Create, edit, and archive audiences

Audiences let you segment your users in the ways that are important to your business. You can segment by event (e.g., session_start or level_up) and by user property (e.g., Age, Gender, Language), and combine events, parameters, and properties to include practically any subset of users.

Use audiences to:

• Filter reports so you can analyze how different user segments engage with your app
• Target Notifications to individual audiences
• Target Remote Config to deliver custom experiences to different audiences

As Firebase gets new data about users, their audience memberships are reevaluated to ensure they still meet the audience criteria. If the latest data indicate they no longer meet the criteria, they are removed from those audiences.

If you link your project to Google Ads (Project Settings > Integrations), then your audiences are available in your shared library in Google Ads, and you can use them in your ad campaigns. You can remarket to existing or previous users, and you can create similar audiences to prospect for new users.

The user lists in Ads that correspond to your audiences are prepopulated with up to 30 days of data when that data is available.

Before targeting an audience in Cloud Messaging or Remote Config, be sure to check the number of users in your audience to see if it meets expectations.

Note that audience size will typically be different from remarketing-list size. This is usually because tracking IDs can't be sent to Google Ads remarketing lists until Google Ads accounts are linked.

In this article:

Management table

The table lists predefined audiences and ones you have customized. The following audiences are predefined:

• All users: Users who have ever launched your app.
• Purchasers: Users who have completed an in-app purchase or ecommerce purchase.

Click an audience in the table to see a detailed report for that audience. The user metrics in this report count users who were active during the date range you're using for the report.

Duplicate, edit, archive, apply to dashboards

Click at the far right of a row to duplicate, edit, archive, or apply the audience to your dashboard.

Create an audience

You can create up to 100 audiences per project.

Audiences that include Age, Gender, or Interests data are not available for Firebase targeting.

You create an audience by setting conditions based on the dimension, metric, and event data you collect from a property. After you create an audience, it accumulates users who meet the conditions from that point onward.

Scope

When you set conditions, you set the scope of when the conditions must be met: across all sessions, in a single session, or in a single event.

Static vs. dynamic evaluation

Conditions support static and dynamic evaluation. Static evaluation includes users if the condition was ever true for them. Dynamic evaluation includes users when they meet the condition and excludes them when they do not.

Time-windowed metrics

Conditions also support time-windowed metrics: you can specify that a metric condition can be true during any point in the lifetime of a user or that it must be true during a specific number of days (e.g., > 5 during any 7 day period).

Sequences

Sequences let you specify the order in which conditions must be met: indirectly followed by (anytime after the previous step), directly followed by (immediately after the previous step), or within a specific timeframe. Sequences also let you specify scope for the entire sequence and for individual steps within the sequence.

After you create an audience

After you create an audience, it accumulates users who meet the conditions from that point onward. It can take 24-48 hours for the audience to accumulate users.

When you create an audience that is exported to Google Ads or Firebase (when Enhanced Audience integration is enabled), Analytics adds any users who have met the audience criteria during the last 30 days (assuming you have at least 30 days of data).

As you define your audience, the Summary card updates with the number of users who have met your criteria during the last 30 days so you have an idea of potential audience size.

Create

To create an audience:

1. In Analytics, navigate to your app.
2. Click Audiences.
3. You have three options for creating an audience:
   • Create a new audience by defining all the parameters yourself.
   • Use a template and modify the existing parameters.
   • Select a suggested audience. You can use it as is, or modify it to suit your needs.

