How to Create Audiences in Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Complete Guide

Creating GA4 audiences allows you to build groups of users with specific characteristics or behaviors that can be used for analysis in GA4 and ad targeting through Google Ads. 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?

As an advertiser, you can create audiences in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to zero in on the users who matter most.

These audiences power everything from personalized marketing campaigns to remarketing lists in Google Ads.

Below, we’ll cover the basics of how to create audiences in Google Analytics 4 — including best practices and expert insights from HawkSEM Lead Strategist Jordan Fultz.

What is a GA4 audience?

A GA4 audience is a group of website or app users who share specific characteristics or behaviors based on conditions you define in GA4. Audiences in Google Analytics 4 are primarily used for targeting ads and tracking user journeys.

For example, you could create an audience of users who triggered a purchase event, viewed a pricing page, or abandoned their cart.

Advertisers can create campaign-specific audiences in GA4 and share them with Google Ads for targeting and remarketing. Once you’ve created an audience in GA4, new users who meet your audience criteria will begin being added.

Common GA4 audiences include:

• Cart abandoners
• Users who viewed pricing pages
• Customers who made a purchase in the last 30 days
• Frequent blog readers
• Mobile users who haven’t converted

“My most common GA4 audiences are for retargeting based on a particular page or to include/exclude people who have ever logged into a site before,” says Fultz.

GA4 audiences vs. segments

GA4 segments focus on thorough data analysis, while GA4 audiences are for remarketing and report comparisons.

In other words, a GA4 segment is a subset of users in Google Analytics data that allows you to analyze and understand user behaviors in detail. Segments can be used in Explorations, GA4’s customizable analysis reports that let you compare user groups, identify trends, and dig deeper into user journeys.

Unlike audiences, GA4 segments can be applied to historical data. That means you can use segments to analyze past user behavior in Explorations and standard reports rather than only collecting data from the point they’re created onward.

Here’s a more in-depth breakdown:

• 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. Segments stay within GA4, allowing you to filter reports and explore data within the platform.

How to link Google Analytics 4 to Google Ads

Before you can use GA4 audiences for remarketing campaigns or audience targeting in Google Ads, you’ll need to link your GA4 property to your Google Ads account.

To link GA4 and Google Ads:

1. In GA4, go to Admin.
2. Under Product links, select Google Ads Links.
3. Click Link and choose the Google Ads account you want to connect.
4. Enable Personalized advertising.
5. Complete the setup process.

Once linked, eligible GA4 audiences will automatically begin syncing with Google Ads. Depending on audience size and activity, it may take several hours or longer before audiences become available for targeting.

After connecting your accounts, verify that auto-tagging is enabled in Google Ads.

Auto-tagging helps ensure campaign data is passed correctly between Google Ads and GA4, improving attribution, remarketing capabilities, and reporting accuracy.

How to create an audience in Google Analytics 4

After linking your Google Ads account, you can create audiences in GA4 and use them for targeting and remarketing campaigns in Google Ads.

GA4 offers several ways to create an audience depending on your goals:

• Turn an Exploration segment into a GA4 audience
• Set up a custom audience in GA4
• Use a GA4 audience template

Turn an Exploration segment into a GA4 audience

If you’ve already defined a user segment in an Exploration, you can use those conditions as a starting point when building a GA4 audience.

Here’s how:

1. Go to Explore and create a new segment (or edit an existing one).

2. In the segment builder, enable Build an audience.

3. Set the membership duration and any audience triggers.

Audience triggers let you fire an event when a user joins an audience. For example, you could create an audience trigger to record when a user becomes a high-value customer segment.

Audience membership determines how long users remain in an audience after meeting your criteria.

4. Click Save and apply.

GA4 will automatically create the audience, and it will begin collecting data from that point forward.

Audience data is not retroactive, so users who met the criteria before the audience was created won’t be included.

