- Customer Match uses contact details your customers gave you to adjust bids, exclude customers or reach them across Google.
- Every account with good policy and payment history can use lists for exclusions and observation; full targeting needs more history and spend.
- Only upload data you collected yourself, disclose the sharing in your privacy policy and get consent where the law requires it.
- Google hashes plain-text data with SHA256 on upload, or you hash it yourself after normalizing it.
- Lists need fresh members to stay eligible, so connect them to your CRM rather than uploading once.
What is Customer Match, and what can you do with it?
Customer Match lets you upload contact details that customers gave you, such as email addresses and phone numbers, so Google Ads can match them to Google Accounts. You can then exclude existing customers from campaigns for new business, adjust bids for people who already know you, and reach customers on Search, the Shopping tab, Gmail, YouTube and Display. Access depends on your account history, and the data has to be collected and shared within Google's policy.
It is useful for any business with a real customer list, and easy to get wrong on the data rules. Our Google Ads management team checks eligibility and data rules before the first upload.
What can a customer list do in your campaigns?
- Exclusions: stop showing acquisition ads to people who are already customers.
- Observation and bidding: see how customers perform in a campaign and bid differently for them on the Search Network and the Shopping tab.
- Targeting: show ads to customers, for example for renewals or a new product, on Gmail, YouTube and Display as well as Search, if the account meets the history and spend requirement below.
- Smart Bidding signals: campaigns using Smart Bidding and optimized targeting automatically include the Customer Match lists in your account unless you opt out; lists are not used with manual bidding, per the Customer Match overview.
Who can use Customer Match?
Every account needs a good history of policy compliance and a good payment history. Beyond that, the features depend on account history and spend, as Google's Customer Match policy sets out:
| Feature | Accounts with 90 days of history and over USD 50,000 lifetime spend | Other policy-compliant accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Targeting setting | Yes (policy) | No |
| Observation setting | Yes | Yes |
| Manual bid adjustments | Yes | No |
| Exclusions | Yes | Yes |
Since early March 2024, lists are no longer used on Google partner inventory or third-party exchanges in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, though Google's own properties still use them, according to the Customer Match overview.
Which customer data may you upload?
Only information you collected in a first-party context, such as from your website, app, shop or loyalty program, where customers gave it to you directly. Google also requires a privacy policy that says you share data with third parties to perform services for you, consent where the law or its EU User Consent Policy requires it, and uploads only through its own tools, per the policy.
- No data from anyone under 13, or collected from sites or apps directed at children under 13.
- No ads that imply you know personal or sensitive information about the person.
- No lists that target an overly narrow or specific audience.
How do you prepare the customer file?
A manual upload is a CSV file in ASCII or UTF-8. You can upload plain text and let Google Ads hash it with SHA256, or hash it yourself, in which case you remove extra spaces and lowercase emails and names first, and format phone numbers in E.164 with the country code and plus sign, as Google's formatting guidelines describe. Country and postal code are not hashed. Google recommends Data Manager for new integrations instead of building on the Google Ads API, per its upload guide.
On upload you confirm that the data was collected and shared in line with the policy and set a membership duration of up to 540 days, according to the same upload guide.
How big does a list need to be, and how long does it last?
For lists uploaded or refreshed after February 1, 2024, Google needs at least 100 active users in the last 30 days on a network before ads serve there, per its audience segment help. To stay eligible, a list must also have at least 100 members added or updated within the last 540 days, and memberships older than that drop off, as the policy states.
What should you check before the first upload?
- Eligibility: confirm which features the account can use, so you do not plan a targeting campaign it cannot run yet.
- Privacy policy and consent: update the wording and record consent where it is required, before any data leaves your CRM.
- Source of each list: note where and when the data was collected, and leave out anyone who opted out of marketing.
- Purpose of each list: decide which campaigns exclude it, which only observe it and which target it.
- Owner and schedule: name the person who refreshes each list and how often.
For cross-surface campaigns such as Performance Max and Demand Gen, whether a person is recognized depends on the context, such as whether they are signed in, as the upload guide notes. Our comparison of Performance Max and Search campaigns covers when each one fits.
How do you keep lists current and matched?
Connect lists to your CRM instead of uploading once. Google supports Data Manager connections, approved upload partners, the API and third-party automation, and it lets you replace or add members to an existing list, per the upload guide. To improve matching, include several match keys for each customer, such as email and phone. Some people still cannot be matched or shown personalized ads, for example because they turned ads personalization off.
Customer Match pairs well with enhanced conversions for leads, which feeds results from the same CRM back into bidding. Before scaling spend, set a sensible Google Ads budget and make sure the CRM data is clean; our analytics and reporting team can connect and check both.
Frequently asked questions
Can a small business use Customer Match?
Yes, for exclusions and observation, if the account has a good history of policy compliance and payments. Using lists for direct targeting on Search, Shopping, Gmail and YouTube, and for manual bid adjustments, requires 90 days of Google Ads history and more than USD 50,000 of lifetime spend, according to Google's Customer Match policy.
Is it legal to upload our customers' emails to Google?
Google requires that the data was collected first-hand, that your privacy policy says you share data with third parties to perform services for you, and that you get consent where the law or Google's EU User Consent Policy requires it. Ask your legal adviser to confirm what applies in your countries before the first upload.
Why do only some of our customers match?
A person can only be matched if the details you upload belong to a Google Account, and some people cannot be shown personalized ads, for example if they turned personalization off. Uploading more than one match key per customer, such as email and phone number, helps. For API uploads, Google shows a match rate once at least 100 unique users match.
Should we exclude existing customers from all campaigns?
Usually from campaigns meant to win new customers, so you stop paying for clicks from people who already buy. Keep them in campaigns for repeat purchases, upgrades or renewals. Refresh the list regularly so that new customers are excluded too.
How is Customer Match different from enhanced conversions?
Both use hashed customer details, but for different jobs. Enhanced conversions improve measurement by matching conversions on your site or from your CRM to Google Accounts. Customer Match builds audience lists from your customer data for bidding, targeting and exclusions. Many advertisers use both, fed from the same CRM.
Last updated