How to set up custom audiences in Google Analytics 4: complete guide

What are GA4 audiences and why do they matter?

Google Analytics 4 audiences are groups of users who visit your website or app, organised based on specific behaviours, characteristics, or actions that matter to your business. Think of them as smart customer lists that automatically update based on what people do on your site.

GA4 audiences are particularly powerful when used in conjunction with Google Ads integration. For small business owners working with tight budgets, these tools can help you target your marketing efforts more precisely, reducing wasted ad spend and improving your return on investment.

Why audiences are crucial for small businesses

With Google's algorithm updates these days emphasising user experience and personalisation, businesses that understand their audiences have a significant advantage. Here's what makes GA4 audiences particularly valuable:

• Cost-effective targeting: Instead of broad advertising that wastes budget, you can focus on people most likely to convert
• Predictive insights: GA4 can now predict which users are likely to make purchases or stop engaging with your business
• Seamless Google Ads integration: As of 2024, you can create audiences directly within Google Ads using GA4 data
• Privacy-compliant tracking: Audiences work within Google's privacy-focused approach to data collection

Getting started: accessing audience builder

Before you can create custom audiences, you'll need to access the audience builder in your GA4 property. Here's how to get there:

1. Open Google Analytics: Sign in to your Google Analytics account and select the correct GA4 property
2. Navigate to Admin: Click the admin cog icon in the bottom left corner of any GA4 page
3. Find Audiences: In the Property column (middle column), look for "Audiences" under the "Data display" section
4. Access audience builder: Click "Audiences" to view your existing audiences and access the creation tools

What you'll see in the audiences section

When you first access the audiences section, you'll see two predefined audiences that GA4 creates automatically:

• All Users: Everyone who visits your website or app
• Purchasers: Users who have completed a purchase event (if you have ecommerce tracking set up)

You'll also see suggested audiences based on your industry category and website activity. These suggestions can be excellent starting points for your first custom audiences.

Creating your first custom audience

Step-by-step audience creation

1. Start creating: Click the "New audience" button in the audiences section
2. Choose creation method: Select "Create a custom audience" from the options
3. Name your audience: Give it a descriptive name like "Contact Page Visitors"
4. Add description (optional): Include a brief description explaining the audience purpose
5. Set conditions: Click "Add new condition" to define who should be included
6. Select event type: Choose "page_view" from the condition options
7. Configure the filter:
   • Select "page_location" as your dimension
   • Choose "contains" as your match type
   • Enter "contact" or "enquiry" (depending on your page URL structure)
8. Review audience size: Check the estimated audience size on the right-hand side
9. Set membership duration: Choose how long users stay in this audience (default is 30 days)
10. Save your audience: Click "Save" to create your new custom audience

Understanding audience membership duration

The membership duration determines how long a user remains in your audience after meeting the defined criteria. For most small business applications, 30 days works well, but you might want to adjust this based on your business cycle:

• 7 days: For time-sensitive offers or short sales cycles
• 30 days: Standard setting for most businesses
• 90 days: For longer consideration purchases or B2B services
• Maximum (540 days): For very long sales cycles or customer lifetime tracking

Predictive audiences

What are predictive audiences?

Predictive audiences analyse user behaviour patterns to forecast future actions. Instead of just looking at what users have done, GA4 predicts what they're likely to do next. This is incredibly powerful for small businesses because it allows you to:

• Target high-intent users: Reach people most likely to make a purchase before your competitors do
• Prevent customer churn: Identify users at risk of leaving and re-engage them with special offers
• Focus ad spend: Concentrate your budget on users with the highest predicted value

Types of predictive audiences available

GA4 offers several predictive audience templates:

• Likely 7-day purchasers: Users with high probability of making a purchase within 7 days
• Likely 7-day churning users: Users likely to become inactive within 7 days
• Predicted 28-day top spenders: Users likely to generate the most revenue in the next 28 days
• Likely first-time purchasers: New customers with high purchase probability

Requirements for predictive audiences

To access predictive audiences, your GA4 property must meet certain thresholds:

• Minimum data volume: At least 1,000 users who completed the relevant event (like purchases) and 1,000 who didn't, over the last 28 days
• Proper event tracking: You must be tracking purchase events with value and currency parameters
• Data quality: Consistent, high-quality data over time
• Model eligibility: Your property must meet Google's prediction modelling prerequisites

Creating a predictive audience

If your property is eligible for predictive audiences, here's how to create one:

1. Access audience builder: Go to Admin > Audiences > New audience
2. Choose predictive option: Click "Predictive" under the suggested audience templates
3. Select template: Choose from available templates marked as "Ready to use"
4. Customise if needed: Adjust the prediction threshold or add additional conditions
5. Name and save: Give your audience a descriptive name and save

5 useful audience types

1. Newsletter subscribers or lead magnets

Purpose: People who've shown interest by signing up for your newsletter or downloading a free resource.

How to create:

• Condition: Event equals "sign_up" OR page_view contains "thank-you" OR "download-complete"
• Membership duration: 90 days (these are warm leads worth nurturing)

2. Cart abandoners (for ecommerce)

Purpose: Users who added products to their cart but didn't complete the purchase.

How to create:

• Condition 1: Event equals "add_to_cart"
• Condition 2: Event does NOT equal "purchase" (use the exclude option)
• Membership duration: 7-14 days (strike while the iron's hot)

3. Repeat visitors

Purpose: People who've visited your website multiple times, showing genuine interest.

