Google Ads - Audiences (via GA4)

The goal is to send your ClickPatrol events to Google Analytics 4, build an audience in GA4 based on those events, and share the audience with Google Ads for targeting or exclusion.

Important check #

In order to build Google Ads audiences this way you need the following steps completed:

• Implement ClickPatrol Tag in Tag Manager
• Implement Event Trigger in Tag Manager
• ClickPatrol events sent to GA4 as custom events. The ClickPatrol tag pushes ClickPatrol_Legitimate and ClickPatrol_Suspicious to the dataLayer, so those are the names you forward
• GA4 property linked to your Google Ads account
• Personalized advertising and Google signals enabled on the link

Link GA4 to Google Ads #

If GA4 is not yet linked to Google Ads:

• Open GA4 and go to Admin.
• In the Property column, click Product links > Google Ads links.
• Click Link and select the Google Ads account to connect.
• Ensure Enable Personalized Advertising is turned on. This is required for audiences to be shared with Google Ads.
• Leave Enable Auto-Tagging on.
• Click Submit.

Initial data sync can take up to 24 hours.

Build the audience in GA4 #

• Open GA4 and go to Admin > Audiences.
• Click New audience > Create a custom audience.
• Name the audience clearly, for example CP Legitimate 30d.
• Under Include users when, click Add new condition.
• Search for your ClickPatrol event (ClickPatrol_Legitimate) and select it. Event names are case sensitive, so copy them exactly as the tag pushes them.
• To narrow the audience further, add a parameter filter on one of the ClickPatrol audience values. Forwarding those values to GA4 is covered in Send ClickPatrol audience values to GA4.
• Set Membership duration (for example, 30 days).
• Click Save.
• Repeat for CP Suspicious 30d, selecting ClickPatrol_Suspicious.

Verify the audience in Google Ads #

GA4 audiences are exported automatically to linked Google Ads accounts, but it can take up to 48 hours for a new audience to appear and start populating.

• In Google Ads, go to Tools > Shared library > Audience manager.
• Filter the segment list by Source: Google Analytics (GA4) and Firebase.
• Confirm CP Legitimate 30d and CP Suspicious 30d are listed.

Use the audience #

• Use CP Legitimate for targeting, or as the seed list for a Lookalike segment in a Demand Gen campaign. Google retired Similar Segments in August 2023. On Search, Display and Video the equivalent is to add CP Legitimate as an audience signal and let optimized targeting expand from it.
• Use CP Suspicious as an exclusion. Add it as a negative audience on your campaigns, or at account level under Shared library so new campaigns inherit the exclusion by default.

Notes #

• Membership duration in Google Ads can be extended up to 540 days. GA4 has its own retention window per audience.
• Audiences need at least 100 active users in the last 30 days before they are eligible to serve on Search, Display, or YouTube.
• If an audience does not appear in Google Ads after 48 hours, verify that Personalized Advertising is enabled on the GA4 to Google Ads link and that Google signals is turned on in GA4 data collection settings.