GA4 Audiences: Building Segments That Power Your Remarketing

How GA4 Audiences Work with Google Ads

GA4 audiences are lists of users who meet specific conditions. When you link GA4 to Google Ads, these audiences become available as remarketing targets — you can bid more aggressively on users who have shown high intent, or re-engage users who started but did not complete a conversion.

Prerequisites

• GA4 property linked to your Google Ads account (Admin then Google Ads Links)
• Google Signals enabled in GA4 (for cross-device audience membership)
• Correct ecommerce or conversion events implemented

High-Value Audience 1: Cart Abandoners

Conditions: Users who triggered add_to_cart within the last 30 days but did NOT trigger purchase

Setup:

1. Admin then Audiences then New Audience
2. Create custom audience
3. Add condition: Event = add_to_cart (within 30 days)
4. Add exclusion condition: Event = purchase (within 30 days)
5. Membership duration: 30 days

Google Ads use: target this audience with RLSA campaigns or smart shopping campaigns. These users have already demonstrated product interest — they typically convert at 3-5x the rate of cold audiences.

High-Value Audience 2: High Engagement Non-Converters

Conditions: Users who visited 3+ pages AND had 2+ sessions in the last 30 days but did NOT convert

Why it works: multiple visits and high page depth indicates genuine interest that has not yet converted — often due to consideration or comparison shopping. A well-timed remarketing ad can tip the decision.

High-Value Audience 3: Pricing Page Visitors

Conditions: Users who viewed your pricing page (page_location contains "/pricing") in the last 14 days

Why it works: pricing page visits indicate commercial intent. These users are actively evaluating your product or service.

High-Value Audience 4: Recent Converters (for Upsell)

Conditions: Users who triggered a purchase event in the last 90 days

Use in Google Ads: exclude this audience from prospecting campaigns (avoid spending on existing customers) or target with complementary product campaigns.

Audience 5: All Visitors (Base Remarketing)

Conditions: Any session in the last 30 days

Membership duration: 30 days

Use: the broadest remarketing pool. Use as a bid modifier (+10-20%) in standard search campaigns, not as a targeted remarketing campaign by itself.

Audience Membership Duration Considerations

• Cart abandoners: 7-14 days (urgency window closes quickly)
• Pricing page visitors: 14-30 days (longer consideration cycle)
• All visitors: 30-90 days (depends on your repurchase cycle)
• Maximum in GA4: 540 days

Audience Lag in Google Ads

After creating a GA4 audience, it takes 24-48 hours to appear in Google Ads audience lists. It then requires a minimum of 100 users on Search / 1,000 on Display before Google Ads will use it for targeting. For smaller businesses, this threshold means some audiences (very high-intent, small lists) may not reach the minimum — in these cases, expand the conditions or increase the membership duration.

Summary

GA4 audiences give you powerful remarketing segmentation based on actual user behaviour. Cart abandoners, pricing page visitors, and high-engagement non-converters are the three highest-ROI audiences for most businesses. Build them today and start applying bid adjustments in Google Ads.

See our GA4 Setup & Audit service for audience setup.

Need help with GA4 audiences and remarketing? Contact Adslytics.