Choose your YouTube ads audience

Choose your YouTube ads audience

1. Choose a narrow audience instead of broad targeting for better ad targeting.

Almost 60% of shoppers believe that personalization influences their purchasing decisions. However, personalization is impossible without a defined audience, and targeting a narrow audience can help you increase your conversion rates and reduce your CPC. For example, the exact same ads in one case study experienced higher CTRs, and lower CPC by simply using a defined audience (left) instead of a generic one (right).  The exact same ads had higher click-through rates and lower cost per click when targeting a defined audience instead of a generic one.

2. Choose a custom intent audience if you already have a comprehensive list of keywords, URLs, and YouTube content to target.

Select New Customer Intent Audience in the audience section of your campaign setup and enter the keywords, URLs, apps, or YouTube content related to your product or service to only target people likely to be interested in your ads.  Select “New Customer Intent Audience” in the audience section of your campaign setup and enter the keywords, URLs, apps, or YouTube content related to your product or service to create a custom intent audience.

3. Use a Google-created custom intent audience if Google has enough traffic and conversion information on your target market.

Google-created custom intent audiences are an easy way to target an audience that’s constantly updated based on viewer and customer behaviors. Make sure you’ve already set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics to allow Google to understand what people were searching for, or watching when they interacted with your ads.

4. Choose an in-market audience to target consumers actively researching buying a product or service similar to yours.

In-market audiences are designed for bottom-of-the-funnel conversion ads, and are a useful way to connect with consumers comparing products and services across Google Display Network sites and YouTube. Moreover, they can be combined with remarketing audiences.  Google has a curated list of in-market categories that you can select from for targeting YouTube ads and continually beta tests and adds new categories to the list.  Choose in-market categories for targeting YouTube Ads from Google's curated list.

5. Choose a remarketing audience to connect with people who have already interacted with your business or videos.

Choose a remarketing audience to connect with people who have already interacted with your business or videos. Google captures the following video interactions: Viewed any video from your channel. Viewed certain videos. Subscribed to your channel. Visited your channel page. Liked any video from your channel. Added any video from your channel to a playlist. Commented on any video from your channel. Shared any video from your channel.  Google Ads currently offers four different types of Remarketing Audiences for YouTube Ads:   Standard remarketing. Show your ads to past website or app visitors.  Dynamic remarketing. Modify the ads shown based on the products or services people previously viewed. Video remarketing. Show ads to people who have already interacted with your videos or YouTube channel.  Customer list remarketing. Target customers based on contact information they’ve provided you with YouTube Ads, as long as they’re signed in to the platform. After your campaign is set up, consider creating multiple ad groups if you want to: Organize your ads by a common theme (i.e., you have different product categories you’d like to promote). Reach different demographics based on age, gender, parental status, income, etc. Narrow targeting based on different interests and keywords.

6. Use these lists in your targeting settings for YouTube Ad campaigns and view and manage your lists by selecting Shared Library > Audience Manager in Google Ads.