Create a customer targeting list

Important:

Google Pay’s customer targeting list uses info that your customers shared with you. There are two types of targeting available:

  • Inclusion targeting: Target only customers within the targeting list you provide.
  • Exclusion targeting: Exclude customers within the targeting list you provide from receiving your offer.

This targeting list must only use info that your customers shared with you.

Collection of customer data

When you use customer targeting lists, you can only upload customer info that you collected in the first-party context. This is info that you collected from your websites, apps, physical stores, or other situations where customers shared their info directly with you.

Data privacy

  • Data will only be used for ad display within the Google Pay app and for no other purpose.
  • Data will be restricted to the audience list of the merchant who provides Google with the data. Merchant A data will not be used to target offers for Merchant B.
  • Data will not be shared with other Google teams and data will not be shared with third parties.
  • Data will have to be collected by merchants themselves and not by third parties.
  • Google Pay will be the “data processor” and Merchant will be the “data fiduciary.”
  • Merchant should ensure they have sufficient consent from their users, and the right to share this data with Google. 

Check the Google Pay Customer Match policy for more details on how to safely collect and share customer data.

Examples of collected info

Info you collected from customers who:

  • Bought an item from your website
  • Registered to get marketing messages through your apps
  • Signed up for your loyalty program in your physical store

You must also:

  • Ensure that your privacy policy discloses that you share customer data with third parties to perform services on your behalf. Also, disclose that you obtain consent for such sharing where legally required.
  • Use only the Google approved API or interface to upload customer data.
  • Comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including any self-regulatory or industry codes that may apply.

Upload files in CSV format

Customer Match data files must follow specific guidelines to be accepted. Incorrect formatting, including incorrect hashing, can lead to an upload error or a low number of matched records.

Make sure to follow these guidelines:

  • Files must be in CSV fomat.
  • For one user record, use commas to separate all identifiers. For different user records, use the standard unix newline character \n or a line break. Do not use space or semicolons.
  • Headers must only be: Email, Phone. If a single customer has multiple email addresses, mailing addresses, or phone numbers, your file may include multiple “Email”, or “Phone” rows.
  • Email addresses must have domain names like gmail.com or hotmail.co.jp.
  • Phone numbers must start with the country code and followed by the 10-digit mobile number. For example, 91xxxxxxxxxx. Other formats like +91xxxxxxxxxx or 0xxxxxxxxxx or xxxxxxxxxx aren’t acceptable.

How it works

Important:

  • If you update the list during the offer, we discard the old list and use the new one.
  • If the new exclusion list excludes the names of users who have previously won the reward, their reward cannot be withdrawn.
  • If the new inclusion list does not include the names of users who have previously won the reward, their reward cannot be withdrawn.
  1. Create, hash, and upload a customer list data file of contact info that your customers gave you through Google Pay & Wallet Console. Use our template and follow our file formatting guidelines.
  2. Create your offer campaign and target the desired audience. 
    • For exclusion targeting, the offer campaign should exclude users who are matched from your uploaded data set.
    • For inclusion targeting, the offer campaign should only target users who are matched from your uploaded data set.

Match email address & phone numbers

Google keeps track of email addresses and phone numbers to match Google Pay accounts with their corresponding hashed string.

When you upload your customer list, Google Pay compares each hashed string on your customer list with the hashed strings of Google Pay accounts. If there’s a match, Google adds the corresponding Google Account to your customer targeting list and does inclusion or exclusion targeting based on the users in that list.

Our file formatting guidelines

Your data must be in a CSV file and encoded in either ASCII or UTF-8. UTF-16 isn’t supported. You must also hash your data with the SHA-256 algorithm, which is the industry standard for one-way hashing. We only accept hashed files.

To create your own file, use our template.

Each row should only have one email and one phone number. The phone number must be formatted with the country code, phone number, and extension, if applicable. The phone number must be provided without any delimiters between each part.

Always put the email value in the first column and the phone value in the second. If you don’t have a value for either email or phone for the row, leave it blank. For a specific example, use our template.

Our template

When you enter data in your CSV file, use the formatting below:

Email Phone
[email protected] 911234554321
[email protected]  
  915432112345
[email protected] 911212121212

Always put the email value in the first column and the phone value in the second. If you don’t have a value for either email or phone for the row, leave it blank.

Once your file is created and your data is entered, you must hash your data.
To hash your data files, Use this Customer Match Hash tool.

Here’s an example of data that’s been hashed:

Email Phone
af14acc6d35e6e9bb8470d63e3470697d00c4488
f74bf7c5098e09498dddd796
bcedcd42f5fc80182d5a47675407eb57d565b3
465644ecf8d82a25cd30231990
c0d119378be6b018953e29aacb058a21656affd3
fd7933c72b11bf1553c71c60
 
  2412dd4b328e989606d5f90f1a067b52e0f2883
fb5f7ea02aa5818d2d5c44392
3d475292382ac2f6f49278269492249e6772cfe1
73e08012a401759c6667fd8c
0288d0a4b4d75924e8e456c92a64f8569231e5e
8e355fad7e716c05f4f64ab50

Upload your file

When you’re approved to use the customer targeting list targeting feature:

  1. Click Campaigns.
  2. From the offers campaign, go to the “Upload exclusion & inclusion list” section.
  3. From your computer, upload your hashed file.

After the Google QA team tests your offer, it becomes live on Google Pay.

Contact support

If you have questions about this policy, contact your Google point of contact.

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