Short answer: When Google Analytics and Google Ads are linked (with ads personalisation on), Google Ads can use your Analytics audiences for remarketing: showing ads to people who already visited your site or app, such as cart abandoners or past buyers, on Search, Display and YouTube. It can also use them as segments to combine, exclude or observe, and to adjust bids. For the certification exam, the answer is that Google Ads can use them for remarketing to previous site visitors.
This guide is for advertisers, students preparing for Google Ads certification, and business owners who run ads alongside SEO. It explains exactly what linking GA4 to Google Ads lets you do with audiences, how to set it up, why audiences sometimes do not appear, and the audience lists I find most useful for small and mid-sized businesses.
What linking actually lets you do
Google’s own help page on connecting Google Ads to Analytics lists three benefits: consistent conversions based on your Analytics key events, Google Ads performance data inside Analytics, and the ability to re-engage users based on their behaviour on your site or app. The audience part works like this:
- Remarketing lists: people who have already engaged with your site or app, such as those who left items in a cart, so you can show them ads again.
- Audience segments to combine: for example, your Analytics audience of repeat buyers combined with a Google interest segment, to build a new targeting group.
- Exclusions: stop showing prospecting ads to people who have just bought.
- Observation and bid adjustments: watch how a high-intent audience performs inside a Search campaign and bid more for it, without narrowing reach.
- Signals for automated campaigns: audiences can guide Performance Max and Demand Gen as audience signals.
When the link is in place and ads personalisation is enabled, Google says any audience you create in Analytics is exported automatically and becomes available for remarketing on the Google Search Network, Google Display Network and YouTube, usually within about a day (Google Analytics Help).
The exam question and its answer
The Google Ads certification asks: “What can Google Ads do with audiences from Google Analytics when these two services are linked?” The option to choose is the one about using the audiences for remarketing, for example “Google Ads can use Google Analytics audiences to reach people who previously visited your site” or similar wording. Options that claim Google Ads can see individual visitors’ personal details, or that linking automatically improves Quality Score, are wrong.
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How to link GA4 and Google Ads
- Check permissions: you need Editor or Administrator on the GA4 property and administrative access to the Google Ads account.
- In GA4, go to Admin, then Product links, then Google Ads links, and click Link.
- Choose the Google Ads account (or request access to it). You can also link a manager account so every client account under it can use the data.
- Leave “Enable Personalized Advertising” on. It is on by default and is required for audiences to be used for remarketing.
- Turn on auto-tagging so Google Ads clicks are reported correctly in GA4.
- Review and submit. Then, in GA4, make sure Google signals and ads personalisation settings for your regions match your consent setup.
- Create audiences in GA4 under Admin, Data display, Audiences. They appear in Google Ads under Tools, Shared library, Audience manager.
If you track campaigns from other platforms in GA4 at the same time, tag those links consistently with a UTM link builder so their traffic does not get mixed into your audiences by mistake.
Audiences worth building first
When I set up GA4 for a business running Google Ads, these are the lists I create in the first week. Most need only standard GA4 events.
| Audience | GA4 condition | How to use it in Google Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Cart abandoners | add_to_cart in last 7 days, no purchase | Display and YouTube remarketing with the products or a reminder of delivery and returns |
| Recent purchasers | purchase in last 30 days | Exclude from prospecting; target later with cross-sell |
| Engaged non-converters | 2+ sessions or 3+ pages, no lead or purchase | Observation on Search with a higher bid; Demand Gen remarketing |
| Service page visitors | page_view on /services/ pages, no form submit | Search remarketing for broader service terms you normally avoid |
| Form starters | form_start without form_submit | Short-window remarketing with a simpler call or WhatsApp option |
| Blog readers only | Viewed only blog content | Exclude from bottom-funnel campaigns; nurture separately |
Membership can last up to 540 days in GA4, but short windows (7 to 30 days) usually perform better for remarketing because intent fades. If you want to see how content and organic visitors feed these lists, my guide to using Google Analytics for SEO covers the reporting side, and tracking SEO performance with free tools shows how to compare channels.
Why your Analytics audiences are not showing in Google Ads
This is the question I get most after a link is set up. Work through it in order.
