by Google AdWords has recently launched a new ad targeting option, Customer Match (CM).
This new feature enables marketers to include user email addresses in their Adwords audience list.
If you have email address database then this is a powerful tool for online marketing.
Customer Match lets you have better targeting through several sponsored promotions. CM displays specific ads to users, who are logged in Google Search, Youtube, and Gmail.
CM is a completely new feature in Google Adwords. Some marketers call it an advanced feature of RLSA (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads).
Though the functionalities of customer match may remind us about RLSA, they are as similar as well as different from each other.
Before continuing discussions on their similarities and differences let’s take a look at what they are and how they work.
What is Customer Match
Customer Match is a fresh Google Adwords feature. New CM option allows us to use our email database to target a specific audience.
Marketers have to upload the list of emails manually or using API to AdWords. Ads will be displayed if the email lists match Google sign in the mail.
In order to create CM, you need to go to Shared Library and click on Remarketing List and then select Customer emails. And then simply follow the instructions.
Customer Match is more efficient because you create your ad copy on the basis of your data. Creating ad copy as per CM is really powerful than creating ad copy on the basis of visitors behavior.
It helps to increase anonymity for users and advertisers.
How Customer Match Works
CM works the same way as remarketing list. It lets user come back to your company page. Customer Match does not depend on cookies and therefore you can target users across multiple devices.
As you are using your own database, this method gives you more control over ad display.
You can create different ad copies for different users. Customer Match allows you to target your audience using several factors-
- User’s Purchase History
- Purchasing trends
- Users Demographics
- Excluding Current users
More you segment your email database more your ad will be relevant to the specific audience.
Customer Match lets you target a specific audience with the specific ad and with the right message. It means you are always there to reach right people. This method is an effective way of interest targeting.
As you target the right audience, chances of conversions are higher here.
To work with Customer Match you must have a list of email addresses. This is the primary ingredient of using CM.
Adwords will match your list with any Google email login that shares the same email address with your list. After the match done Google will discard the data.
If you are using MailChimp then it will be easier to export the list. Otherwise, your list must be in CSV format.
[bctt tweet=”By using your own database, Customer match gives you the option to create custom ads for users.” username=”adstriangle”]
How Customer Match Helps
CM is really a powerful element to target your audience effectively. It helps you increase conversions on several ways-
Brings back customers:
Using this method you can target customers, who have once purchased from you. If your products or services are needed to have in a recurring manner then you must use this method to reach on the right time.
Converts the leads:
If you have led through your website then you are already having a potential customer database. As they already have shown interests, using CM may increase the rate of conversions from leads. You can go to them with your new products or services.
Excludes existing customers:
When you need to target new customers without spending on existing customers, CM lets you exclude existing customer list.
Displays similar offers:
A group of people, who like to purchase certain deals or want to take specific offers, you can reach them periodically using CM.
Improves cross sell:
CM helps to expand your business targeting existing customers. You can show them ads containing complementary or related products.
Lets you find similar customers:
CM is a powerful tool to find lookalike customers. These lookalike customers are determined by common search behavior, browsing behavior or other contextual behavior.
Makes PPC ads more personal:
CM lets you personalize your ads in your way. With your email database, you can do a lot by segmentation. This segmentation can help you experiment with key-phrases, bids level, and creativity.
CM lets you personalize your ads in your way. With your email database, you can do a lot by segmentation. This segmentation can help you experiment with key-phrases, bids level, and creativity.
You can create specific ads to make the audience feel more personal.
Displays ads across devices:
When you use CM your ad will be displayed before the signed-in users across devices. It means you do not have to create separate ads for separate devices.
What is Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA)
RLSA is actually a remarketing strategy within AdWords. RLSA allows you to display your ad to the users, who have visited your page once or viewed similar pages.
This is remarketing strategy to retarget audiences who have shown or who are having an interest in your products or services. Along with targeting your previous visitors, RLSA also targets people, who are conducting the similar search on Google.
This way you can create the specific ad to target a specific audience. Using RLSA increases chances of improved conversions.
How RLSA Works
RLSA lets you reach website visitors on Google search with a text ad. People who are familiar with your website are more likely to convert so it’s a good idea to retarget them on Google search.
RLSA is different PPC marketing strategy from traditional PPC display remarketing.
RLSA helps advertisers to reach target people in SRP through the ad text, which is based on
- Using cookies to identify people, who have visited advertisers’ sites
- Search Keywords bid on
On the reverse, you can work with RLSA in two ways-
- If some users are already in your remarketing list, you can set up your search ad groups only target those listed users.
- You can make bid adjustment to trigger people, who are using your bid keywords.
You should use RLSA to tailor your campaigns for triggering more qualified traffic. As your target is based on specific interest, it will more likely to convert. RLSA works to give you improved conversion rate.
[bctt tweet=”RLSA Strategy-Customize Ads texts, adjust bids & broaden your keywords.” username=”adstriangle”]
How RLSA Helps
RLSA is a great tool to target those potential people, who once have been to your website. You can come up with effective strategies to target your website earlier visitors.
