Keywords capture intent, but audiences capture people - their interests, behaviors, and purchase readiness. In this chapter, you'll learn how to use Core, Custom, and Lookalike audiences to refine your targeting and reach users more likely to convert.

Key Points:

• Keywords show what people are searching, while audiences reveal who they are - layering both creates more efficient targeting;

• Core audiences are prebuilt by Google and include demographics (age, gender), in-market segments (users actively shopping), affinity categories (interests), and life events. They’re simple to apply and work best for broad targeting or refining search campaigns;

• Custom audiences give you flexibility to build segments based on keywords, competitor URLs, apps, or defined interests. This makes them powerful for competitive targeting (e.g., users who visited competitor sites) or niche products;

• Lookalike/Similar audiences let Google expand your reach by finding people who behave like your converters or Customer Match lists. While Google has phased out some Similar Audience features, GA4 predictive audiences and Customer Match lookalikes provide effective alternatives;

• Smart usage: start with Core audiences to learn, move to Custom audiences for precision, and use Lookalikes to scale once you’ve built reliable source data.