Google Remarketing

Upload data files and manage your Customer Match audiences

This article explains the steps you need to follow to upload your data files and create and manage your Customer Match audiences.

Before you begin

For an overview of how Customer Match works, read about Customer Match. For more information about how Google uses the data files you upload and how the matching process works, read How Google uses Customer Match data.

Instructions

1. Sign in to AdWords.
2. Click Shared library.
3. Click Audiences.
4. If you’re creating a remarketing list for the first time, you’ll see several remarketing options. Under "Customer emails," click Create list. If this isn't the first remarketing list you've created, click +Remarketing list and select "Customer emails" from the drop-down menu.
5. Enter a name.
6. Select "Upload customer email addresses."
7. (Optional) Outside of AdWords, hash the list of customer email addresses that you want to upload.
   • Hashing takes into account capitalization and spaces, so you'll need to prepare your email addresses in order for matching to work. Make all characters in the email addresses lowercase and remove any extra spaces before or after the email addresses.
   • Apply the SHA256 algorithm to your email addresses, which is an industry standard for one-way hashing. For example, the hashed version of the email address example@gmail.com is264e53d93759bde067fd01ef2698f98d1253c730d12f021116f02eebcfa9ace6.
   • Paste the hashed email addresses into a .csv file.
8. Within AdWords, choose the file. Make sure it meets the requirements described below.
9. Set a membership duration. The longest time a customer can stay on this list is 180 days.
10. If you agree, check the box "This data was collected and is being shared with Google in compliance with Google's policies."
11. Click Upload and save list. You can view the progress of uploading your data file under "Audiences". This process may take take up to 3 hours to complete.
12. Add your Customer Match audience to your campaign. It may take up to 12 hours for your campaign to start serving.
    • For YouTube: add your Customer Match audience to an "Online video" campaign.
    • For Gmail: add your Customer Match audience to a "Display Network only" campaign that uses Gmail ads from the Ad gallery. To do this:
    1. Open the campaign and click the Display Network tab.
    2. Click + Targeting, and choose your campaign and ad group.
    3. Click Add targeting and select "Interests and remarketing,"
    4. Click "Remarketing lists" and select an audience.
    • For Search: add your Customer Match audience to a "Search Network only" or "Search Network with Display Select" campaign.

Data file upload requirements

• The data file must use the .csv format and must be no more than 100MB (this corresponds to over 1.4M hashed emails).
• The email addresses in the data file can be hashed and must be separated by a comma or a line break.
• List membership duration is no more than 180 days
• The email addresses must be collected in compliance with the Customer Match policies.

Fix errors or issues with your list

Error / Issue	Fix
Check email addresses	Make sure email addresses follow this format: someone@example.com. Remember to add the domain, like .com or .net
Check formatting	Separate email addresses with a line break or comma. Don't separate email addresses with just a space or semicolon
File is too large	Split your file into smaller files and upload them
Upload error	Check your file for formatting errors and upload it again

Add email addresses

1. Click Shared library.
2. Click Audiences.
3. In your table of remarketing lists, click your customer emails list.
4. Click the pencil icon.
5. Select the "Add more email addresses" option.
6. Choose the data file that contains the email addresses you want to add.
7. Click Upload and save list.

Tip

Refresh your Customer Match audiences regularly so that the customers who are important remain in your audiences targeting.

Remove email addresses

1. Click Shared library.
2. Click Audiences.
3. In your table of remarketing lists, click your customer emails list.
4. Click the pencil icon.
5. Select the "Remove email addresses" option.
6. Choose the file that contains the email addresses you want to remove.
7. Click Upload and save list.