Email marketing is widely used by many companies that maintain customer email databases. These are used, among other things, to send newsletters informing about current offers or special promotions. Low open rates, or even the labeling of newsletter messages as spam, are a constant worry for marketing departments worldwide. Customer Match and better utilization of database addresses are here to help.
Customer Match, the ability to use email address databases in AdWords campaigns , may be the solution . Email address list targeting is available in Google Search Network (RLSA) campaigns. It's similar in Gmail Sponsored Promotions and YouTube in-stream ads. Companies with optimally classified databases can separate their current customer email lists from those who have only signed up for their newsletter. This allows us to deliver a separate message to them. Importantly, Customer Match targeting also allows us to exclude our own lists, meaning those who have already taken advantage of the promoted offer, from the campaign. Therefore, we invest in targeting ads exclusively to new potential customers. Additionally, we can target campaigns to audiences similar to those on the shared list, thus reaching users with profiles similar to our customers.
How does Customer Match work?
The advertiser uploads a list of collected email addresses to their AdWords account, which is protected by SSL, and optionally, we can use the SHA256 algorithm. AdWords checks which of the submitted addresses are associated with Google accounts and are used, for example, to log in to Gmail, YouTube, or Google Drive. These don't have to be exclusively Gmail addresses, as users often associate Google accounts with addresses from other providers, such as Yahoo, Onet, or addresses with domains belonging to companies using services like Google Docs for Business. Email addresses not associated with Google accounts are removed from the list. The remaining addresses are assigned to Google account IDs and then deleted within 7 days. To use Customer Match, at least 1000 email addresses must remain on our list after filtering.
Where to use Customer Match
Customer Match is an incredibly versatile advertising tool that successfully finds its way across the entire Google ecosystem . It's available in key places where your potential and current customers spend time: on Google Search , where it precisely reaches users searching for specific information; on YouTube , allowing you to broadcast engaging video ads to a specific audience; and in Gmail , enabling you to display personalized messages directly within the email interface.
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Importantly, this feature works regardless of the device – it is equally effective in mobile apps and on desktop computers using browsers, ensuring consistency and wide reach of the campaign.
How can we use this targeting option? It depends solely on our creativity and the goal we want to achieve . For example, we can exclude current customers from acquisition campaigns, target cross-selling and upselling offers, or even reactivate inactive users. Customer Match paves the way for ultra-personalization and maximized return on investment (ROI) by reaching people with a known history of brand interaction, making this tool a cornerstone of advanced remarketing strategies.
Frequently asked questions about Customer Match in Google Ads
Customer Match is a feature in Google Ads that lets you leverage your own email address databases for precise ad targeting. It's a great solution to the low open rate of traditional email newsletters, allowing you to reach the same audience with paid campaigns.
The advertiser uploads their email list to their Google Ads account. The transfer is completely secure—protected by SSL, with the option of additional SHA256 encryption.
Then the system verifies the database:
- Checks which of the submitted addresses are associated with Google accounts (e.g., YouTube, Gmail, Google Drive). Important: these don't have to be exclusively @gmail.com emails—users often associate addresses from other providers with Google.
- Emails not associated with any account are removed from the list.
- The remaining addresses are assigned to anonymous identifiers, and the emails themselves are irretrievably deleted from Google servers within 7 days.
Customer Match covers key places in the Google ecosystem:
- Google Search Network (as so-called RLSA lists – remarketing lists for search ads),
- YouTube (in video formats, e.g. In-Stream),
- Gmail (as Gmail Sponsored Promotions).
For the campaign to start, after the system filters out unrelated addresses, there must be at least 1000 active users left on your list.
Customer Match offers extensive segmentation opportunities. The most popular scenarios include:
- Dedicated message: creating separate messages for regular customers and others for people who have only signed up for the newsletter.
- Exclusions: removing people who have already made a purchase from the campaign so as not to "burn" the advertising budget and focus solely on acquiring new customers.
- Reaching similar audiences: based on the shared list, the system can find new users online whose profile and behavior are similar to your current customers.
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- How does customer matching work?
- Customer Match usage channels.
