Audience signals
Audience signals are optional hints in a Performance Max asset group that tell Google which people are most likely to buy: a starting point, not a limit.
How it works
A signal sits in an asset group of a Performance Max campaign and names an audience for Google to start from. An audience can include your own lists, such as buyers uploaded through Customer Match or visitors to your site. It can also include custom segments, interest and life-event segments, and age, gender, household income or parental status. Search themes are the other kind of signal at this level: phrases you know your customers search for.
The campaign starts from the signals and looks for new impressions with similar or stronger intent across Search, Display, Video and other channels. It can reach people outside the audience you named. Signals are optional: a standard Performance Max campaign runs without them. Which signals are worth adding is the subject of audience signals in Performance Max.
Example
Example store, not client data.
The tableware shop gives its “Plates” asset group one audience: a Customer Match list of past buyers plus a custom segment of people searching for “dinner sets”. Performance Max starts with people like them, but can also show the plate ads to someone in neither group if it finds similar or stronger intent.
Not to be confused with
- Targeting — the conditions under which an ad can be shown at all, such as location and language. A signal sets no such condition.
- Lookalike segments — a segment of people similar to a list you provide, at a size you choose. A signal has no size of its own: Google decides how far beyond the named audience to go.
Right and wrong readings
- Wrong: “Only the people in my signals see my Performance Max ads.” Right: signals are a starting point, not a limit. The campaign looks for new impressions with similar or stronger intent and can show ads to people outside the audiences you named.
Sources
- Asset Group Signals (Google Ads API) — signals as hints in an asset group; audiences and search themes; similar or stronger intent; campaigns run without signals. Checked 2 October 2026.
- Create and manage audiences (Google Ads API) — what an audience can combine. Checked 2 October 2026.
- Get started with audience management (Google Ads API) — site visitors and Customer Match lists as your data. Checked 2 October 2026.
- LookalikeUserListInfo (Google Ads API) — a lookalike list built from seed lists, sized by expansion level. Checked 2 October 2026.