A Practical Guide to GA4 Audiences
Groups of users defined in Google Analytics 4 by behavior, attributes or events, used for analysis and for advertising when linked to Google Ads.
Samir Haddad
The key figures
- Definition
- conditions based on events, parameters and user properties
- Membership duration
- configurable up to 540 days
- Backfill
- audiences generally start collecting from creation, with limited backfill
- Advertising use
- shared with linked Google Ads accounts where policies and consent allow
Why this is worth getting right
Audiences turn analytics data into segments for reporting and remarketing, but they only include users from the point they are created.
Do this, not that
Do
- Create key audiences early so they accumulate data
- Use exclusion conditions to remove converters where appropriate
- Name audiences consistently
- Check audience sizes before using them in campaigns
- Respect consent and advertising policies
Don’t
- Creating audiences only when campaigns launch
- Overly narrow audiences too small to use
- Remarketing to users who opted out
- Duplicate audiences with slightly different rules
When to bring in help
Our advice Bring in help when setting up remarketing, or when audiences are too small or inconsistent to use.
Where this comes from
- Google Analytics Help — About audiences
- Google Ads Help — About your data segments
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
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