With demographic targeting, you can reach a specific set of potential customers who are likely to be within a particular age range, gender, parental status, or household income, depending on the advertising platform. For example, if you run a travel agency that offers vacation packages to people 65 and older, demographic targeting can help your ads reach those in that age group.
Keep in mind that demographic targeting is an option to narrow your targeting. In other words, if you limit your targeting to certain demographic segments, your ads may reach a more limited audience.
Demographic targeting can be combined with other targeting strategies to improve your reach to a specific set of audiences. You can also customize your bids (place higher or lower bids) for a certain demographic group, while still showing your ads to everyone. For instructions, see Add or remove a bid adjustment.
Demographic targeting options for Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising
Age
Where you can use them
- Ad groups
- Campaigns (Microsoft Advertising only)
Age ranges
|
Advertising platform |
Available ranges |
| Google Ads |
|
| Microsoft Advertising |
|
- In Google Ads, audience members under the age of 18 are reported in the "Unknown" age group.
- In Microsoft Advertising, if a customer falls into the “Unknown” category, no bid adjustment is applied.
- If you set age-range bid adjustments at the ad group level, any bid adjustments you set for age range at the campaign level will be ignored for the entire ad group.
- Ads will not be shown to customers under 18 years of age if the ad content is determined to deal with such mature subjects as gambling, tobacco, weapons, violence, alcohol, or hate speech.
Gender
Where you can use them
- Ad groups
- Campaigns (Microsoft Advertising only)
Range
The following criteria are available for gender targeting:
- Male
- Female
- Unknown (Google Ads only)
The “Unknown” category refers to people whose age or gender haven't been identified. Exclude the "Unknown" demographic category only if you're sure you want to restrict your campaign to a narrow audience. Excluding "Unknown" might prevent a substantial number of people from seeing your ads – some of whom you might want to reach.
- If you set bid adjustments for gender at the ad group level, any bid adjustments you set for gender at the campaign level will be ignored for the entire ad group.
- if a customer falls into the “Unknown” category, no bid adjustment is applied.
Household income
Household income includes the following criteria:
- 10%
- 11 - 20%
- 21 - 30%
- 31 - 40%
- 41 - 50%
- Lower 50%
- Unknown
Parental status
Parental status is only available for Google Ads accounts and includes the following criteria:
- Parent
- Not a parent
- Unknown
Report on demographic targets
Metrics, such as clicks and impressions, are reported for age, gender, household income, and parental status targets from the advertising platform.
The new Search Ads 360 supports reporting on demographic targets from Floodlight tags and Google Ads conversions.