Beginning in May of 2023, Google Ads will start to slowly phase out their similar audiences. Similar audiences are created based on the recent search activity of users from your remarketing lists. If your lists are big enough, Google Ads will automatically locate new users with similar search behavior and build new audiences to be used for targeting.
Instead of similar audiences, different campaign types offer solutions to leverage first-party data to enhance campaign performance (while protecting privacy) by means of capturing the right audience.
For Display, Discovery, or Video Action campaigns, the solution is to be optimized targeting instead of similar audiences.
For Awareness, Reach or Consideration video campaigns, the guidance is to include your first-party data in ad groups and enable audience expansion to reach users similar to your first-party data.
For Search or Shopping campaigns, it’s highly recommended that you use Smart Bidding in your campaigns. When customer match lists are applied to search & shopping campaigns (targeted or observation), those lists will automatically be factored as a signal for Smart Bidding.
These modifications will occur in phases.
Phase One (May 1, 2023)
During the initial phase, similar audiences will no longer automatically generate, nor will be able to add similar audiences to campaigns and ad groups. Currently, campaigns and ad groups that already have similar audiences will continue to run as expected.
Phase Two (August 1, 2023)
During phase two, similar audiences will be removed from all existing campaigns and ad groups. That said, you will still have access to historical data on the removed audiences.
This update is one of the many changes that Google has announced in the effort of driving business growth while maintaining the high expectations that users have as it relates to privacy. Tackle these deviations by working with an expert. Contact the experts at MoreVisibility for assistance.