# Build and manage audiences

## Audiences overview

You can use Ads Data Hub to build and manage audiences, which can then be
shared with your linked Google Ads and Display \& Video 360 accounts. You can use
the following data sources to create audience lists in Ads Data Hub:

- YouTube data from Google Ads and Display \& Video 360
- Network data from Google Ads, Display \& Video 360, and Campaign Manager 360. Note that network data is not durable when third-party cookies are deprecated.

Using these data sources, Ads Data Hub lets you create **engaged
audience lists**. Engaged audience lists show your campaigns or line items to
users who have previously clicked on your ad, watched your ad (engaged views on
TrueView ads only), or converted. Engaged audience lists are available for use
in Display \& Video 360 and Google Ads for all Google owned and operated
campaign types, such as Search, Shopping, and Performance Max.

Example use cases:

- Churn mitigation strategies: Create a list of users who have been identified as churn risks, but have a prior ad interaction or appear engaged.
- Lifetime value strategies for high-value users: Identify users who are in your CRM and engaged with your YouTube campaigns.
- Message sequencing: Create an exclusion list of users for negative retargeting based on conversions and interactions with previous campaigns.
- New CRM Enrollees: Create a list of incremental CRM enrollees who were not enrolled in the CRM prior to exposure, but signed up following a YouTube or Google Ads exposure.

## Engaged audiences


Engaged audience lists are event-level remarketing lists that allow you to
strategically target users who have previously interacted with your ads.
Optimizing your media buys based on a user's previous activities with your ads
can lead to better engagement and increased brand loyalty. Additionally,
Ads Data Hub lets you aggregate data from multiple accounts and
include first-party data to further enrich your audiences.

Engaged audiences allow you to:

- Create audience lists of ad events from signed-in users on YouTube inventory.
- Join your first-party data with ad events (clicks and conversions) to create custom audience segments for remarketing.
- Use your first-party data and YouTube event-level data to decide which users and segments to reach. You can compile and store lists and target them with focused ads. Targeting can be done by selecting specific users, specific segments, or by seeding users and finding a lookalike audience.

In order to protect end-user privacy, not all events are available to be used in
audience queries. In Ads Data Hub, for the purposes of remarketing, you
can only build audiences of users who have had follow-up events, such as clicks
or conversions, with one of your ads or users who are matched based on the
first-party data you have brought in using BigQuery.

Events not meeting this criteria are automatically filtered. Additional events
may be filtered if there's a risk that they could reveal sensitive information
about users. In order to bring in
[PII](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/resources/glossary#personally_identifiable_information_pii),
you must be fully onboarded onto
[user-provided data matching](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/guides/user-provided-data-matching).


### Create an engaged audience

> [!TIP]
> **Tip:** Access the new UI experience, which includes updated query templates and audience query scheduling by logging into your account at [Ads Data Hub for Marketers](https://adsdatahub.google.com/marketers).

1. Click [**Audiences**](https://adsdatahub.google.com/#/audiences-list) \> **Remarketing** \> **+ Create audience**.
2. For **Audience name**, enter a name for the audience list.
3. For **Description**, enter a description of the audience list. This is helpful to other users on your account who work with the audience list.
4. For **Data Source**, select the Ads Data Hub account that contains the campaign data to be used.
5. Under **Destinations** , select at least one linked destination account to which the list should be shared**:**
   1. To select Google Ads accounts: Click **Choose customers.**
   2. To select Display \& Video 360 accounts: Click **Choose advertisers \&
      partners**.
6. Click **+ Create audience query** , and then do one of the following:
   1. Write your own query using [BigQuery compatible SQL](https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/reference/standard-sql/). Learn about available [schema](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/guides/audience-activation#schema).
   2. Use one of the [sample audience queries](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/guides/audience-activation#sample_queries) by copying it and pasting it into the query editor.
7. Click **Done**.
8. Click **Create**.
9. Optional: To make changes to the list, click **More** .
   1. In the menu that pops up, select **Edit** , **Re-run** or **Delete**.
10. To activate the audience in your linked Google Ads or Display \& Video 360 account, see [Activate audiences](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/guides/audience-activation#activate_audiences).

After writing your audience query, you'll need to run the query to populate the
audience list.

