High-impact first-party data segments for audience signals

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00:05What's up, you guys? Bob here from PPC Mastery. And in this episode, I want to talk about first-party data segment ideas for your audience signals to be used inside of your Google Ads campaigns. And these can be P-Max campaigns, but also dedicated upper-funnel campaigns like Demand Gen, Display, YouTube, whatever. So, let's quickly start off with the whys. Why is it so important to leverage first-party data? Well, there are basically three core reasons. And the first one is better segmentation. First-party data can be segmented the way you like as an advertiser. And this allows for more refined audience targeting and segmentation in comparison to all of these standard Google Ads audience segments like the in-market audience segments and the affinity lists we all know. Number two is it leads to higher relevancy. First-party data reflects direct interactions with your brand, leading to more relevant signals and therefore more relevant targeting inside of your campaigns. At least, that's what we're hoping for.

01:10Number three is a competitive advantage. So, your first-party data is unique to your brand and it cannot be replicated by your direct competitors. So, the better your you are in utilizing your first-party data and creating very valuable segments, the more of an edge you will create in comparison to your competitors. So, in this video, I want to touch on four main verticals or buckets, so to say. We have two main audience segment ideas for different verticals that can be applied to lead gen, software as a service, and e-com. And we have the other three buckets, lead gen, software as a service, SaaS, and e-com. So, we're going to touch on all of these in this small episode. So, let's quickly start off with the overall first-party data segments that can be used for every type of business.

02:11So, the first audience segment you can create is engaged visitors. So, these are users who have spent a significant amount of time on your website or have visited multiple pages. So, they have shown a genuine interest in the content, but haven't yet converted. So, think about users who have visited more than two or three pages on your website and or spent more than two minutes browsing around all of the pages on your website. And ideally, you want to segment out users that have visited high-value pages such as specific services service pages or product detail pages or feature pages that feature specific segments of your product, for example, your software tool. So, this is the first high-value audience signal that you can use based on a simple filtered remarketing list, for example.

03:11The second one is newsletter subscribers, and this can be applied to every single business as well. So, people that have subscribed to your newsletter have shown interest in your services or products. So, you want to upload all current active newsletter subscribers or segment your list into addresses with high open rates. So, ideally, you want to only target, well, users that are highly engaged and that are your ideal customer profiles. So, if you have high volumes, it's better to segment out your newsletter list into separate high-value segments like the the people that are engaging with your newsletter every every single week. So, those two segments can basically be applied to all of the different businesses.

04:03Then we have the other three buckets, so to say, lead gen, e-com, and software as a service. And let's start off with some first-party data segment ideas for lead gen. The first one that is well, can be really impactful is ungated content downloaders. So, these are users who have downloaded ungated white papers, e-books, or other lead magnets on your site, but haven't really filled a primary lead gen form, like a contact form or a demo request, or a type of order lead form that really defines them as a lead. So, the keyword here is ungated. So, these users can be tracked by tracking custom events and using these events to populate a GA4 remarketing list that can then be imported inside of your Google Ads account, and that can then be used inside of your audience segment ideas, audience segment targeting. So, that's the first one, ungated content downloaders. The second one is form abandoners. So, people who have started filling out the lead generation form, but didn't complete the process, are highly interesting profiles since they are very close to converting and might just need a little push from filling out the form to actually becoming a lead. So, it's very interesting to target these kinds of users inside a segmented list as well, to then use as a signal if you really lack volumes in lists like primary leads or qualified leads or even customers,

05:42then this is a great audience segment to use, in my opinion. Number three is event attendees. So, these are users who have uh registered for webinars, seminars, or workshops. And basically, this shows a higher level of interest and commitment. So, a few months ago, Moss and I hosted a PPC Mastery event for our Discord members. And well, everyone that basically registered for that event can be used as an audience signal for one of our future campaigns. We're definitely not going to do that since everything we do is basically all organic, but it is just an example because all of these people can be, well, can be potential clients of one of our products, for example. Number four is qualified leads. So, those who have shown interest in the past and have been captured and marked as qualified leads are highly interesting profiles to be used inside of audience segments as well. So, preferably, you want to target qualified leads and not leads as a total. But if you do not have the If you do not have a lead scoring process in place, or if you lack the volumes to do so, it's it's also a great way to just upload all of the leads that have, well, filled in a primary form like a contact request, a demo request, or whatever. So, basically, those are two options within number four, qualified leads or all of the leads.

