Google Ads Custom Segments: How to Use Them in Demand Gen, YouTube and Display

Custom Intent Audiences have been replaced by Custom Segments in Google Ads. The underlying strategy remains valuable: advertisers can help Google find prospective customers by supplying commercially relevant search terms, website URLs and apps.

However, the way these audiences work has changed substantially. Custom Segments now operate within a more automated advertising environment that includes Demand Gen campaigns, YouTube, Gmail and Google Display Network inventory.

They are not exact lists of people who visited a competitor’s website, searched for a particular keyword or used a particular app. The inputs are signals that Google interprets according to the campaign type, objective, bidding strategy and inventory available.

Used carefully, Custom Segments can help advertisers:

• Reach people researching a relevant product or service.
• Build audiences around high-intent search behaviour.
• Find people who browse websites similar to selected industry or competitor sites.
• Reach users of apps related to a particular market.
• Separate different customer needs, products and buying stages.
• Give Google’s automated targeting a commercially informed starting point.

Used carelessly, they can become broad audience suggestions that produce inexpensive engagement but few qualified leads or sales.

The objective is therefore not to build the largest possible audience. It is to give Google better evidence about the type of customer the campaign should find—and then measure whether those people generate commercially valuable outcomes.

What Happened to Custom Intent Audiences?

Custom Intent Audiences were introduced as a way to build more specific audiences than Google’s predefined affinity and in-market categories. Google subsequently consolidated Custom Intent and Custom Affinity Audiences into Custom Segments.

The old distinction between separate “custom intent” and “custom affinity” products no longer reflects the current interface. Advertisers now create a Custom Segment and choose the inputs that best describe the intended audience.

Google can interpret the segment differently depending on whether the campaign is optimising for:

• Reach.
• Consideration.
• Conversions.
• Conversion value.
• Another supported campaign objective.

This makes Custom Segments more flexible, but also less literal. Google’s documentation describes them as audiences created from keywords, URLs and apps, with Google interpreting those inputs in relation to the campaign goal and bidding strategy. See Google’s explanation of Custom Segments.

Demand Gen Is Becoming the Main Home for Display and Visual Advertising

The Google Display Network has not simply disappeared. Instead, Google is bringing Display inventory into the wider Demand Gen campaign environment.

A phased migration of eligible Display campaigns into Demand Gen has begun. Existing campaigns may still appear as Display campaigns until they are migrated, while Demand Gen increasingly provides the central campaign structure for reaching people across:

• YouTube in-stream.
• YouTube in-feed.
• YouTube Shorts.
• Discover.
• Gmail.
• Maps, where eligible.
• Google Display Network websites and apps.

Google has also introduced channel controls at ad-group level. Advertisers can allow Google to distribute activity across all eligible channels or manually select particular environments.

This means a Custom Segment can be used as part of a wider cross-channel prospecting strategy rather than being confined to traditional banner advertising.

Demand Gen should not, however, be treated as a direct substitute for Google Search advertising. Search captures people actively expressing demand through a query. Demand Gen uses visual advertising and audience signals to create, influence or reactivate demand before and around that search.

What Is a Google Ads Custom Segment?

A Custom Segment is an advertiser-defined audience built using one or more of the following inputs:

• Keywords and phrases representing interests or purchase intentions.
• Search terms used on Google properties.
• URLs of websites the intended audience may browse.
• Apps the intended audience may use.

Google analyses these inputs and attempts to find people whose behaviour corresponds with the audience being described.

The critical word is similar. Custom Segments are probabilistic audiences, not deterministic customer lists.

For example, entering the URL of a competing accountancy software company does not mean your adverts will target everyone who visited that competitor. Google may use the URL to understand the type of website, subject matter and likely audience, and then find people who browse comparable websites.

Similarly, entering an app does not instruct Google to place adverts inside that specific app. It helps Google identify people who use that app or similar applications.

The Three Main Custom Segment Inputs

Each input tells Google something different about your intended audience.

These inputs can be combined, but combining everything into one segment is not always the best approach. Separate segments usually produce more useful testing data.

Interest and Purchase-Intention Keywords

The default keyword option allows advertisers to enter phrases representing the audience’s interests or the products and services they may be researching.

For example, a commercial solar installer might use phrases such as:

• Commercial solar panel installation.
• Business solar finance.
• Warehouse solar panels.
• Industrial renewable energy.
• Commercial battery storage.

