How can you get more sales and effective advertisements for your business? By using audience segments on Google Analytics 4. So what are segments?
This blog will answer that question and will show you how to create audience segments on Google Analytics 4 the easy way. So let’s get started.
What Are Audiences in Google Analytics 4?
In Google Analytics 4, audiences are groups or portions of users that you show ads to and use in analysis. They can be created based on dimensions, metrics, and events.
To ensure that users meet the criteria you set, GA4 uses its data sources to re-evaluate data about new users constantly.
What Are Segments in Google Analytics 4?
Segments in Google Analytics 4 are portions of data that you analyze. For example, if your website has users from many countries, you might want to analyze some of that data. That portion could be users from a particular country, say the United Kingdom.
Segments are essential since you can use them to compare data e.g., traffic from the UK to other countries. This, in turn, helps you target your marketing toward that audience.
Some examples of segments in GA4 include mobile traffic and desktop traffic, with segments based on gender, age, etc.
Segments Vs. Audiences
When you create a segment, you can’t use it in standard reports, but you can do that with audiences. Segments are only available in exploration reports, while audiences are not limited to a specific type of report.
Audiences can be utilized in Google Ads remarketing campaigns, which isn’t possible with segments.
One important difference is that segments work retroactively, meaning they analyze past data, while audiences start collecting information from the moment you create them.
Where Do You Use Audiences in Google Analytics 4?
Audiences come in handy while doing two actions in GA4:
Showing Ads
Audiences make showing your ads easy. To realize the benefits of audiences, you need to link your Google Ads account (and enable signals) to your GA4 property. Once you do this, you’ll see audiences in Google Ads’ Audience Manager.
You can use audiences as targeting options when doing paid advertising campaigns.
Comparisons
You can use audiences to compare groups of users based on conditions (such as the audience name) that you specify.
In every standard report in GA4, you’ll see an option to Add a comparison. For instance, you can create two comparisons using separate audiences. It will enable you to see the different metrics and performances of the two audiences.
Now that you’ve learnt what audiences are and where to use them. Let’s learn how you can create audiences in GA4.
How Can You Create an Audience in Google Analytics 4?
There are two options when creating audiences in GA4:
Via Segments
In this method, you head to the GA4 interface (on the left side of your GA4 home tab) and click “Explore”.
In the explore tab, choose any of the listed options: Blank, Free form, Funnel exploration, or Path exploration.
Whenever you click on any options listed (Blank, Free form, Funnel exploration, or Path exploration), the first variable is the Segments section.
To create a new segment, click the plus icon. You’ll get the option to create a custom segment, and GA4 will also suggest some segments.
Once you click edit, GA4 redirects you to the segment builder, where you enter conditions for your segment. Once you’ve added your conditions, click “Save”.
You will notice the ‘Build an audience’ checkbox on the right side of the segment builder. When you click it, you can set how long GA4 should include a user in the audience if they meet the conditions you’ve selected.
Enabling the “Audience trigger” feature in GA4 helps you automatically generate an event when a visitor enters an audience. You can then mark that event as a conversion.
Once you finish setting up the segment, click “Save and Publish”; the audience will be automatically created and will start accumulating data.
Finally, below ‘Build an audience,’ you’ll notice a summary/preview of the audience size. The estimates are based on the past 30 days since you created audiences.
Back to the variables tables, There are some listed segments. If there are any you would love to use as an audience, simply click the three dots next to the audience and click “edit”.
Via Audiences
In this method, you click “Configure”, then “Audiences”, and finally click “New audience”.
You can now create a custom audience or use one of the suggested audiences. In the suggested audiences, you’ll notice four categories: General, Arts & Entertainment, Templates, and Predictive.
Depending on which category you choose, some conditions in your audience may be prefilled or will have different layouts. The Predictive category uses the machine learning capabilities of GA4 to predict which users will likely convert or churn soon depending on user data.
Once you choose the method you’ll use (In my case, Recently active users), you’ll notice that Just like the segments interface, you can add condition groups, sequences, and groups to exclude.
Once you have done so, Click Save.
That’s it; you have your audiences!
Learn More From Your Audience
We hope you have learnt something from this blog post. As you can see, creating audiences doesn’t have to be complicated, infact it is straightforward, provided you use the correct procedure.
So use Google analytics 4 audience segments to get more insights and learn more about your users.
Magesh
Magesh is a distinguished Data Scientist with over 14 years of experience in Advanced Analytics, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. As the Vice President of Analytics, he brings a wealth of expertise in tools such as R, SPSS, Tableau, Power BI, and Google Analytics. Magesh is renowned for his profound analytical problem-solving skills and strategic decision-making abilities, making him a leading force in transforming complex data into actionable insights.