How to Create Audiences in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) in 3 Easy Steps

GA4 audience creation is the process of building an audience in Google Analytics 4 with specific characteristics that you can use for targeting and remarketing. Get a step-by-step tutorial on how to create an audience in GA4.

Ever feel overwhelmed by all the marketing data at your fingertips? Google Analytics 4 (GA4) audience creation helps you zero in on the users who matter most.

However, many businesses need help with setting up and managing these audiences effectively, causing them to miss out on important opportunities to engage and convert.

That’s why it’s important to understand the ins and outs of GA4 audience creation. When you know how to create audiences effectively, you can improve your targeting and refine your marketing strategies.

Below, we’ll cover the basics of Google Analytics 4 audiences and show you how to create audiences in GA4.

What is GA4 audience creation?

GA4 audience creation is the process of building an audience in Google Analytics 4. This audience comprises a small, defined group of site and app visitors who share specific characteristics.

Account owners, managers, and users can all create campaign-specific audiences without switching between GA4 and Google Ads. Once you’ve created an audience in GA4, the platform starts collecting data immediately from that point forward.

What is a GA4 audience?

A GA4 audience is a group of users who share specific characteristics or behaviors defined by set criteria. Audiences in Google Analytics 4 are primarily used for targeting in search engine marketing campaigns.

For example, you could create an audience of frequent shoppers. This audience might include users who have made multiple purchases in the last 60 days.

These audiences can be shared across Google’s marketing tools, such as Google Ads, to support your search ads and remarketing campaigns.

What is a GA4 segment?

A GA4 segment is a subset of users in your Google Analytics data that allows you to analyze and understand user behaviors in detail.

Unlike audiences, GA4 segments are retroactive. That means GA4 audience segments allow you to look at historical data rather than current and new user data.

Audiences vs segments in GA4

In GA4, audiences and segments can help you leverage your data in powerful ways. But they have some important differences:

• Purpose: Audiences are primarily used for ad targeting and remarketing, and they’re meant to be used across Google’s ad products. Segments are more about analyzing subsets of data, not necessarily ad-focused.
• Scope: Audiences focus on current and future users who meet certain criteria. Segments allow you to analyze past data and historical user behaviors, providing insight into what users did in the past.
• Integration: Users can share audiences across Google’s marketing tools, like Google Ads, to support targeting and remarketing efforts. While segments stay within GA4, allowing you to filter reports and explore data within the platform.

How to create an audience in Google Analytics 4

You can create new Google Analytics audiences in your Google Ads account using the Google Analytics 4 audience builder.

Below, we’ll walk you step by step through a tutorial on how you can build an audience in GA4.

There are a few different ways to get started with GA4 audience creation:

• Create a GA4 audience from segments
• Set up a custom audience in GA4
• Use a GA4 audience template

Create a GA4 audience from segments

Segments are vital for refining your data and helping you get more insights into user behavior. You can create segments within the Explorations tab, that can then be converted into audiences. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Create a segment in Explorations

Navigate to the ‘Explore’ section of GA4 on the left side of the dashboard. From there, you can choose ‘Blank,’ ‘Free form,’ ‘Funnel exploration,’ or something else.

Look for the ‘Segments’ section in the ‘Variables’ column on the left-hand side and click the ‘+’ icon to create a new segment.

If you already have segments that you want to use to create an audience, click on the three dots next to the audience and choose ‘Edit.’

Step 2: Choose your segment type

To create a new segment, you have two main options—‘Create a custom segment’ and ‘Use a reference.’ Below, we’ll discuss how to navigate through the two different options.

Step 3: Build an audience from segments

On the right side of the segment builder, click on the ‘Build an audience’ checkbox. This will reveal additional settings, which will allow you to define the duration in the audience once they meet the audience criteria.

Below ‘membership duration,’ you can choose the ‘Audience triggers.’ (We’ll talk more about this later in the article.)

