Custom list targeting

There are 2 types of custom list targeting, Custom Affinity and Custom Intent. Use Custom Affinity segments to target an audience by the media they consume online or by the products and services they're interested in. Use Custom Intent to define and reach a specific audience as they are making a purchase decision related to your product or service.

Note: Display & Video 360 can't forecast the reach of your audience targeting when using custom lists, which means potential reach data won't reflect the reach of any Custom Affinity or Custom Intent segments you target. Additionally, inventory availability reports aren't available for custom lists.

Custom Affinity

When using Custom Affinity targeting, enter the interests your audience is likely to have, and then Display & Video 360 will intelligently define an audience without unnecessarily limiting the scale of your campaigns.

Set Custom Affinity targeting in a line item

1. Navigate to your line item's targeting settings, then click the edit icon beside “Audience lists”.
2. Within the "Custom Lists" section, click Create then select Custom affinity to build a new segment.
3. Enter the following details. Note that an estimate of your segment's approximate audience size will be shown in the “Audience Estimator” section as you enter these details:
   • A name for the segment.
   • Optional:
     • A brief description for the segment.
     • Interests entered as keyword phrases.
     • URLs based on the content of the websites.
     • Apps that your audience might be interested in. This doesn't mean that your ads will show on the apps you specified, but rather to users that have similar apps on their mobile devices. For example, if you enter Google Fit, Display & Video 360 will find users that have fitness-related apps.
4. Click Create when you are done. The new Custom Affinity segment can be targeted immediately after saving.
5. After you've picked the Custom Affinity segments you want to target, click Apply then save your line item.

Notes:

• Display & Video 360 has policies restricting the use of sensitive keywords such as financial status, medical history or information, racial or ethnic origins, and others. Learn more about Display & Video 360 targeting policies.
• The keywords filter can also be greatly affected by custom audience lists that use sensitive keywords. When no keywords are used in a line item’s targeting but a custom audience list with sensitive keywords is in place, the sensitive keywords are used for contextual targeting, not collecting audience users. As such, the UI will show the keywords filter even without keyword targeting.

Limitations

• After you target a Custom Affinity segment, you can't edit it in any way.
• Affinity, Custom Affinity, and In-Market audience targeting can't be combined with an "AND" clause with any other audience lists.
• YouTube ads containing sensitive verticals (for example, gambling, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals) can't run against Custom Affinity segments.
• Exclusion targeting is not available for Custom Affinity segments.

Custom Intent

Custom Intent audiences allow you to go beyond Display & Video 360's predefined In-Market categories and use your own keywords, URLs (websites), and apps to reach specific people as they are making a purchase decision related to your product or service.

For Display campaigns, use Custom Intent (Display, Video) to create a Custom Intent audience using in-market keywords and URLs related to products and services your ideal audience is researching across sites and apps. For Video ads on YouTube, use Custom Intent (YouTube) to create an audience of users who have searched for certain terms on Google.

Create a new Custom Intent (Display, Video) audience

1. From your advertiser, navigate to Audiences > All Audiences in the left menu.
2. Click on the Custom Lists tab.
3. Click New Custom List > Custom Intent (Display, Video).
4. Enter a name and brief description (optional).
5. Enter 10 to 15 keywords of a similar theme related to products and services your audience is actively researching. The keywords are considered broad matches so there's no need to enter plurals or misspellings.
6. Enter a few URLs (websites) and apps (optional) related to products and services your audience is actively researching. Avoid URLs that require a login such as social media pages.
7. Click Create.

Create a new Custom Intent (YouTube) audience

1. From your advertiser, navigate to Audiences > All Audiences in the left menu.
2. Click on the Custom Lists tab.
3. Click New Custom List > Custom Intent (YouTube).
4. Enter a name and brief description (optional).
5. Enter keywords your audience is searching for on Google.com. Start with at least 50 keywords from your Google search campaigns. Enter more general keywords if you’d prefer to reach as many people as possible. For example, if you own a sporting goods store, you might want to choose general keywords like “basketball shoes” instead of more specific keywords like “discount blue high top basketball shoes”.
6. Click Create.

Limitations

• Keywords are broad matched and therefore are not case sensitive.
• Custom Intent audience targeting cannot be combined with an "AND" clause with any other audience lists.
• After a Custom Intent audience is assigned to a line item, you can't edit it in any way.
• YouTube ads containing sensitive verticals (for example, gambling, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals) cannot run against custom intent segments.
• Display & Video 360 doesn't support audience estimates for Custom Intent segments.