Set up your data segments for Search ads campaign

Once you add a global site tag on your website, you’ll see a few automatically created data segments in your Audience Manager. You can use these data segments right away or create new data segments for your website visitors, and apply them for bidding or targeting in your ad groups or campaigns.

To apply data segments to a single Search Network campaign or ad group:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Audiences, keywords, and content drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Audiences.

4. To make charges to your targeting, click Edit Audience Segments.
5. Select the campaign or ad group that you want to update.
6. Use the “Search” and “Browse” options to find and select the segments that you want to target.
7. Click the checkbox next to the segment you'd like to target. This will add them to your targeting.
8. Click Save.

Confirm your targeting settings

There are two targeting settings available:

“Observation”
(Recommended for Search and Hotel Ads campaigns)

• You can observe the performance of your data segments, and also use bid adjustments for members of your data segments.
• It does not restrict the reach of your campaign or ad group.

“Targeting”
(Recommended for Video and Display Network campaigns)

• You'll only show ads to members of your data segments.
• Targeting restricts the reach of your campaign or ad group.
• You can still set different bid adjustments for members of your data segments.

Learn more about "Targeting" and "Observation" settings

Add data segments using copy and paste

To copy your data segments from one campaign or ad group to another:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Audiences, keywords, and content drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Audiences.
4. Click Edit Audience Segments.
5. Check the boxes next to the data segments that you want to copy.
6. Click the “Edit” drop-down menu, then select Copy.

To paste your copied data segments:

1. From the page menu on the left, click Campaigns and then filter for all Search campaigns.
2. To paste segments at the campaign level, stay on the "Campaigns" page. To paste segments to ad groups, click Ad groups from the page menu.
3. Check the boxes next to the campaigns or ad groups where you want to paste your data segments.
4. Click the “Edit” drop-down menu and select Paste.
5. Confirm options and click Paste.
   • "Include bids": Leaving this checked will include the bid modifiers for your data segment when pasting. If an ad group is already using a data segment, the pasted bid value will override the existing ad group bid modifier.
   • "Campaign targeting settings" or "Ad group targeting settings": This setting will determine the destination campaigns' or ad groups' targeting settings for data segments. The “Smart default (recommended)” option keeps current targeting settings for your audience segments. If an ad group doesn’t have any active audience segment, the default setting will be selected:
     • “Observation” for Search Network and Shopping campaigns
     • “Targeting” for Video and Display Network campaigns
   • You can also choose to manually override the settings to “Observation” or “Targeting.”

Apply data segments to multiple Search campaigns/ad groups

To apply data segments across your entire account:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
2. Click the Shared library drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Audience manager.
4. From the page menu on the left, click Audience lists.
5. Choose the data segment you’d like to add.
6. Click Add to, then select Campaigns (preferred) or Ad Groups.
7. Select the checkbox for the campaigns you want to choose or select the top checkbox to choose all campaigns.
8. Click Next.
9. Select a targeting setting, then click Add Audiences. The data segments will now be added to the selected campaigns. You can now re-adjust bid adjustment or use smart bidding.

If your account has a mix of campaign and ad group level data segments, repeat steps 5 to 8 twice, first to add the data segments to all campaigns at campaign level, next to add the data segments to all ad groups at ad group level. This will ensure complete coverage.