What: The Google Ads Customer Match connection enables BlueConic customers to feed segment data or profile information to Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords).
About BlueConic: The BlueConic customer data platform harnesses the data required to power the recognition of an individual at each interaction, and then synchronizes their intent across the marketing ecosystem.
Why: By sending segmentation and profile property data to your advertising platform, you can more effectively reach targeted audiences with digital ads. You can stop targeting entire segments of visitors who are not a good fit for your advertising campaigns. Instead, you can retarget visitors signed in via Google Search, YouTube, or Gmail.
Note:
Starting March 6, 2024, all profiles within the European Economic Area (EEA), the UK, and Switzerland will need to be exported with a consent status. For more information, check out this FAQ article on Consent changes for Google Ads Customer Match Connections.
Adding a Google Ads Customer Match connection
- Click Connections in the Navigation bar.
- Click Add Connection.
- A pop-up window appears. Check the Show all box. Enter “Google Ads” in the Search bar.
Click Google Ads Customer Match connection.
The connection page opens. To expand or collapse metadata fields (favorite, labels, and description), click the chevron at the top of the page. -
In the metadata section you can choose whether to get email notifications when the connection runs or fails to run.
Configuring a Google Ads Customer Match Connection
In the BlueConic connection page, the logos in the top left corner display the connection status. A new connection starts with a gray arrow, because it still needs to be configured:
The connection is configured in two steps, available as clickable tabs on the left-hand side:
Set up and run
To use this connection, first set up an authenticated communication between BlueConic and Google Ads Customer Match. To do this, click the Connect with Google Ads button. In the popup that appears, log in and allow BlueConic to manage your Google Ads campaigns.
Data exchange shows you the total number of unique profiles that have been imported or exported via the connection. This shows the number of unique profiles available for export. However, based on limitations set by the Google Customer Match platform, some profiles may not be exported. Also, if the same profile is exported multiple times, it is counted as 1.
This completes the initial configuration; BlueConic and Google Ads Customer Match are now able to connect.
Exporting data to Google Ads Customer Match
To comply with Google Ads consent policies, BlueConic profiles from the European Economic Area (EEA), the UK, and Switzerland should be exported with a consent status for Ad User Data and Ad Personalization. This is done by linking at least one BlueConic objective to the connection that has collected consent information.
If there is no objective attached to the connection, BlueConic sends a consent status of ‘unspecified’ (meaning, consent is not explicitly granted) for exported profiles. Google Ads will not enable ads or personalization for EEA, UK, and Swiss profiles that do not have specific permissions granted.
To see whether an existing connection has an objective, in the Google Ads Customer Match connection window, open the right-hand panel. Check the Objectives widget to see the objectives linked to your connection.
Creating a Google Ads Customer Match export goal
Over in the lefthand connection menu, there is a second tab for the connection's export goal. This is where you can determine what data will be shared to Google Ads Customer Match.
- Start by selecting the parent and child accounts that will be used for exchanging data.
- Next, select which BlueConic profile properties Google will use to find customer matches. Google can match customers by email or by phone number. Identifiers with hashed values are also supported.
- Set up mapping rules between BlueConic segments and Google Ads custom audiences:
Click the Add mapping button to add a new mapping rule. Then search a BlueConic segment and type the name of the audience it should map to. You can remove a mapping rule by hovering over it and clicking the "x" icon on the right-hand side.
- To address the consent changes for Google Ads Customer Match starting March 6, 2024, there is a temporary step within the export goal to send a "GRANTED" status for all exported profiles.
- Create events for each exported profile to be counted toward lifecycle thresholds
Select the checkbox if this connection goal is a touchpoint in a lifecycle stage with a threshold set up and you want to count Google Ad events toward the lifecycle stage threshold.
Using Google Ads Connections with BlueConic Lifecycles
You can add Google Ads Customer Match Connection goals as touchpoints in BlueConic Lifecycles. Here are some key points to keep in mind:
- Setting Lifecycle stage restrictions: By placing a Google Ads Connection export goal in a Lifecycle stage, the goal will only export profiles that are currently part of that lifecycle stage.
- Setting thresholds on marketing touchpoints: You can use lifecycle stage thresholds to limit campaign pressure on customer profiles in a certain lifecycle stage. For example, you can make sure a customer is exposed to only 3 marketing touchpoints per week, per month, or per quarter during a particular stage on their customer journey.
Learn more about using connections as touchpoints in Lifecycle stages.
Which customer emails can Google Customer Match recognize?
When you match customer records between BlueConic and Google Customer Match via email, note that Google Customer Match will only recognize email addresses that are registered with Google. This includes any email ending in @gmail.com, or another domain if the organization uses Google's email services. So you may expect a customer to match during a segment export, but if Google doesn't recognize that customer's email address, the connection will not match that customer's data.
Running a Google Ads Customer Match connection
To run the connection, turn the connection on at the top of the connection page and save your changes. See Scheduling connections for information on running the connection.
Privacy management
Connections can be added to Objectives, allowing for privacy management of the information that is being picked up. A connection will only process the profiles of visitors who have consented to at least one of the objectives that the connection is linked to.