Why can’t I use my GA4 audience in Google Ads?
Does GA4 show the Google Ads account under Admin, Product links, Google Ads links?
Is “Enable Personalized Advertising” turned on for that link?
Was the audience created more than 48 hours ago?
Does the audience have at least 100 active users in the last 30 days?
Result: the accounts are not linked. Create the link from GA4 with Editor access on the property and admin access in Google Ads.
Result: without ads personalisation, audiences are not available for remarketing. Turn it on in the link settings, then check your region-level ads personalisation settings in GA4 match your consent setup.
Result: give it time. Google says audiences are usually available within about a day, and new lists build up from that point.
Result: the list is too small to serve. Widen the conditions or membership window, or use it as an observation segment until it grows.
Result: the audience should be usable. Check it is added to the right campaign or ad group, that the campaign type supports it, and whether consent mode is limiting how many users can be added.
What changed: GA4, similar audiences and consent
- Universal Analytics is gone. Old guides mention “Google Ads Linking” in the Property column and “link groups”. In GA4 the path is Admin, Product links.
- Similar audiences were retired. Google stopped generating them in May 2023 and removed them from all campaigns from August 2023 (Google Ads Developer Blog). Optimized targeting and audience signals took their place.
- Predictive audiences: GA4 can build audiences such as likely purchasers when your property meets its data thresholds, which many small sites do not.
- Consent matters: in the UK, EU and other regions with consent rules, users who decline ad cookies are not added to remarketing lists. Lists will look smaller than your traffic suggests, and that is expected.
Mistakes I see in linked accounts
- Remarketing to everyone forever: one “All users, 540 days” list with the same ad. Segment by intent and keep windows short.
- Not excluding converters: paying to show “Book now” ads to people who booked yesterday.
- Importing duplicate conversions: counting a GA4 key event and a Google Ads tag conversion for the same action, which inflates results and confuses Smart Bidding.
- Targeting instead of observing on Search: using a small remarketing list as “Targeting” on a Search campaign throttles reach. Start with “Observation”.
- Treating Pakistan-wide traffic as one audience: for local businesses, a visitor from another city may not be a customer. Combine audiences with location targeting, and make sure your local SEO covers the same service areas.
- Ignoring organic: remarketing works best when your site already attracts the right visitors. Strong organic rankings from professional SEO services fill these lists more cheaply than paid clicks alone.
For how paid search fits alongside SEO in the wider plan, see my guide to search engine marketing strategies and the broader overview of remarketing as a digital marketing strategy. If you want to judge whether ads or organic gives better value, the SEO ROI calculator helps you compare, and my guide to AI referral traffic in GA4 shows how to keep new traffic sources separate in reports.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to link Google Ads and Google Analytics to do remarketing?
No. You can build remarketing lists with the Google Ads tag alone. Linking lets you use richer GA4 conditions, such as event sequences, engagement and predictive metrics, and keeps conversions consistent across both tools.
How long does it take for GA4 audiences to appear in Google Ads?
Google says about one day on average after you create the audience, provided the accounts are linked and ads personalisation is on. The list then needs at least 100 active users in 30 days to serve on Search or Display.
Can Google Ads see who my individual visitors are?
No. Google Ads receives audience membership for ad targeting, not names or personal details of your visitors. You remain responsible for consent and for describing this in your privacy policy.
Can I use GA4 audiences in Performance Max?
Yes, as audience signals. They guide the campaign’s automation towards similar people, but Performance Max can still show ads outside those audiences.
Why is my audience smaller in Google Ads than in GA4?
Google Ads counts only users it can match for advertising, after consent, ads personalisation settings and device limits. A gap between the two numbers is normal.
Sources
- Google Analytics Help, “Connect Google Ads to Google Analytics” (accessed 2026).
- Google Analytics Help, “Enable remarketing with Google Analytics data” (accessed 2026).
- Google Ads Help, “About audience segments in Audience manager” (accessed 2026).
- Google Ads Developer Blog, “Announcing deprecation and sunset of Similar Audiences” (November 2022).
Paid remarketing works best when organic search is already bringing the right people to your site. If you want help with that side, see my SEO audit service or ask me a question.
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