### Schema

You can use these tables in engaged audience queries, depending on the type of
users you are trying to find:

> [!NOTE]
> **Note:** you can't directly select from impression tables---for example, `adh.cm_dt_impressions`. Google Ads audience tables have pre-joined impression data, available using the `joined_impression` fields. Data Transfer-based clicks and activities have available impression data in the `event` fields.

| Table | Network users | Signed-in YouTube users |
|---|---|---|
| `adh.google_ads_creative_conversions` | Yes (clicks) | Yes (TrueView ad clicks and engaged views) |
| `adh.dv360_youtube_creative_conversions` | No | Yes (TrueView ad clicks and engaged views) |
| `adh.google_ads_conversions_audience` | Yes | Yes |
| `adh.dv360_youtube_conversions_audience` | N/A | Yes |
| `adh.cm_dt_activities_events` | Yes | N/A |
| `adh.cm_dt_activities_attributed` | Yes | N/A |
| `adh.cm_dt_clicks` | Yes | N/A |
| `adh.dv360_dt_activities_events` | Yes | N/A |
| `adh.dv360_dt_activities_attributed` | Yes | N/A |
| `adh.dv360_dt_clicks` | Yes | N/A |
| Preceding tables with suffix `_match` | Yes (uses cookie match data) | Yes (uses cookie match and PII match data) |
| Preceding tables with suffix `_match` | Adds a column called `external_cookie` May affect match rates ||
| Ads Data Hub dimension tables | Can be joined with event data ||
| Your 1PD tables | Can be joined to `_match` tables using `external_cookie` column Can be joined to conversions using `u_value`, `ord_value`, `tran_value`, or `other_data` ||

The following fields from Ads Data Hub tables can't be used in engaged
audience queries:

- `matching_targeted_keywords`
- `site_id`
- `placement_id`
- `dv360_url`
- `dv360_site_id`
- `publisher_domain`
- `content_url`

### Sample queries

Create an audience of all users that have clicked or converted on an ad for a
particular set of campaigns:

    /* Parameter configuration:
    conversion_types: array<int64>
    customer_ids: array<int64>
    campaign_ids: array<int64> */

    SELECT
      user_id
    FROM
      adh.google_ads_conversions_audience
      -- or from adh.google_ads_creative_conversions
    WHERE
      joined_impression.customer_id IN unnest (@customer_ids)
    AND
      joined_impression.campaign_id IN unnest (@campaign_ids)
        /* Optional: Use desired conversion types from the Google Ads UI as a filter.
        AND conversion_type IN unnest (@conversion_types) */

Create an audience of all users that have interacted with particular campaign
and match customer data using a match table:

    SELECT
      user_id
    FROM
      adh.google_ads_creative_conversions_match
    WHERE
      joined_impression.campaign_id IN (@campaign_ids)
    AND
      external_cookie IN (@match_ids)

Create an audience of all users that have interacted with a Display \& Video 360
campaign with a particular `u_value`:

    SELECT
      user_id
    FROM
      adh.dv360_dt_activities_attributed
    WHERE
      event.u_value IN (@uvalue_ids)
    AND e
      vent.dv360_line_item_id IN (@line_item_ids)

Create an audience of all users that are related to specific floodlight
activities:

    SELECT
      user_id
    FROM
      adh.cm_dt_activities_attributed
    WHERE
      event.floodlight_config_id IN (@floodlight_ids)

Create an engaged audience joined with first-party data:

    SELECT
      user_id
    FROM
      adh.google_ads_conversions_audience_match a
      -- or from adh.google_ads_creative_conversions_match
    JOIN
      `GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT.1P_DATASET.1P_CRM_TABLE` AS audience
    ON
      lower(to_hex(a.external_cookie)) = audience.USER_ID_FIELD

## Run an audience query


Audience queries can be run either to populate a newly-created audience list, or
to add users to an existing list. Both of these actions have similar steps.
There is a 1:1 relationship between audience queries and audience lists.

> [!NOTE]
> **Note:** New audience lists can take up to 20 hours to be visible in chosen destinations. However, new users added to existing audience lists are considered members of the list for new ad impressions immediately after the query completes.

1. Open [**Audiences**](https://adsdatahub.google.com/#/audiences-list).
2. Click the name of the audience query you want to run.
3. Click **Run**.
4. If applicable, in the **Match table from** box, type or select the Ads Data Hub account that contains the campaign data to be used.
5. Enter a date range and time zone.
6. Click **Run**.

## Activate audiences

Audiences can only be used for remarketing in Google Ads and Display \& Video 360
. By default, the audiences you create aren't shared to your linked accounts. In
order to use lists that you've populated using Ads Data Hub, you must
selectively share those lists with your linked accounts.

To share an audience list:

1. Open [**Audiences**](https://adsdatahub.google.com/#/audiences-list).
2. Click the name of the audience query you want to run.
3. Google Ads:
   1. Click **Choose customers**.
   2. Click the checkbox next to the advertiser or partner you want to share the list with.
   3. Click **Done**.
4. Display \& Video 360:
   1. Click **Choose advertisers \& partners**.
   2. Click the checkbox next to the advertiser or partner you want to share the list with.
   3. Click **Done**.
5. Click **Save**.

