What is AdWords Customer Match?
Google Customer Match gives you the opportunity to advertise specific visitors and leads on the basis of collected e-mail addresses at the moment that they are logged into a service of Google, such as the search engine, Gmail or YouTube. This technique gives you the ability to work more efficiently by showing specific advertisements at different moments.
Google Customer Match for the first time gives marketers the possibility to target advertisements on the basis of data from their own CRM and in a manner that best suits the customers.
Next to this functionality, Google also offers the possibility to generate similar “audiences” and consequently also approach similar users within the Google Display Network. Using this you can reach new users that are similar to the leads and customers you already have.
Why employ Customer Match?
Customer match gives you the ability to directly and specifically target leads. There are several ways for your company to successfully employ this.
How to employ Customer Match?
A number of ways in which Customer Match is usable. Below are a few ideas for leads and customers.
- Converting leads
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For example, think of leads that have downloaded a file or signed up for a newsletter. These e-mail addresses can all be used to advertise specifically and increase the chances of conversion. Because this group has already expressed interest in your service or product, the chance of actual conversion is often bigger.
- Returning customers
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When your buyers are returning customers, there is an opportunity to reach this audience at the right moment. For example, if you are selling seasonal products then this gives you the opportunity to show returning customers specific advertisements as the season draws closer.
- Convincing participants
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Participants of trainings and seminars or registrations for online webinars can yield e-mail addresses that can be used to get participants back at a later time.
- Getting offline customers back
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Customers that buy your products and services offline can be reached again online. For example, think about offering a special deal for returning customers of a restaurant or theater.
- Offering comparable products
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Show customers of the past comparable offer. For example, if someone buys concert tickets this person can be approached again at a later time with a similar offer.
- Promoting new deals
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If you’re starting a new deal and want to promote this extra, you can do this by sending customers an e-mail and at the same time approach them through Customer Match. You can also think of specifically approaching the group of people that did or didn’t open the e-mail within a certain time frame.
- Excluding existing customers
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If certain customers already regularly buy products or services, you can choose to exclude them. For example, you probably don’t have to send advertisements about booking a vacation to someone who just booked a vacation.
What is the reach?
The uploading of 357.000 e-mail addresses with the goal of measuring the accuracy showed that about 180.000 of these customers make use of Google products and services. This means that we are talking about a match rate of 50,4%, a little more than with Facebook. [source]
This experience also shows that about 50% of the customer base is matched by Google.
What is needed to start with Customer Match?
Customer Match works on the basis of e-mail addresses. These can be customers that previously purchased something. These can, however, also be leads that for example downloaded a file on your website or signed up for a newsletter.
At this moment Google only supports e-mail addresses that are registered as primary with Google. These are addresses that end in @gmail.com and other e-mail addresses that are registered with Google as Google Account. Secondary or reserve e-mail addresses are not used.
A database of about 50.000 e-mail addresses is the minimum to be able to start. This comes down to about 25.000 e-mail addresses that are matched. With less than 50.000 e-mail addresses the reach is too small to yield good results.