These phrases are not treated like Search campaign keywords. Match types do not apply, and the advertiser will not receive a conventional Search Terms report showing every query behind the audience.

Google may consider broader behavioural evidence, including content viewed, websites browsed, apps used and searches completed.

This option can work well when the objective is to describe a market or buying intention rather than target a tightly defined set of searches.

People Who Searched for Terms on Google

The alternative keyword setting allows advertisers to describe people who searched for specified terms on Google properties such as Google Search and YouTube.

This is normally the higher-intent option because it begins with search behaviour rather than general interest. It can be especially useful for YouTube and Demand Gen prospecting.

For example, a CRM implementation company might create separate segments around searches such as:

• CRM implementation company.
• CRM migration consultant.
• HighLevel implementation service.
• HubSpot onboarding agency.
• CRM automation consultant.

The phrases should reflect how prospective customers search, not simply describe the advertiser’s own business.

However, there are several important limitations:

• It is still an audience, not Search keyword targeting.
• Google may include people who searched for those terms and similar terms.
• The advertiser does not bid against each search query.
• Conventional keyword match types do not apply.
• The “searched for” interpretation only applies to campaigns running on eligible Google-owned properties.
• On other inventory, including third-party websites and apps, Google may interpret the terms as interests or purchase intentions.

This distinction becomes particularly important when a Demand Gen ad group includes both YouTube and Google Display Network inventory.

Website URL Inputs

URL-based segments can help Google understand the websites your ideal customer may visit.

Useful URL categories include:

• Competitor websites.
• Industry publications.
• Product-review websites.
• Comparison platforms.
• Trade associations.
• Specialist forums.
• Software directories.
• Complementary service providers.
• Educational resources used during product research.

A commercial insurance provider might test separate segments based on:

• Competing commercial insurance companies.
• Small-business finance publications.
• Industry risk-management websites.
• Business insurance comparison services.

Keeping these themes separate makes it easier to understand which hypothesis produces the strongest results.

Competitor URL targeting is frequently misunderstood. Adding competitor.co.uk does not create a remarketing list of that competitor’s visitors, and it does not mean your advert will appear on the competitor’s website.

Google uses the URLs to help model an audience of people who browse those or similar types of websites.

App Inputs

App inputs can be effective where application usage says something commercially useful about the customer.

Examples might include:

• Specialist fitness apps for a sportswear brand.
• Accounting apps for a financial software company.
• Property-search apps for a mortgage provider.
• Trade-management apps for a construction supplier.
• Travel-planning apps for a holiday company.

The chosen app must be meaningfully connected with the customer’s needs. A popular but loosely related app may create an enormous audience without improving commercial relevance.

As with URLs, entering an app does not guarantee that adverts will appear inside that specific app.

Custom Segments Versus Other Google Audiences

Custom Segments occupy one part of the wider Google Ads audience targeting system.

Custom Segments offer more advertiser control than predefined affinity or in-market categories. First-party audiences are usually more reliable because they are based on an actual relationship with the advertiser.

The strongest Demand Gen strategy often uses several audience types for different purposes rather than forcing them into one ad group.

Custom Segments Versus Search Keywords

Search keywords and Custom Segment phrases may look similar in the interface, but they have different jobs.

A Search campaign responds to a query being entered into Google. Its keywords help determine whether an advert can enter that particular search auction.

A Custom Segment helps describe a person whom Google may reach later across visual advertising inventory.

This creates two related but different strategies:

• Search campaigns capture existing demand at the point of enquiry.
• Demand Gen and YouTube can influence people who have shown relevant intent before they complete another search or purchase.

A strong commercial search term can therefore be useful in both campaign types, but its operation and reporting will be different.

How to Research Custom Segment Keywords

The best starting point is normally real customer and advertising data rather than a brainstormed list of generic interests.

Useful sources include:

• High-converting Search campaign keywords.
• Search Terms reports.
• Organic search queries.
• Website search data.
• CRM lead-source information.
• Sales-call transcripts.
• Customer questions.
• Competitor positioning.
• Product comparisons.
• Qualified-lead and closed-sale data.

Prioritise phrases that reveal a commercial problem, product evaluation or purchase decision.

For example, “accounting” describes a huge subject. “Outsourced management accountant for manufacturing company” describes a much more specific commercial requirement.

