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Create a retargeting campaign

A retargeting campaign shows your ads only to people on your own Google Ads lists: people who visited your website, and your customer lists. The campaign wizard has two retargeting types:

  • Search retargeting. Text ads on Google search results, when people on your lists search for your keywords.
  • Demand Gen retargeting. Image ads on YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Display, for people on your lists. It has no keyword step: Hero Marketer writes the ad from your product.

The wizard uses the lists that your Google Ads account already has. It does not add the Google tag to your site, and it does not create lists.

Lists that a retargeting campaign can use​

A list can go in a retargeting campaign only when all of these conditions are true:

  • The list is a website visitor list (from tag rules, from remarketing tags, or combined) or a customer list (Customer Match).
  • The list is open and enabled in Google Ads.
  • Google allows the list on the network of the campaign: Google Search for Search retargeting, or Display, YouTube, and Gmail for Demand Gen retargeting.
  • The list has 100 or more people on that network, or Google does not show a size for the list yet.
  • The list is not a customer list of mobile app device IDs.

Each list shows its size on the network of the campaign, for example Website visitors · 4,800 people. A customer list that Google keeps off Google Search does not show for Search retargeting.

When your account has no lists to retarget​

When you select a retargeting type, Hero Marketer loads your lists. The button on the Choose what to target step waits until they load. If the account has no list that the campaign can use, the step shows This account has no lists to retarget. and the button stays unavailable, because the campaign could not launch. To make a list, add the Google tag to your site or upload a customer list in Google Ads, then come back when the list has 100 people.

If Hero Marketer cannot load your lists, the step shows Couldn't load your lists. with a Try again button.

Create a Search retargeting campaign​

  1. On the Choose what to target step, click Campaign type, then select Search retargeting. The sentence changes to "Show my ad for product when people on my lists in country search for search term."
  2. Complete the sentence. The Search type menu stays: Category search, Brand search, or Competitor search.
  3. Click Find keywords.
  4. On the Choose keywords and budget step, select a keyword cluster and type a monthly budget.
  5. Click Write ad copy.
  6. On the Check your ad step, approve the headlines and the descriptions, the same as for a Search campaign.
  7. On the Extras tab, under Your lists, select at least one list.
  8. Click Launch.

A Search retargeting campaign keeps all of the keyword cluster's keywords at any budget. Hero Marketer publishes them as broad match, because your lists already narrow who sees the ad. The line next to the Keywords heading shows broad match, for example 10 · broad match.

Create a Demand Gen retargeting campaign​

  1. On the Choose what to target step, click Campaign type, then select Demand Gen retargeting. The sentence changes to "Show my ad for product to people on my lists in country." It has no search term.
  2. Click Write my ad. Hero Marketer writes the ad from your product. This uses credits, the same as other ad copy. The wizard goes straight to the Check your ad step: Demand Gen retargeting has no Choose keywords and budget step.
  3. In the budget bar at the top of the step, type a monthly budget.
  4. Approve the headlines and the descriptions.
  5. On the Images tab, select at least 5 landscape, 5 square, and 5 portrait images, and check the logo and the business name. See Create a Performance Max campaign.
  6. On the Audience tab, under Your lists, select at least one list.
  7. Click Launch.

The ad of a Demand Gen retargeting campaign has 5 headlines of up to 30 characters and 5 descriptions of up to 90. Hero Marketer writes it for people who already know your product: what it does for them, the doubt that kept them from starting, and the next step. Google's personalized ads policy forbids ads that suggest how a person was found, so the ad never says that the reader visited your site or is on a list. If you change from Demand Gen to Demand Gen retargeting, or back, Hero Marketer writes the ad again, because each one is written for different people.

The monthly budget of a retargeting campaign​

A retargeting campaign has no recommended budget, because search volume cannot size a list. The budget bar starts empty, with no Recommended budget tag and no expected clicks. Type the monthly budget, or use the plus button. Until you set a budget, the launch bar shows Set a monthly budget. For Search retargeting, picking another keyword cluster keeps the budget that you typed.

Google Ads gets the monthly budget as a daily budget: the monthly budget divided by 30.4, rounded down to the cent.

Pick the lists of a retargeting campaign​

The lists are the first section of the Extras tab (Search retargeting) or the Audience tab (Demand Gen retargeting). The heading shows Your lists · pick at least one until you select a list, over the line Only people on these lists see your ads. A retargeting campaign has no People who search for your keywords part. A new campaign starts with nothing selected, and Launch is not available until you select at least one list. The campaign takes up to 20 lists.

Only the lists that the campaign can use count. If you picked a list for another campaign type, and this type cannot use it, the list does not go in.

What publishing builds for retargeting​

Search retargeting builds the same campaign as Search, with three differences:

  • The keywords are broad match.
  • The ad group shows ads only to people on your lists. This is Google's Targeting setting for audiences, not Observation.
  • Each list that you picked goes on the ad group.

Demand Gen retargeting builds the same campaign as Demand Gen, with these differences:

  • The ad group is named Retargeting, then the country code.
  • Its audience holds only your lists, and Google's optimized targeting is off, so Google does not show the ads to people outside your lists.

See Create a Demand Gen campaign.

When Google does not accept a list​

If Google does not accept a list, for example a customer list that Google does not allow on your account, publishing stops with Google's message, and nothing stays live. Clear that list, then launch again.

Names of retargeting campaigns​

  • Search retargeting: Search retargeting | search type | search term | country code, for example Search retargeting | Non branded | Product analytics | US.
  • Demand Gen retargeting: Demand Gen retargeting | business name | country code, for example Demand Gen retargeting | Trailmark | US.

Google needs a different name for each campaign. To launch a second Demand Gen retargeting campaign for the same business and country, change the name: click the Campaign name row on the campaign card.

What the wizard does not do for retargeting​

  • It does not add the Google tag to your site, and it does not create or edit lists.
  • It does not use lists in Observation mode: a retargeting campaign shows ads only to people on its lists.
  • It adds no exclusions and no frequency caps.
  • It does not make standalone Display remarketing campaigns. Google is moving Display campaigns into Demand Gen.
  • Hero Marketer does not edit the lists of a campaign after you publish. Use Google Ads.

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