There are several ways that RLSA helps to make more conversions out of your PPC campaigns-
Bring back old customers:
RLSA is a complete remarketing strategy.Using this great tool you will be able to display your ads again before your old customers. It helps them to get back to your site again.
Bid on generic terms for most qualified users:
Most of the marketers avoid bidding on generic terms because they are not only expensive but also sometimes cannot generate good conversions.
With RLSA you can bid on generic keywords because here you target only qualified audience- only those people, who visited your website before. You can reduce ad spend.
Create Cross Sell:
There may be lots of products for which you cannot spend on the ad. As the profit level is low, so you do not run a campaign from them. But RLSA helps you target people, who have purchased from your site before.
You can influence those people, who have purchased from you to sell those products.
Exclude Ad Spend for Old Users:
If conversions have already been done by certain users, you should not spend on the same ad to attract them. Using RLSA you can exclude converted users to save on ad spend.
[bctt tweet=”On Average clicks from RLSA get 2x higher CTR, 50% lower CPC and 2x higher conversion rate.” username=”adstriangle”]
Now, you can proceed to understand Similarities and Dissimilarities between these two Marketing Strategies.
Similarities and Differences Between Customer Match and RLSA
After going through what they are and how they work, you may think CM and RLSA is an advanced version of RLSA. No, they both are remarketing strategy and work largely similar way but they are not same.
Here, we will see how they are different from each other and how both are same-
RLSA and CM List Creation
List Creation process makes the major difference between CM and RLSA. Though the list creation for both strategies is to achieve the same goal but the techniques of creation are different.
Setting up the audience for RLSA is much different from how you set up for CM.
RLSA is completely based on the users, who have visited your site. Therefore you need to tell Google who have been at your website and how they interacted with your site.
Let Google track visitors and their behaviors on your website after users leave. Add Google Remarketing Tag to your site pages, which you like to be tracked. You can also use Google Analytic Tag.
Create RLSA audience list in Adwords through the active tags. You can create the list on the basis of visitors’ interactions on your site.
In CM list creations you have to depend on Email database that you have collected. Using API or manually you have to upload the Email list in Adwords Library.
Therefore, for RLSA you have to use Remarketing Tag and for CM you must have an email list in order to target qualified users.
How CM and RLSA Target Audience
For both of the remarketing strategies, advertisers have to make list with at least 1000 users. It helps Google to identify with a certain end goal, which is going to be employed.
Through CM you can target sleeping users, who might not have shown any activities on your website. CM lets you upload all the firsthand email addresses. You should not bother about whether they interacted with your site or not.
You can make email list on the basis of user’s purchase history, onsite behavior and other activities. It is not that the users enlisted in your CM list must have recent activities on your site.
On the other hand, for RLSA target users must have shown activities in last 180 days. For RSLA targeting is focused on users’ page visit and their actions are taken on your site.
Therefore, in RLSA users must have shown engagement at your site in recent history.
You may face some overlapping between CM lists and RLSA lists because you cannot exclude one user from other within the audience created.
[bctt tweet=”To avoid overlapping, you can use CM as ‘target exclusions list’ to targeting through RLSA.” username=”adstriangle”]
Same way you can use RLSA list to exclude users from CM targeting.
How Both Deal With Audience Size
When you compare audience size, RLSA is more potential in gaining larger audience volume than CM can get.
Practically a site faces much more visitors than you can accumulate numbers of email addresses.
You may prepare a larger list of email addresses for CM by long time involvement in data collection. But finally, it depends on Google, how many of them can be identified as users in search.
RLSA obtains user list on the basis of recent activities. On the contrary, for CM email list user might have shown interests many years back.
However, in reality, conversions do not depend on the volume of audience size. Different users have different onsite behaviors, interests and search patterns. Larger audience list does not always mean to gain larger traffics or great conversions.
It has been seen that RLSA successfully drives more traffic than CM can.
But, RLSA and CM increase the opportunity of improved conversions than the average searchers. Therefore you must use both strategies to get maximum numbers of conversions.
[bctt tweet=”RLSA and CM are great options for the brand campaign. Previously interacted users can be attracted.” username=”adstriangle”]
Their Behavior on A/B testing
In A/B testing CM shows good impact in targeting audience. You can make an easy division with your email list to control groups while testing.
On the other hand, RLSA list is depending on users behavior on your site. Therefore, creating divisions and run A/B testing is little much complicated. Divisions depend on several actions taken by users.
Excluding and including users or creating different sections with emails is easier while running test. You will find in RLSA a complicated process to control groups.
Testing is very much important to accumulate the best options of the ad. Through quality test and control groups, you will be able to know how you should implement changes in ad copy or in other ad ingredients. CM lets you gain it easily.
If you have collected email addresses on the basis of their past interaction, by running A/B testing you can know which ad group is gaining more conversions. And you can do this process without PPC search advertising.
Summary
RSLA and CM may be different from each other but both of them help you get better results from Adwords. They are having their individual importance.
RSLA and CM are great remarketing techniques within AdWords. They let you come up with better elements to target audiences, who have past record of interactions with your brand.
No strategy can give result without proper implementation. Therefore you need to run testing in order to know how and why you can use them better.