The same principle applies to consumer advertising. “Fitness” is broad, while “best treadmill for small home gym” indicates a defined need and potential purchase.

Separate Audiences by Intent and Theme

Avoid placing every potentially relevant phrase, competitor and website into one segment.

A more useful structure might separate:

High-Intent Category Searches

These contain clear evidence that someone may be looking for the product or service.

Examples include:

• Emergency commercial electrician.
• Buy adjustable standing desk.
• CRM migration consultant.
• Private dental implant finance.

Problem-Aware Searches

These describe the issue without necessarily naming the solution.

Examples include:

• Reduce warehouse energy costs.
• Sales leads not entering CRM.
• Missing Google Ads conversion data.
• How to replace several missing teeth.

Competitor and Alternative Searches

These indicate that someone is evaluating a known provider or considering alternatives.

Examples include:

• Competitor pricing.
• Competitor reviews.
• Competitor alternatives.
• Competitor versus another platform.

Industry Website Visitors

These use URLs from publications, directories, review websites and specialist resources.

Complementary Products and Services

These help find people whose related purchases or interests indicate potential demand.

Keeping these hypotheses separate provides cleaner reporting and makes it easier to align the advert with the audience’s likely motivation.

How to Create a Custom Segment in Audience Manager

The precise labels can vary slightly as Google updates its interface, but the central process is:

1. Open Tools in Google Ads.
2. Select Audience Manager.
3. Open Custom Segments.
4. Select the plus button to create a segment.
5. Give the segment a clear, descriptive name.
6. Choose how Google should interpret the keywords:
   • People with these interests or purchase intentions.
   • People who searched for these terms on Google.
7. Add the relevant keywords and phrases.
8. Add suitable website URLs or apps where required.
9. Review the available audience insights and estimated size.
10. Save the segment.

Use a naming convention that remains understandable when the account contains dozens of audiences. For example:

• Custom – Search Intent – Commercial Solar.
• Custom – Competitor URLs – CRM Software.
• Custom – Problem Aware – Missing Conversion Data.
• Custom – Industry Sites – Manufacturing Directors.

Audience Manager acts as the central workspace for reusable segments. Our Google Ads Audience Manager guide explains how Custom Segments fit alongside website visitors, customer lists and other first-party data.

How to Add a Custom Segment to Demand Gen

When building or editing the Demand Gen campaign:

1. Open the relevant campaign and ad group.
2. Find the audience section.
3. Select an existing audience or create a new audience.
4. Add the appropriate Custom Segment.
5. Add any first-party, in-market, demographic or lookalike inputs required by the strategy.
6. Review whether optimised targeting should remain enabled.
7. Select the channels on which the ad group can serve.
8. Review the estimated reach.
9. Save and publish the ad group.

Channel controls are configured at ad-group level. Depending on eligibility and advert format, options can include YouTube in-stream, YouTube in-feed, Shorts, Discover, Gmail, Maps and the Google Display Network.

Using all channels gives Google more opportunities to optimise. Selecting channels manually provides greater control over where the campaign serves. Neither approach is automatically correct for every advertiser.

For a new strategy, separating significantly different channels or creative formats can make performance easier to understand. Once sufficient evidence exists, broader cross-channel optimisation can be tested against the more controlled structure.

Understand Optimised Targeting Before Enabling It

Optimised targeting allows Google to find converters outside the audiences initially supplied by the advertiser.

When it is enabled, a Custom Segment can function as a starting signal, not a strict boundary. Google may reduce delivery to the selected segment and direct spend towards other people whom its models predict are more likely to convert.

Optimised targeting may also expand beyond selected demographic signals. Google provides reporting for expansion and optimised-targeting traffic, but the precise individuals, signals and searches behind that expansion are not fully visible.

This creates an important strategic choice.

Optimised targeting may be appropriate when:

• Conversion tracking is accurate.
• The account generates sufficient conversion volume.
• The objective is incremental sales or qualified leads.
• The advertiser can evaluate downstream commercial results.
• The budget can support algorithmic exploration.

Manual audience targeting may be preferable when:

• The campaign is testing a specific audience hypothesis.
• The available budget is limited.
• Conversion data is sparse or unreliable.
• The advertised product is tightly restricted.
• Audience precision is more important than maximum scale.
• The business cannot tolerate large volumes of weak leads.