Now, hit the blue ‘Save and apply’ button in the top right corner. Once you save your segment, the platform will automatically generate an audience.

The audience begins accumulating data from this point forward. (It’s not retroactive, so past data won’t be included.)

Set up a custom audience in GA4

Google Analytics 4 has two main audience categories: Predefined Audiences and Custom Audiences. Let’s take a look at how to set up a custom audience in GA4.

Go to the ‘Admin’ section of the platform by clicking the gear icon at the bottom of the left-hand menu

Then, click ‘Audiences’ under the ‘Data display’ section.

Then, click on the ‘New audience’ button in the next window.

You can now select ‘Create a custom audience’ under the ‘Start from scratch’ option.

From this window, you will click on ‘Add new condition.’ In this example, we’ll choose ‘page_view.’

You can then click on the ‘Add parameter’ button.

In this example, we’ll choose ‘page_location.’

Let’s say we want to track users who visit the Contact page. We would then add the condition that the page location includes “contact.”

Use a GA4 audience template

If you don’t want to create a custom audience from scratch, you can use an audience reference.

These are prebuilt suggested audiences that you can modify to fit your needs. There are 3 types of prebuilt audience suggestions.

General audiences in GA4

The first one is ‘General.’ GA4 automatically creates general audiences based on user behavior. Here, you can choose from:

• Recently active users
• Purchasers
• Seven-day inactive purchasers
• Non-purchasers
• Seven-day inactive users

GA4 audience templates

The next category of prebuilt audience suggestions is ‘Templates.’ With these templates, you can quickly and easily create audiences.

Under templates, you’ll find three options:

• Demographics templates allow you to create audiences based on the following demographics: age, gender, language, interests, and country.
• Technology templates allow you to create audiences based on their technology, including platform, OS version, device category, device brand, and mobile model.
• Acquisition templates allow you to create audiences based on acquisition channels like search, social media, or referrals.

Predictive audiences in GA4

With predictive audiences, GA4 identifies users with a high probability of certain behaviors. You can create the following predictive audiences:

• Likely seven-day purchasers
• Likely first-time seven-day purchasers
• Likely seven-day churning users
• Likely seven-day churning purchasers
• Predicted 28-day top spenders

How to edit, duplicate, and archive audiences in GA4

After you’ve created your audience, you may want to edit, duplicate, or archive it. Let’s go through each process:

• Edit an audience in GA4
• Duplicate an audience in GA4
• Archive an audience in GA4

Edit an audience in GA4

Once you’ve created an audience in GA4, you can’t modify its conditions. (Remember, audiences aren’t retroactive.)

But you can still edit some details like the audience name, description, and audience trigger.

To make edits, go to Admin > Audiences. Then, click the three dots next to the audience you want to edit. And click on ‘edit.’

This will take you back to the audience builder where you can make changes.

Duplicate an audience in GA4

If you want to create a similar audience with just a few changes, you can duplicate an existing audience.

Remember, the duplicated audience is not retroactive, so it will start gathering data from the time you create it.

Go to Admin > Audiences. Click on the three dots next to the audience you want to duplicate. And choose “duplicate.”

Now, you can make changes to the audience while still retaining the original audience you created.

Archive an audience in GA4

If you want to remove an audience on GA4, you can archive it. First, go to Admin > Audiences.

Then, click on the three dots next to the audience you want to archive (or delete).

The takeaway

Now that you know each step of the GA4 audience creation process, you can start creating your own segments and audiences inside the platform.

Google Analytics 4 gives us lots of really powerful data about our site visitors. But it’s only helpful if you know how to use it effectively. And sometimes, things can get complicated (especially for beginners!)

When you hire a PPC or SEO agency like HawkSEM, we handle all the analytics for you. We even have our own tech, ConversionIQ, which gives us even more valuable insights into your audience and funnel.

If you’re ready to start using all your audience data to your advantage and need support, let’s chat.