Audience for mobile apps

Audience segments are a powerful method to uniquely engage your mobile app users using contextual cues such as a user's subscription type or recent game level.

Audience segments for mobile apps

Mobile apps don't use cookies, so Audience Solutions use mobile advertising IDs and PPIDs to define segments. When creating first-party audience segments to target for your mobile app, you have the following options:

• Use existing requests in your mobile app
• Use separate pixel tags
• Batch upload mobile identifiers into Ad Manager
• Use shared segments from Google Marketing Platform

As your audience segment collects members, you can view a breakdown of your audience segment's membership by mobile device type.

When to use Audience for mobile apps

The following use cases for segment creation are applicable to mobile apps. Use them as a basis to create your own audience solutions.

• Subscription-based segment creation
• Level-based segment creation
• Activity-based segment creation
• Conditional-based segment creation

Additional considerations

In some of the cases described in this article, you could also use custom targeting criteria to achieve the same effect. The downside to the custom targeting criteria approach is that the custom targeting criteria would need to be passed for every ad request.

Adding users to an audience segment is a one-time operation (assuming the audience segment's expiration value is set high enough), and it enables these users to be targeted by segment for all subsequent ad requests.

Users for first-party segments that are being built via ad serving are added immediately to lists. If you are using pre-population, a data management platform, or Google Marketing Platform, or other segments types, population times vary. Learn more about how segment changes are reflected in ad serving and the user interface.

Subscription-based segment creation

These segments are useful for targeting users of your apps depending on their subscription level.

Build a subscription-based segment with pixel tags

To use Audience Solutions to add members to these segments, place an appropriate audience pixel or ad unit on the subscription post-purchase confirmation page.

1. Follow directions to create first-party audience segments using pixel tags.
2. Place the Audience pixel tag on the subscription payment page.

Build a subscription-based segment with ad units

If you have an ad unit configured to request ads on the post-payment confirmation page, then follow the directions for creating a first-party audience segment. Target this segment to the appropriate ad unit.

This may be a less common use case than building the segment through pixel tags, since many developers won't be displaying ads on a payment confirmation page.

Level-based segment creation

These segments are useful for targeting individuals who have made it to a certain level in your game or app.

Build a level-based segment with pixel tags

1. Create first-party audience segments using pixel tags.
2. Place the Audience pixel tag on the landing page of the levels that, when reached, define the visitors you want to target.

Build a level-based segment with ad units

If you’ve already set up inventory in your app, then follow the directions for creating a first-party audience segment. Select the ad units corresponding to the levels that, when reached, define the visitors you want to target.

Activity-based segment creation

Build an audience segment based on how often visitors have used certain apps or parts of apps.

Build an activity-based segment with pixel tags

1. Follow directions to build first-party audience segments using pixel tags.
2. In the example above, you would make the following selections:
   1. For Page views, enter 5.
   2. For Recency, enter 2 Days.
3. Place the Audience pixel tag on the section of the app on whose usage you want to build the segment.

Build an activity-based segment with ad units

If you’ve already set up inventory in your app, then follow the directions for building a first-party audience segment.

1. Select the ad units corresponding to the section of the app on whose usage you want to build the segment.
2. In the example above, you would make the following selections:
   1. For Page views, enter 5.
   2. For Recency, enter 2 Days.
3. Place the Audience pixel tag on the section of the app on whose usage you want to build the segment.

Conditional-based segment creation

Build an audience segment based on a logical grouping of activities or other segments, such as a visitor who made a purchase within an app but hasn’t been back for a given period of time.

Build a conditional-based segment

1. Create an audience segment based on users who have made an in-app purchase in the last week. This is similar to a subscription-based segment, above.
2. Create a second audience segment based on users who have made it to levels past level 1 (a level-based segment).
3. In the "Behavior" section of the first segment, target the second segment in an "is not" relationship. Learn more about conditional targeting in the article on creating audience segments.