim often pray multiple times a day or use Muslim dating apps, right? There are apps for every religion.

So, you can get really creative with your Custom Segments thinking about the things that these people might search for, the websites that these people might visit, and the apps that these people might have on their phone.

And by doing that, you can then show ads to people who are most likely to be interested in your products.

I wanted to test this out, so I created an audience, a Custom Segment using all the advice I just gave you, and within two minutes, I got Eligible (Limited) not all keywords approved. So, that means that some of the ideas I put in there worked, some did not, but overall, this Custom Segment is eligible to run. 

Now, it's important to note when you're trying to run personalized advertising, it's not just about the targeting. The content of your ad, the content of your landing page, and the nature of the product or service you're selling also affect things.

It’s called the personalized advertising policy, if you want to look that up further, and it means if you are advertising a religious organization, you can't use any kind of Remarketing or Custom Segments at all because of the nature of the service you're offering.

But if you're selling a certain kind of food, then you can do all these things, you just need to be careful how you put the Custom Segment together.

My advice is to think creatively, think non-linearly, and find a different path to get to that same destination.

Another key to success here, since you are going to be targeting people who may not be in your target audience, as well as those in your target audience, is that your creative will be especially important. 

Not just from an approval standpoint, but you want to make sure that your creative, your ad appeals to your target audience and really doesn't appeal to your not-target audience. This is something I say quite a bit to my Inside Google Ads course members. Your creative itself really influences your targeting.

Custom segments, combined segments, linear targeting, non-linear targeting, oh man! Super juicy tips in this episode and so much more where that came from.

To watch me create, launch and optimize campaigns using the exact strategies we discussed in this episode, you've got to join my membership course Inside Google Ads. For just $49 a month, you get more than 100 in-platform tutorials plus exclusive access to me on a members-only video call every month. Get your burning questions answered right away, rather than waiting until every Thursday. 

Join Inside Google Ads today at the link in the episode description. 

I'm Jyll Saskin Gales and I'll see you next time Inside Google Ads.

Sign up to get the Inside Google Ads episode transcripts delivered to your inbox each week, for free.