Set up a custom audience in GA4

If you want to build an audience from scratch, GA4’s audience builder lets you define your own conditions based on user behavior, events, or parameters.

Events are the foundation of many GA4 audiences because they allow you to target users based on actions they take on your site or app.

To set up your custom audience:

1. Go to Admin and select Audiences under Data display.

2. Click New audience.

3. Under Start from scratch, select Create a custom audience.

4. Click Add new condition. In this example, we’ll use the page_view event.

5. Click Add parameter and select page_location.

6. To build an audience of users who visited your Contact page, set the condition so page_location contains “contact.”

(You can also combine multiple conditions, such as users who viewed a product page and visited the checkout page within the same session.)

7. Click Apply to save.

GA4 will begin adding users to the audience as they meet the specified criteria. Audience membership is not retroactive, so only future qualifying users will be included.

Use a GA4 audience template

If you don’t want to create a custom audience from scratch, GA4 offers several prebuilt audience suggestions that you can customize to fit your goals.

These suggestions fall into three audience categories:

General audiences

General audiences are automatically generated based on common user behaviors. Options include:

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

Audience templates

Audience templates help you quickly build audiences using common attributes, including:

• Demographics: Create audiences based on age, gender, language, interests, or country.
• Technology: Segment users by platform, operating system, device category, device brand, or mobile model.
• Acquisition: Build audiences based on how users found your site, such as organic search, paid search, social media, or referral traffic.

Predictive audiences

If your GA4 property is eligible for predictive metrics, you can create audiences based on Google’s machine learning models.

These audiences include all users who are likely to complete specific actions, such as:

• 7-day purchasers
• First-time 7-day purchasers
• 7-day churning users
• 7-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 membership conditions or make it retroactive.

While you can’t change an audience’s membership conditions after creation, you can update certain settings, such as its name or description.

To edit an audience:

• Go to Admin > Audiences
• Click the three dots next to the audience
• Select Edit

Duplicate an audience in GA4

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

To duplicate an audience:

1. Go to Admin > Audiences
2. Click the three dots next to the audience
3. Select Duplicate
4. Update the audience conditions and save your changes

The duplicated audience will start gathering data from the time you create it — it won’t include historical data.

Archive an audience in GA4

If you want to remove an audience in GA4, you can archive it.

1. Go to Admin > Audiences
2. Click the three dots next to the audience
3. Select Archive

Archiving stops the audience from collecting new users, but it doesn’t delete any historical reporting data associated with that audience.

GA4 audience best practices

Before building your audiences in GA4, Fultz shares his expert advice. Primarily, to “be thorough [about] considering who should be included and excluded.”

Review these best practices to ensure you’re getting the most value from your campaigns.

Track key events accurately

Before building audiences, make sure the events you use for targeting are configured properly and are tracking in GA4. Many businesses use Google Tag Manager to manage event tracking, making it easier to capture important actions like purchases, form submissions, and other conversions.

Align audiences with your marketing goals

Create audiences based on the outcomes you want to achieve. For example, use remarketing audiences to re-engage past visitors, customer audiences for retention campaigns, or lead-based audiences to nurture prospects through the sales funnel.

Keep audience criteria focused

While specificity is ideal for targeting, avoid making your audience so narrow that it doesn’t collect enough users to support reporting or advertising.

Set the right membership duration

Choose a membership duration that matches your sales cycle — shorter windows for quick purchasing decisions and longer durations for extended consideration periods.

Review audiences regularly

Periodically review your audience list, archive audiences you no longer use, and update naming conventions so your account stays organized.

Confirm audiences are syncing properly

Before launching a campaign in Google Ads, verify that your GA4 audiences are populating correctly and syncing with your linked advertising accounts. This helps prevent targeting issues and ensures your campaigns reach the intended audience.

The takeaway

Now that you know each step of the GA4 audience creation process, you can start creating your own GA4 audiences for targeting and using segments to better analyze user behavior.

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.

This article has been updated and was originally published in September 2024.