Google is getting rid of its similar audience segment, and marketers are freaking out.

Right Shout

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Starting in May 2023, similar audience segment will stop being generated and existing ones won’t be added anymore.

In August of the same year they’ll also remove from all ad groups/campaigns on Google Ads as well as Display & Video 360!

Yes You Heard It Right Here

But Why The Change?

The audience’s behavior is changing as a result of the following:

1) The evolution in online marketing approaches that has occurred over time
2). Privacy preserving alternatives developing
3) And finally… People are becoming more interested with their personal information than ever before!

The audience’s behavior is changing as a result of the following:

1) The evolution in online marketing approaches that has occurred over time
2). Privacy preserving alternatives developing
3) And finally… People are becoming more interested with their personal information than ever before!

What’s the Alternative Then ?

Optimized Targeting and Audience Expansion

Similar audience segment is replaced by:

a.)  Optimized Targeting (for video, display, discovery and performance campaigns)    

With optimized targeting, businesses can find new and relevant audiences that are likely to convert without relying on third-party cookies.

Google says “Advertisers who use optimized targeting on Display and Video 360 can see, on average, 55% improvement while using first-party audiences.”

b.) Audience Expansion (for brand campaigns)

Audience expansion is an excellent way to reach new audiences and increase your video’s chance of conversion.

What A Marketer Should Know

1.) Advertisers will still have the option to use Customer Match lists for Smart Bidding or Optimized Targeting.

2.) Use Smart Bidding for store sales and offline conversions.

3.) You can (and should) adjust Smart Bidding conversion values.

Impact On Marketers

Here’s some reaction from PPCers

**Keep in mind that while similar audience targeting isn’t available as a stand-alone option, other more automated services use the same signals to get you better results.

I didn't really use Google's "similar to" audiences often (use them all the time on FB though), but kinda annoyed that this will be removed. Custom segments are less transparent in terms of the no. of people within the audience. Is my custm segment 5 million or 100 million people? LOL, who knows?!

Charles H