Getting a shopper’s contact information can feel like a major win. But once you have it, how do you go about advertising to them without bombarding them with unwanted solicitations? Google Ad’s Customer Match lets you do just that.
Customer Match lets you create and target custom audiences (based on contact information that you’ve gathered from your customers). It enables users to retarget and re-engage customers across Shopping, Search, Gmail and YouTube.
To start, you would create a list with the contact information (email, phone number, address) of customers you would like to target. Once created, you would upload it to your Google Ad account and create a campaign that targets this specific audience. Google matches the data you’ve provided to Google users. If it’s a match, Google will add this shopper to your custom audience and show your ad to these Google users when they are signed into their account. It’s a great tool for retailers selling on Google Shopping as you can adjust your bids based on what you know about your customers' shopping activities.
Customer Match is one way to take your remarketing to the next level.
Boost Brand Awareness
Customer Match is a great way to expose newer shoppers to your brand. Maybe they recently signed up for emails and aren’t aware of all that you have to offer. Customer Match gives you the opportunity to familiarize them with your brand through targeted ads.
Re-Engage Users
Use customer match to re-engage with customers that have already shown interest in your site. This gives you a more subtle opportunity to remind them of what they are missing out on... and possibly convince them to complete a purchase!
Increase Conversions
By being able to better segment your audience with Customer Match lists, you can tailor your ads based on who the customer is and what stage of the buying process they are in. This lets you focus on customers who are more likely to make a purchase—which increases your chances of landing conversions.
Drive Brand Loyalty
Showing tailored ads to customers based on their purchase history is a great way to encourage repeat purchases from your site and grow brand loyalty. Shoppers that are familiar with your brand may be more likely to make another purchase. Customer Match also gives you the opportunity to cross-sell products that you know past customers may be interested in (based on the data you have on them).
Getting Started with Customer Match
To start using customer match, you’ll want to gather the information that you have on your customers. This information can come from places such as loyalty programs, mailing lists, and any data you’ve gained from in-store purchases. Once you have the data, you’ll want to create a customer data file. For privacy, you can either hash your customer data or let Google Ads do it for you.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the Customer Match audience doesn’t expire and you can control how long you leave customers in the Customer Match audience.
For more information about the customer matching process, click here.
Final Thoughts
Customer Match is a powerful tool for retailers looking to reap the benefits of advertising to more targeted audiences. Whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness, promote brand loyalty, increase conversions or simply re-engage shoppers, Customer Match gives you the tools to go after those customers that have a better chance of engaging with your store.