Audience-builder controls

Create a new audience

1. Click New audience.
2. Click Create a custom audience.
3. Enter a name and description for the audience. This name and description let you identify the audience in the management table.
4. Click Add new condition to add users who meet conditions based on dimensions, metrics, and events. For example: Age is one of 18-24, 25-34.
   • Set the scope of the condition. Use the menu at the top right to choose an option:
     • Across all sessions: all conditions must be met during the lifetime of the user
     • Within the same session: all conditions must be met within the same session (Learn more about how sessions are calculated)
     • Within the same event: all conditions must be met in a single event
   • Dimensions
     • Conditions support static and dynamic evaluation of dimensions. Select At any point to include users if they ever met the condition (static evaluation). If you don't select this option, then user evaluation for an audience is dynamic: users are added to an audience when they meet the conditions and then removed when they no longer meet them.
   • Metrics
     • Conditions support time-windowed metrics. For example: LTV > 5 in any 7 day period
     • Select the in any ___ day period option to use a time-windowed count vs. a lifetime count.
   • Events
     • Conditions support dynamic lookback for events when the scope is Across all sessions and you select the event_count parameter.
     • Select an operator (currently, ">" is the only available operator), and enter a value.
     • Turn on the switch for Time Period.
       Select either:
       At any point in time (condition is true if event_count ever matched)
       or
       Most recent time period (condition is true if event_count matched during the past number of days you specify).
       Enter the number of days for the time period.
   • Add OR or AND conditions as necessary.
5. Click Add condition group to add another condition.
6. Click Add sequence to add users who meet conditions that occur in a specific order, and optionally within a specific time period. For example: Step 1: first_open, Step 2: in_app_purchase.
   • Set the scope of the sequence: Across all sessions, Within the same session, Inherit (inherit condition scope).
   • Set Time Constraint to ON, and define the time period in which the whole sequence must occur (e.g., 30 Minutes).
   • Set the scope for Step 1: Inherit (inherit condition scope), Within the same event, Across all sessions.
   • Configure the condition for Step 1.
   • Click Add step for each additional step you want to include in the sequence.
     • Select is indirectly followed by if the additional step can occur any time after the previous step.
     • Select is directly followed by if the additional step has to occur immediately after the previous step.
     • Select Within to define the maximum amount of time between steps.
     • Set the scope for the step.
7. Click Add group to exclude to create a condition that excludes specific users.
   
   Select Temporarily exclude users when to exclude users from the audience during periods when they meet the condition.
   
   Select Permanently exclude users when to exclude users from the audience if they've ever met the condition.
   
   Users are first evaluated by INCLUDE conditions, and then any EXCLUDE conditions. If they meet the EXCLUDE conditions, they are not added to the audience.
8. Membership duration: Enter the number of days that users remain in the audience (1 - 540).
   
   Select Set to maximum limit to use the maximum duration in systems that allow for more than 540 days (e.g., Google Analytics, Firebase Cloud Messaging).
   
   Each time a user engages in behavior that meets the criteria for being included in the audience, then that user's membership duration is reset to the full value of this option.
9. Click Save to save your conditions and create the audience.

Use a template

Audience templates are partially configured audiences that already identify a set of dimensions and/or metrics that form the basis of widely applicable audiences for app- and web-based businesses.

For example, the Demographics template includes the Age, Gender, Language, Interest IDs, and Location dimensions that you can use to define a particular audience in which you're interested. Using this template, you supply the operators and dimension values that define the audience you want, e.g.:

• Age exactly matches 18-24
• Gender exactly matches female
• etc.

After you complete the audience definition, enter a name, and click Save.

Select a suggested audience

Analytics also provides a number of fully configured audiences that you can use as is or modify if necessary.

For example, the Users who completed a transaction audience is defined as follows:

• Include Users when transactions > 0

You can use the audience as is, or you can add conditions or sequences, or change the membership duration as necessary.

Use the default name or enter a new name, then click Save.

Edit an audience

After you create an audience, you can edit only the name and description.

To edit an audience:

1. In Analytics, navigate to the reports for your Google Analytics 4 property.
2. Click Audiences.
3. In the row for the audience, click > Edit.
4. Edit the name or description.
5. Click Save.

Archive an audience

If you have reached your limit of 100 audiences and need to create new ones, you can archive the ones that are no longer relevant, and then after 48 hours, create new ones.

To archive an audience:

1. In Analytics, navigate to the reports for your Google Analytics 4 property.
2. Click Audiences.
3. In the row for that audience, click > Archive.