Google Quietly Rolls Out Combined Audience Targeting for Search Campaigns

Advertisers are seeing combined audience targeting for search campaigns in their Google Ads accounts. Although Google has not made a formal announcement, digital marketing consultant Steven Johns noticed the new targeting method in his Google Ads account and shared the news on Twitter on November 13. Combined audiences allow advertisers to layer combinations of in-market, affinity, demographic, and remarketing audiences using “AND”, “OR”, or “NOT” directives. Advertisers have had the ability to target multiple audiences to a campaign (“OR”) and exclude audiences from a campaign (“NOT”), but the real game-changer this tool offers is the “AND” directive. For the first time, advertisers are able to specify that their ads only show to users who are in two or more specific audiences.