Google generally recommends optimised targeting, but advertisers should judge it using incremental qualified conversions and revenue—not merely Google’s recommendation or a falling cost per form submission.

Match the Creative to the Audience Hypothesis

Audience selection cannot compensate for irrelevant or generic creative.

Someone researching competitor alternatives should see a different advert from someone who has only begun to recognise a problem.

Useful creative approaches include:

High-Intent Audience

Use a direct product or service proposition, clear differentiation, proof and a strong call to action.

Problem-Aware Audience

Lead with the customer’s problem, explain the commercial consequences and introduce the solution.

Competitor Audience

Explain your differences without falsely implying an association with the competitor. Avoid unsupported superiority claims or misuse of protected branding.

Industry Audience

Use terminology, imagery, proof and customer examples that are specific to the industry.

Existing Customer or Remarketing Audience

Focus on the next logical action, such as completing a purchase, booking a consultation, upgrading or returning to an abandoned application.

Demand Gen is visually led. The campaign should contain suitable square, landscape and portrait images, with video designed for the environment in which it will appear. A vertical Shorts advert needs different pacing, framing and opening seconds from an in-stream video or Discover image advert.

Use Landing Pages That Continue the Same Message

A narrowly themed Custom Segment deserves a relevant landing page.

If an advert addresses commercial solar for warehouses, the landing page should not send the user to a generic renewable-energy homepage. It should continue the same promise with relevant proof, services, objections and conversion options.

Strong alignment should exist between:

• The audience hypothesis.
• The advert’s message.
• The offer.
• The landing page.
• The conversion action.
• The sales follow-up.
• The outcome reported back to Google.

This connection between targeting, landing-page quality and conversion data is central to successful Google Ads campaigns.

Use Conversion Tracking That Measures Business Outcomes

Demand Gen can generate clicks, video engagement and inexpensive form submissions that appear successful inside Google Ads. These metrics do not necessarily indicate profitable customer acquisition.

For ecommerce, useful outcomes include:

• Completed purchases.
• New-customer revenue.
• Gross profit or margin-adjusted value.
• Repeat purchase value.
• Product returns and cancellations.

For lead generation, useful outcomes include:

• Qualified Leads.
• Booked appointments.
• Sales Opportunities.
• Accepted quotations.
• Closed customers.
• Revenue.

Initial forms and calls can still be tracked, but Google should not be taught that every submission has equal value when the business knows that this is untrue.

A CRM can preserve campaign data, advertising identifiers and lead progression. Offline conversion tracking can then return qualified stages or revenue to Google Ads.

This is especially important when testing broader audiences or optimised targeting. Without downstream feedback, Google may learn to find the people most likely to submit a cheap form rather than those most likely to become customers.

For the wider measurement setup, see our Google Ads conversion tracking guide.

Test Audiences Without Fragmenting the Campaign

Testing one hypothesis per ad group can produce useful insight, but excessive segmentation can starve automated bidding of data.

A practical starting structure might include:

• One high-intent search segment.
• One competitor or alternative segment.
• One problem-aware segment.
• One suitable in-market segment.
• One first-party or remarketing audience.

This does not mean every account needs five ad groups. Smaller budgets may require greater consolidation, while large ecommerce accounts may justify more product-specific segmentation.

The purpose is to maintain a useful distinction between hypotheses without creating dozens of ad groups that each receive too little spend or conversion data.

Evaluate More Than Click-Through Rate

A high click-through rate can indicate that the audience and creative are relevant, but it can also result from curiosity, misleading creative or low-quality placements.

Review performance using metrics that match the campaign’s commercial role:

• Qualified conversion rate.
• Cost per Qualified Lead.
• Cost per Sales Opportunity.
• Customer acquisition cost.
• Conversion value.
• Return on advertising spend.
• New-customer revenue.
• Lead-to-sale rate.
• Assisted conversions.
• Engaged-view conversions.
• Placement and channel performance.
• Branded search growth.
• Incremental conversion volume.

Segment Demand Gen reporting by channel and, where useful, by YouTube format. YouTube in-stream, in-feed and Shorts can produce very different user behaviour even when they sit within the same campaign.

Avoid assuming that all view-through or engaged-view conversions were caused entirely by the advert. Attribution should be interpreted alongside CRM outcomes, analytics, controlled experiments and wider marketing activity.

