A Google AdWords campaign is an effective way to target customers, but the popular marketing tactic wasn’t practical for companies that didn’t have access to a large list of customer email accounts until just last month. That is because Google recently announced an option for its AdWords customers to upload mailing addresses and telephone numbers in its Customer Match Retargeting Program.
Developed in March of 2015, Customer Match allows you to upload lists of current customers, a list of newsletter subscribers, or other types of proprietary lists into your Google AdWords account. It then targets or excludes display and search ads to show to those customers. Previously you could only match ads to specific customers if you had the customers Google email address. Now, you can match ads by phone number or mailing address if you don’t have a prospect’s Google email address.
How It Works
Similar to when you upload email data, Google will attempt to match mailing address and telephone number information with the data that users have provided when establishing their accounts. Google then uses its own formula to match street addresses and phone numbers. Once it finds a match, Google adds the names and contact information for these customers to your list of potential customer matches.
When it matches postal addresses, Google joins address and name data from its accounts to create new matching criteria. The next step is to upload your list with addresses and customer names, keeping in mind that Google doesn’t match postal codes or names of countries. Google then creates a similar key according to your inputted data and compares the keys of your list with the keys in its own accounts. If Google detects a match, it adds the appropriate account information from Google accounts to your match list.
What is especially exciting about Google’s customer match feature is that you can use it to target ads to customers it matched across its various platforms, including display, shopping, and text ads, as well as YouTube and Gmail accounts. This increases your reach without you needing to do any extra work.
Keep in mind that you need to create a privacy statement for your customers before you use this feature from Google for the first time. DriveTraffic is happy to assist you with crafting your statement or setting up Customer Match to use for the first time.
As a results-oriented marketing firm located in Canada, DriveTraffic is available to help your company maximize its marketing efforts. We invite you to contact us to request a content audit of your website, which is the first step to ensuring high Google rankings.
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Darlene is a search marketer, analyst, speaker, trainer, and owner of DriveTraffic Digital Marketing. She has been working in the digital marketing industry since the mid 90s and has narrowed her specialty to SEO, Google Ads and Google Analytics. She is especially interested in Google’s new Search Generative Experience and how businesses will need to adapt to remain visible. Want to see how DriveTraffic can help? Let’s chat!