You can also stop sharing a user list with a specific account. To update your
sharing configuration:

1. Open [**Audiences**](https://adsdatahub.google.com/#/audiences-list).
2. Click the name of the audience query you want to run.
3. Google Ads:
   1. Click **Choose customers**.
   2. Click the checkbox next to the advertiser or partner you want to share or stop sharing the list with.
   3. Click **Done**.
4. Display \& Video 360:
   1. Click **Choose advertisers \& partners**.
   2. Click the checkbox next to the advertiser or partner you want to share or stop sharing the list with.
   3. Click **Done**.
5. Click **Save**.


## Measure audiences and performance

To measure the performance of your audiences:

- In Display \& Video 360, use the [Audience Performance report](https://support.google.com/displayvideo/answer/2650629). The Audience Performance report looks at all the users you reached, and groups your impressions, clicks, and conversions by the audience lists those users were in.
- In Google Ads, use [Audience reporting](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10566573). Audience reporting shows you how audiences are performing, and includes ad group, campaign, and account-level performance metrics on demographics, audience segments, and exclusions.

## Requirements and privacy considerations

In addition to the requirements listed below, the lists that you create must
comply with the eligibility and targeting policies of the platform in which the
list is used, as well as Ads Data Hub's
[policies](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/resources/policies).

### Requirements for creating engaged audiences

To create engaged audiences, every Google Ads and Display \& Video 360 account
linked to your Ads Data Hub account must comply with the targeting policies of
the respective platform. For the complete platform specific policies, see Google
Ads [Personalized advertising
policy](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/143465) and Display \& Video
360 [Platforms program
policies](https://support.google.com/platformspolicy/answer/3013851).

### Requirements for receiving engaged audiences

To be eligible as a recipient of engaged audiences, the linked account must have
a good history of policy compliance and a good payment history. For Google Ads,
the linked account must have 90 days of Google Ads history and more than
$50,000 (USD) total lifetime spend.

To receive engaged audiences, the linked account must comply with the targeting
policies regarding sensitive interest categories of the respective platform. For
complete platform specific policies, see [Personalized advertising
policy](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/143465) for Google Ads and
[Sensitive categories in Display \& Video 360 brand safety
targeting](https://support.google.com/displayvideo/answer/6327207) for Display \&
Video 360.

### Aggregation requirements

Audience lists must contain 100 or more 30-day active users to serve on network
inventory and YouTube. Audience lists with fewer than 100 active users in the
last 30 days aren't eligible for targeting in Google Ads and Display \& Video
360.

### First-party data

Data that you've uploaded into your BigQuery account (first-party data) can be
used to augment ad event data to create audience lists using [cookie
matching](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/guides/cookie-matching), [custom floodlight variables](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/guides/cfv-matching), or
[user-provided data matching](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/guides/user-provided-data-matching). To create audience
lists with only first-party data, use the Ads Data Hub for Marketers
experience. See [First-party
audiences](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/marketers/guides/audience-activation#FirstPartyAudiences).

> [!NOTE]
> **Note:** Third-party data isn't supported for audience activation.

### First-party consent acknowledgement

> [!WARNING]
> **Warning:** Failure to acknowledge consent or refusing consent acknowledgment results in the inability to use your first-party data (1PD) within Ads Data Hub. For example, you cannot bring in new 1PD or join existing 1PD with your linked ads data. All use cases, such as user-provided data matching and audience activation using 1PD, are unavailable. This includes any scheduled 1PD imports.

To ensure you are able to use your first-party data in Ads Data Hub, you must
confirm that you have obtained proper consent to share data from EEA end users
with Google per the [EU user consent policy](https://www.google.com/about/company/user-consent-policy/ "EU user consent policy") and [Ads
Data Hub policy](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/resources/policies "ADH policy"). This requirement applies to each Ads Data
Hub account, and must be updated every time you upload new first-party data. Any
one user can make this acknowledgement on behalf of the entire account.

Note that the same Google service query rules that apply to analysis queries
also apply to audience queries. For example, you can't run cross-service queries
on users in the EEA when you create a remarketing list.

To learn how to acknowledge consent in Ads Data Hub, see [Consent requirements
for the European Economic Area](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/resources/consent-requirements).

### Recency

The list membership for engaged audiences on non-Google owned and operated
properties is 7 days (as of May 15, 2023).

You can refresh this lifespan by re-adding user IDs to the audience. Engaged
audience lists must be updated by running queries
[manually](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/guides/audience-activation#run_an_audience_query).

## API samples

To create audience lists using the API, see
[customers.userLists](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/reference/rest/v1/customers.userLists).

Audience activation API samples are available in Java only. Download the
[sample API code](https://developers.google.com/static/ads-data-hub/samples/sample-files/ads-data-hub-v1-java-examples.tar.gz).