The PPC team at Herdl have been exploring Google AdWords’ long-awaited Customer Match feature. So, we’ve put together a short article explaining what Customer Match is and some of the exciting applications for it.
AdWords Customer Match
The new AdWords Customer Match feature allows advertisers to upload an email list to create an audience. This gives advertisers all the same powers as ‘normal’ audiences meaning ads can be tailored to this specific user group.
Customer Match takes the email list and finds the individuals that are using Google products and targets these individuals across the Google Ad network.
Implementation
Email lists are uploaded in a .csv format and processed by Google AdWords. Users contained in any lists must be collected in first-party contexts – basically meaning no purchased or 3rd party lists.
Users with Google accounts are then identified and stored and other emails are deleted. Advertisers are then able to create audiences using the remaining data.
Applications
Below, we’ve put together a few different applications where this feature can be used very effectively:
Exclude existing customers – considering who to exclude from your advertising is as important as who to include. The new AdWords feature means budget doesn’t need to be spent on existing customers, who may already be signed up to your service or have already purchased your product.
Repeat business & perishables – products that naturally lend themselves to repeat business are perfectly suited to this feature. If a customer has purchased a product or service in the past, they’re highly likely to buy from you again.
Expressed an interested but not purchased – visitors who may have expressed an interest in your product or service but didn’t actually buy from you can be easily targeted. Providing this audience with specific promotional offers could help convert these into paying customers.
Offline events – bridging the gap between offline and online is a tricky problem. Obviously, the cookies previously needed to generate audiences meant using offline events in this way was almost an impossibility. However, engaging with users offline and following up with a targeted campaign online could be a very effective strategy.
The AdWords Customer Match feature is something we’ve been eagerly anticipating for a quite a while. We hope the campaign ideas provided above give you lots of inspiration and please let us know any interesting applications of your own.