07:18Number five is basically all of your past customers. Create a list of all recent customers, preferably segment by your ideal customers, for example, high-value customers. And these are the leads that have previously made significant purchases because, well, you want to target or you want to upload the most valuable customers to your audience list eventually to give Google an idea about who your ideal customer profiles are because they represent your top tier in terms of revenue generated and you would like to have more of them. If your list becomes too small and if you have just a few really high value customers and you have more customers in your mid and low range, then consider to upload all of these segments and just consider uploading one customer list.

08:14But, it's always better to segment them out if you have the volumes and tell Google who your who your ideal customer profiles really are. So, there you have it. Five ideas for lead gen already. Ungated content downloaders, form abandoners, event attendees, qualified leads or leads or high value customers or customers if you lack the volume. So, let's continue with SaaS, software as a service. The first first-party data segment idea over here is free trial users. So, you want to target users who have already signed up for a free trial but haven't really upgraded to a paid plan yet. What you can do is basically use this list if your customer list is too small or if you want to target more potentially irrelevant Google users that are similar to the ones that signed up for your free trial. So, it's a great way to fill your audience list and audience targeting upon.

09:16Number two is incomplete setups. So, these are users who began setting up their software account or their product or tool but didn't really complete all the necessary steps. So, if you lack the volumes once again in terms of customer profiles, people that actually are paying for a plan right now, then this can be an interesting list to upload as well. This is not my go-to list, but if you are missing volumes, then it could be an interesting one to consider. Number three are frequent users. And these are really regularly regular users who can potentially be brand advocates since they are using your product or tool every single day and way more frequent than similar profiles. So, if this list is big enough, you can use this list to signal Google Ads how your ideal customer profile looks like and that you want to target more of them.

10:16And your goal is is in in essentially to obtain as many as potentially potential brand advocates advocates as possible. So, this can be a highly interesting audience signal to be to be used as well. Number four is users per different tier level. So, if you are using different tiers for your product or tool, then you want to create segments per tier. For example, if you have a basic, premium, enterprise level subscription model, then make sure to upload your customers according to the plan they have been subscribed to right now. Then, ideally, if your lists are big enough, you want to target the segments that are of most value to you. And the And And by that you signal to Google the Google Google profiles that you would like to target, well, more of that you would like to have more of. So, if you have the volumes, target, for example, the enterprise level subscribers or the premium level subscribers. If you lack the volumes, then just target all of the people currently subscribed to your product or service.

11:32Number five is lapsed customers. So, if previous segments are small, then you can consider uploading customers who have already had a subscription but have canceled in the past. So, you can also create different segments. If you'd like, you can also segment lapsed customers on their tier level, basic, premium, enterprise level, whatever the tiers you're using. You can also segment based on customer lifetime value, how valuable they have been to you in the past, etc. So, if you lack volumes, lapsed customers is always is also great signal to use inside of your audience list targeting. All right, there we have it. So, to recap, five audience signal ideas for SaaS, free trial users, incomplete setups, frequent users that can be your brand advocates, users per different tier level, ideally in the the tier that that is the most valuable to you and where you would like to sell sell more of, and lastly, lapsed customers that have been and that did subscribe in the past.

12:43Then, finally, we have the last bucket, e-commerce. So, firstly, you can create a audience list based on wish list creators, if you have a wish list. And these are people who have interacted with your site and have added certain products or multiple products to their wish lists or favorite lists. They have a clear intent, and basically, you can tell Google that you want to target more Google users like them because they have shown interest, and hopefully, they are close to converting. So, that's audience signal idea number one. Number two, and that's a combined one, and this one is really familiar to most of you. That is abandoned behavior audience signals. So, we basically have two variants. We have one cart abandoners and two checkout drop-offs.

