The latest update to remarketing lists for search ads (RSLA) is finally available in New Zealand and many marketers (including us!) are very excited about this release. Here’s why.
What are remarketing lists for search?
Up to very recently the only way to run remarketing activity for search was to rely on Google Ads remarketing features only. This setup was very limited, as it only allowed you to remarket to the users who previously engaged with your search ads, rather than target all returning traffic. Google Analytics remarketing lists were reserved for display only. This was frustrating for many marketers, as RLSA allow advertisers to customize the ads, include/exclude specific audiences, target a wider set of keywords, and modify bids. For example, you might want to show a different message to someone who already purchased a specific product on your website – and uses an add-on or upgrade copy instead.
How to activate this feature?
If you’re already using Google Analytics remarketing lists for your Google Ads display campaigns – you don’t have to do anything else. The allowed search lists will be available in our account automatically. If you’re new to using Analytics for Google Ads remarketing you’ll have to enable it in your GA account first. Go to Property > Tracking Info >Data Collection from the Admin tab, and making sure Remarketing is set to “ON”:
From here you can start creating your own lists, or use the Google Analytics Solution Gallery to import ready list templates to your account.
What are the limitations?
As expected, not all of the dimensions available in GA will be transferable to RLSA. For privacy reasons, Google won’t allow advertisers to use Google Display Network dimensions for age, gender or interests, as well as a few of the Analytics demographics and technology dimensions such as language, location, operating system, browser, device category and others. It is also important to remember the lists will require a minimum of 1,000 cookies before they can be used to tailor search ads.
