Advertisers can see integrated audience targeting for search campaigns in their Google Ads accounts.

While Google has yet to officially announce the news, digital marketing consultant Steven Johns noticed the new targeting method in his Google Ads account and shared the news on Twitter on 13 November.

GOOGLE ADS: *WARNING*…game changer ….

Any guesses what this means for search? #ppc #ppcchat @GinnyMarvin @mattgsouthern pic.twitter.com/agJemLJ9tK

– Steven Johns (@stevenjohns21) November 13, 2019

How Combined Audiences Work

Combined audiences allow advertisers to use ‘AND’, ‘OR’, or ‘NOT’ commands for in-market audiences, audiences with similar interests, demographic audiences, and remarketing audiences. Layered combinations.

Advertisers have the ability to target multiple audiences to a campaign (‘OR’) and exclude audiences from a campaign (‘NOT’), but the real game changer provided by this tool is the ’ AND’ command.

For the first time, advertisers can specify that their adverts will only be shown to users in two or more specific audiences.

In search campaigns, this targeting is overlaid with campaign keywords. Only users who meet the combined audience criteria and search for the specified campaign keywords will see ads for that campaign.

How to use Combined Audiences

Retailers can create ads with special messages for users who have visited their website, have not converted and are looking for Black Friday deals.

By creating combined audiences for website visitors who are part of the Black Friday marketplace audience, they ensure that their ads will only be shown to users who meet all of these criteria and search for specific keywords on Google.

To see if you can use combined audience segment targeting in a search campaign, open the campaign and navigate to the ‘Audience Segments’ tab.

Then, click the blue pencil to add a new audience. Select ‘Browse’ from the Audience box.

If available, Combined Audiences will be the fifth and final option in the list.

By selecting ‘Combine Audiences’ you will be able to build audience combinations directly from your campaigns.

What this means for you

In 2019, Google has greatly expanded audience targeting for search ad campaigns, first adding in-market audiences, then audiences with similar interests, and now combined audience targeting.

This new feature makes Google Search Ad Campaign targeting more precise than ever, giving advertisers room to experiment with messaging, bidding, and broader keyword targeting.