13:38So, looking at cart abandoners, these are individuals, users who have added products to their cart, but didn't finalize the purchase. So, they are one of the hottest segments to target because they have also shown clear intent, but didn't didn't went through and started the checkout process. Then we have the checkout drop drop-offs. These are users that have shown a higher intent to purchase compared to those who just added items to the cart. So, they have taken several steps to complete the the transaction, but left for some reason right before making the purchase. So, these are all remarketing lists that you can populate through GA4, for example, and import to Google Ads and then use as a segment within your audience signal or segment. Number three is past purchases. So, you can s- create different segments based on the purchase and purchase behavior the purchase history and the purchase behavior of your clients. So, we we basically have five core segments of past purchases. So, the first one is category repeat buyers. And these are people who often buy from the same category. So, let's say you have 10 main categories in place and you want to create a audience segment of people that are buying diapers every single month. So, what you can do is create multiple audience segments for those types of repeat

15:16category buyers that you can then target in specific category audience segments. Like, let's say you want to run a Performance Max campaign for selling diapers, then you can target repeat category buyers of people that regularly buy diapers, so to say. And no, I'm not having a kid yet. This is just something that just popped up in my head. So, number two is seasonal shoppers. Users will mainly shop during specific seasons or holidays. For example, those who bought winter gear last year might be interested in new winter rifles next year or this year. And this is particularly interesting for fashion e-commerce e-commerce store owners. Let's say a new season season stock drops next month, then you can basically create a list of every single customer that have purchased within the first couple of weeks of that new stock drop last year, and then try to target or signal to Google that those are the profiles you're looking for because those might be the first movers, the first one that likes to like to shop as soon as a new product category stock gets dropped, for example.

16:32Then we have brand loyalists. So, those are shoppers who consistently buy a specific brand from your store. So, let's say you have a big store and you see that some of your clients frequently buy Samsung Galaxy mobile phones every single year. So, every single year you have a bunch of clients buying the same product over and over again once a new version has been released. So, you can target those kinds of brand loyalists that are an ideal segment to use if you are running specific campaigns or ad groups or asset groups for a specific brands or specific brands times categories. So, you can go highly specific for these segments, and these segments are mainly interesting for the big boys, the ones that are sitting on a lot of data points, a lot of customer customer profiles. But maybe if you're doing less lesser volume, these can be interesting for you as well. Just make sure that your big Just make sure that your list stays big enough.

17:42So, then we have discount hunters, and this is an interesting list as well, especially if you are if you're pushing specific campaigns during sale periods or big events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. What you can do is basically create a list of all users that frequently make purchases during sales or sale periods and or use specific discount codes. So, once again, this is ideal if you want to target look-alike profiles that also tend to shop during well, sale periods or events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday that are coming up in a few months already. And lastly, we can make a high-ticket buyer segment of the people that have purchased in the past, and those are users who frequently make high-value purchases. You can use this list in your audience segment signals to let Google look for users with similar characteristics. So, if you want more high-ticket buyers, then well, you might want to instruct Google to to go and look after them using a separate segmented past purchases list.

18:57So, lastly, we have a idea that is around a loyalty program. So, what you can do is if you have a a loyalty program set up as an e-commerce player, this can be online and or offline. You can create a segment of all of your most loyal customers that are frequent buyers of of yours that are well coming back and using their loyalty card almost every single time and upload them as a a customer list inside of Google Ads. Use it as a signal to signal Google Ads that you want to look for more Google profiles that have similar characteristics. So that's the last one that could be highly interesting to be to use if you have a loyalty program, of course. So let's recap. For e-com, we have wish list creators. We have cart abandoners, checkout drop-offs. We have the big segment past purchases, which can be segmented out in category repeat buyers, seasonal shoppers, brand loyal loyalists, discount hunters, and high-ticket buyers. And lastly, we have loyalty program members. So these are just some of the first-party segment list ideas you can create. There are way more, but I think these are the most interesting segments that you can create per vertical or per account type. So hopefully this was of a great value to you. If it was, let me know below this post, below this video, and hopefully see you in the next video. Ciao ciao.