Customer Match allows you to use your first-party audience data—such as email addresses or phone numbers—to reach known prospects across Google’s Demand Generation (Demand Gen) inventory. These audiences help improve targeting precision, support mid-funnel nurturing, and enable high-quality lookalike expansion.
Demand Gen campaigns leverage Customer Match lists across Google-owned placements, including:
YouTube (In-feed, Shorts, In-stream)
Google Discover
Gmail (Promotions & Social tabs)
This article walks through how to properly create, upload, and activate a Customer Match list for use in Demand Gen campaigns.
Before creating a Customer Match list, confirm the following:
Your Google Ads account is eligible for Customer Match
Account must be in good standing
Policy compliance is required
You have user consent to use the data for advertising purposes
Your data meets Google’s formatting requirements
You have admin or standard access to Google Ads
Customer Match lists must contain first-party data collected directly from users.
You may upload one or more of the following:
Email address
Phone number
First name
Last name
Country
ZIP / Postal code
Best practice: Email address typically yields the highest match rate.
Format: CSV
No headers required (but allowed)
One user per row
Plain text (Google will hash data automatically)
Example:
email@example.com
user2@email.comClick Tools & Settings
Select Audience Manager
Navigate to Your data segments
Select Customer list
Choose Upload your own data
Select the identifiers included in your file
Upload your CSV file
Name your list clearly (example:
Engaged Franchise Ninja Candidates – Q1 2026)
During upload, Google will prompt you to confirm:
You have obtained user consent
The data complies with Google’s Customer Match policies
The data is not from a prohibited category
This step is required for the list to be approved and usable.
Lists typically process within 24–48 hours
Match rates vary depending on data quality
You’ll see list status update to “Ready” once approved
Note: Customer Match lists must contain at least 1,000 matched users to serve ads.
Once approved, the list can be used in Demand Gen campaigns for:
Reach known prospects across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail
Suppress existing leads or franchisees from campaigns
Use the list as a seed audience for similar (lookalike) audiences
Improves scale while maintaining audience quality
Use high-intent segments (engaged website visitors, prior leads)
Refresh lists regularly to keep audiences current
Pair Customer Match with persona-specific creative
Use exclusions to manage funnel sequencing
Avoid mixing unrelated audience types in one list
Nurturing engaged franchise candidates
Re-engaging dormant leads
Creating lookalike audiences for market expansion
Supporting mid-funnel demand creation strategies
Customer Match lists are a foundational input for successful Demand Generation campaigns. While the upload process is straightforward, the real value comes from how the audience is segmented, refreshed, and activated within a broader franchise development strategy.