Common Custom Segment Mistakes

Several mistakes repeatedly weaken performance.

Treating Custom Segments Like Exact Keyword Targeting

The supplied phrases describe an audience. They do not create a Search campaign, and conventional match types do not apply.

Assuming Competitor URLs Mean Competitor Visitors

URL inputs help Google model people who browse similar websites. They are not competitor remarketing lists.

Mixing Unrelated Intent in One Segment

Combining commercial searches, general interests, competitor URLs and broad apps makes it difficult to understand what the segment represents.

Using Generic One-Word Keywords

Terms such as “marketing”, “software”, “fitness” or “finance” can describe enormous and commercially diverse audiences.

Targeting Job Seekers Instead of Buyers

B2B campaigns frequently attract candidates, students, researchers and consumers when their search behaviour overlaps with business terminology. Use language that identifies the company, role, problem and commercial requirement.

Enabling Optimised Targeting Without Understanding Expansion

When optimised targeting is enabled, selected segments may be treated as suggestions. Performance can no longer be interpreted as coming exclusively from the original Custom Segment.

Measuring Only Initial Leads

Cheap form submissions can encourage bidding systems to pursue low-value prospects. Measure qualification, pipeline and revenue wherever possible.

Reusing the Same Creative Everywhere

A generic horizontal video rarely performs equally well across in-stream, feeds and Shorts. Adapt the format, opening, message and call to action.

Making Too Many Changes at Once

Changing the audience, creative, bidding, landing page and conversion goal simultaneously makes it impossible to identify what caused the result.

When Custom Segments Work Best

Custom Segments are particularly useful when:

• Search volume is limited but the buying audience can be described.
• A company wants to expand beyond Search without abandoning commercial intent.
• Prospective customers conduct substantial research before purchasing.
• Competitor, comparison and problem-based searches reveal useful demand.
• Visual creative can demonstrate the product or communicate the solution.
• First-party data is available to exclude existing customers or support modelling.
• CRM and revenue data can distinguish good conversions from poor ones.

They tend to be less reliable when the target audience is defined only by broad demographics, the conversion data is weak, the offer is undifferentiated or the advertiser cannot evaluate lead quality.

Custom Segments in Performance Max

Custom Segments can also be added to Performance Max campaigns, but their role is different.

Performance Max does not use conventional audience targeting. Custom Segments are supplied as audience signals within an asset group. They help Google understand where to begin learning but do not restrict the campaign to that audience.

This makes a strong Custom Segment useful, but it does not provide the same audience-testing environment as a controlled Demand Gen ad group.

A Practical Custom Segment Strategy

A robust implementation can follow this sequence:

1. Identify the product, service or customer type being promoted.
2. Define the commercial problem and buying stage.
3. Extract proven search terms from Search campaigns and customer research.
4. Build separate search-intent, competitor and industry segments.
5. Align each segment with appropriate adverts and landing pages.
6. Decide whether channels should be consolidated or controlled separately.
7. Confirm whether optimised targeting supports or undermines the test.
8. Track online conversions accurately.
9. connect leads and sales with CRM outcomes.
10. Compare audiences using qualified conversions, customers and revenue.
11. Expand only after the initial hypothesis has been validated.

The best Custom Segment is not necessarily the one with the largest estimated reach or cheapest click. It is the segment that helps the campaign acquire additional valuable customers at an acceptable cost.

Final Thoughts

Custom Intent Audiences have evolved into Custom Segments, while Display and YouTube advertising are increasingly being organised through Demand Gen.

Advertisers can still use keywords, search behaviour, website URLs and apps to describe their ideal customers. However, those inputs must be understood as signals rather than precise lists of people or placements.

The strongest strategy combines:

• Commercially meaningful audience hypotheses.
• Separate high-intent, competitor and problem-aware segments.
• Creative designed for each audience and channel.
• Relevant landing pages.
• Accurate online conversion tracking.
• CRM qualification and offline sales data.
• Careful control or testing of optimised targeting.
• Evaluation based on incremental customers and revenue.

Custom Segments can improve the starting point for Google’s AI, but automation cannot determine which leads genuinely matter unless the advertiser supplies reliable commercial feedback. Audience quality, creative quality, landing-page quality and conversion data must work as one connected system.