How to create:

• Condition: Session count greater than 2
• Membership duration: 30 days

4. High-engagement users

Purpose: Visitors who spend significant time on your site or view multiple pages.

How to create:

• Condition 1: Session duration greater than 120 seconds OR
• Condition 2: Page views per session greater than 3
• Membership duration: 60 days

5. Geographic audiences

Purpose: Target users from specific locations relevant to your business.

How to create:

• Condition: City equals "London" OR Country equals "United Kingdom"
• Membership duration: 30 days

Using audiences in Google Ads campaigns

Automatic audience sharing

When you create audiences in GA4, they're automatically shared with any linked Google Ads accounts (provided you have "ads personalisation" enabled). This means your audiences will appear in Google Ads within 24-48 hours of creation.

Creating audiences directly in Google Ads

Google's 2024 update introduced the ability to create GA4 audiences directly within Google Ads:

1. Access audience manager: In Google Ads, go to Tools & Settings > Audience Manager
2. Create new audience: Click the plus button to create a new audience
3. Choose data source: Select your linked GA4 property
4. Use audience builder: You'll see a simplified version of GA4's audience builder
5. Configure and save: Set your conditions and save the audience

Best practices for using audiences in Google Ads

• Start with observation: Add audiences in "Observation" mode first to see how they perform before using them for targeting
• Layer audiences strategically: Combine audiences with demographic and interest targeting for better results
• Use exclusions wisely: Exclude existing customers from acquisition campaigns to avoid wasted spend
• Monitor audience sizes: Audiences need at least 100 active users for Display campaigns and 1,000 for Search campaigns

Campaign types that work best with GA4 audiences

• Performance Max: Use audiences as signals to guide Google's machine learning
• Display & YouTube: Perfect for remarketing to specific user groups
• Search campaigns: Layer audiences to adjust bids or customize ad copy
• Shopping campaigns: Target users who've viewed specific product categories

Common issues and troubleshooting

Possible causes and solutions:

• Recent creation: New audiences can take 24-48 hours to start populating
• Conditions too narrow: Check if your criteria are too restrictive
• Event tracking issues: Verify that the events you're targeting are actually firing
• Data retention settings: Ensure your data retention is set appropriately

Predictive audiences not available

Why this happens:

• Your property doesn't meet the minimum data thresholds
• Purchase events aren't properly configured with value and currency parameters
• Data quality doesn't meet Google's standards
• Your property is new and needs more time to generate sufficient data

Audiences not appearing in Google Ads

Check these settings:

• Ensure Google Ads and GA4 are properly linked
• Verify that "ads personalisation" is enabled in GA4
• Wait 24-48 hours for the audience to sync
• Check that the audience has enough users (minimum 100 for Display)

Audience size showing as zero

Common fixes:

• Review your audience conditions for errors
• Check the date range and membership duration settings
• Verify that users are actually triggering the events you've specified
• Use GA4's DebugView to test event firing in real-time

Best practices for audience management

Keep audiences relevant and updated

Review your audiences monthly and update conditions based on:

• Seasonal behaviour changes
• New product launches or service offerings
• Changes in your website structure or user journey
• Performance data from Google Ads campaigns

Audience naming and organisation

Use a consistent naming convention to keep your audiences organised:

• Purpose-based: "Remarketing - Cart Abandoners"
• Behaviour-based: "Engaged - Multiple Page Views"
• Time-based: "Recent - Last 7 Days Visitors"
• Value-based: "High-Value - 90th Percentile Spenders"

Privacy and compliance considerations

With increasing privacy regulations and Google's evolving approach to data collection:

• Ensure your privacy policy covers audience creation and use
• Use Google's consent mode for users in privacy-regulated regions
• Focus on first-party data collection through your own website interactions
• Avoid creating audiences based on sensitive personal information

Performance monitoring

Regularly monitor your audiences to ensure they're performing as expected:

• Audience growth: Are your audiences growing or shrinking over time?
• Campaign performance: Which audiences drive the best results in Google Ads?
• Overlap analysis: Are your audiences too similar or appropriately distinct?
• Predictive accuracy: For predictive audiences, monitor how accurate the predictions are

Advanced techniques

Take advantage of GA4's latest features:

• Sequential audiences: Create audiences based on specific sequences of actions
• Cross-device insights: Leverage GA4's improved cross-device tracking
• Enhanced conversions: Use first-party data to improve audience accuracy
• AI-powered insights: Use GA4's new generated insights feature to discover audience opportunities

Next steps and key takeaways

Now that you understand how to create and use GA4 audiences, here's your step-by-step action plan:

1. Start with the basics: Create 2-3 simple audiences based on your most important business goals
2. Connect to Google Ads: Link your GA4 and Google Ads accounts if you haven't already
3. Test in observation mode: Add your new audiences to Google Ads campaigns in observation mode first
4. Monitor and optimise: Review performance weekly and adjust conditions as needed
5. Scale up gradually: Once comfortable, explore predictive audiences and more complex configurations

Key takeaways for small businesses

• Predictive audiences offer powerful insights but require sufficient data volume
• Regular monitoring and updating keep your audiences relevant
• Integration with Google Ads makes audiences immediately actionable
• Start simple and build complexity over time as you gain experience

Remember, the key to success with GA4 audiences is to start with clear business objectives, test regularly, and always prioritise user privacy and compliance. By focusing on providing value to your audience, you'll build better relationships and see improved results from your marketing efforts.