---
name: set-up-audience-targeting
description: >-
  Sets up audience targeting for Video and Demand Gen campaigns: matches segment choice to the campaign goal
  (remarketing, prospecting, awareness, or pure data collection), validates list health before attaching anything,
  builds AND/NOT combined segments where precision is needed, attaches segments to ad groups, and applies
  observation-mode bid modifiers on manual bidding. Use it when launching a Video or Demand Gen campaign, adding or
  restructuring audiences on an existing one, or standing up Demand Gen lookalikes from a seed list. Do not use it
  for Performance Max, PMax takes signals, not targeting, which is set-up-audience-signals. If the customer list
  itself needs building or refreshing first, that is build-customer-match-lists. The recurring keep/adjust/remove
  review of segments already live belongs to optimize-audience-performance, and the decision of whether the account
  should expand reach at all belongs to expand-audience-reach.
---
# Set Up Video and Demand Gen Audience Targeting

## Purpose
On Video and Demand Gen, audiences genuinely restrict who sees the ads, unlike PMax signals, a wrong choice here is
a wrong media buy. This skill gets four things right at setup time: segments that match the campaign's goal, the
correct restriction-versus-observation posture, expansion settings that don't silently override the audience, and
exclusions that keep remarketing and prospecting from paying twice for the same person.

## When to run
- Launching a new Video or Demand Gen campaign that needs its audience configuration.
- Adding audiences to a campaign that launched bare, or rebuilding targeting during an account restructure.
- Standing up Demand Gen lookalike segments from a customer seed list.
- An audit found overlapping audiences, missing exclusions, or expansion features fighting the targeting intent.

## When NOT to run
- Configuring a Performance Max asset group → `set-up-audience-signals` (signals steer, they don't restrict; the two
  systems must not be conflated).
- The customer list you want to target is missing, small, or stale → `build-customer-match-lists` first.
- Reviewing live segments to keep/adjust/remove → `optimize-audience-performance`.
- Deciding which audience foundation to fix before expanding → `expand-audience-reach`.

## Prerequisites
- Campaign type confirmed (Video vs Demand Gen, feature sets differ: lookalikes are Demand Gen-only; the
  targeting-versus-observation switch and per-campaign content exclusions are Video-only).
- Campaign goal stated by the user: remarketing, prospecting, awareness, or data collection.
- Site tag firing so remarketing segments populate (HUMAN STEP if not, tagging is outside VigilDog).
- For Customer Match or lookalike plans: a matched list, seed at 1,000+ users (`build-customer-match-lists` if not).

## Procedure
1. **Consult the policy guardrail.** Call `gads_policy_guardrail` before the session's first Google Ads write; heed
   any flags on personalized advertising, especially for sensitive verticals where audience targeting is limited.
2. **Classify the goal and derive the posture.** With the user, map the campaign to one row of the goal table in
   Decision rules. This single classification drives every later choice: segment types, restriction mode, expansion
   stance, and exclusions. Write the classification down before configuring anything.
3. **Verify the raw material.** Call `gads_list_user_lists` and check every list you plan to attach: remarketing
   windows appropriate to the goal (7–14 day abandoners for recovery, 14–30 day product viewers for re-engagement,
   30–90 day all-visitors for broad remarketing), Customer Match matched and fresh, lookalike seeds at 1,000+
   matched users built from converters or high-value customers, never from an all-visitors bucket.
4. **Build combined segments where precision matters.** When a single segment is too blunt, call
   `gads_create_combined_audience`: AND-join an in-market category with an intent custom segment to sharpen
   prospecting; NOT-join the all-customers list to force acquisition-only delivery. Preview first (validate_only
   default); apply only after explicit user approval.
5. **Attach the segments.** Call `gads_attach_audience_to_ad_group` per ad group with the goal-appropriate segment
   set: 1–3 tight segments for remarketing, 2–5 across types for prospecting, broader interest sets for awareness.
   For data-collection goals attach in observation posture so delivery stays broad while segment stats accrue.
   Preview → user approval → apply, one ad group at a time so the configuration stays reviewable.
6. **Set the restriction/observation switch deliberately (Video).** The mode decision is the user's call from the
   step-2 classification. Where the attach tool cannot set the mode on this campaign type, mark HUMAN STEP (outside
   VigilDog): confirm in the Ads UI that each ad group shows the intended mode, defaults here are a classic silent
   failure.
7. **Apply observation-mode bid modifiers (manual bidding only).** On Manual CPC campaigns, call
   `gads_set_audience_bid_modifier` to tilt spend toward segments you believe in while observing (preview →
   approval → apply). Skip entirely under Smart Bidding, automated strategies already price audiences and
   modifiers are ignored or harmful.
8. **Configure expansion features.** HUMAN STEP (outside VigilDog): the optimized-targeting toggle (and audience
   expansion on awareness-goal Video) lives in ad-group settings in the UI. Instruct precisely from the step-2
   classification: OFF for remarketing (expansion defeats the restriction and can move most spend outside your
   lists), ON for conversion-goal prospecting and awareness. Demand Gen demographic expansion: restrict only when
   demographic precision genuinely matters.
9. **Set exclusions.** Attach exclusion segments so campaigns do not buy the same user twice: recent converters
   (7–30 day window) excluded from remarketing; the all-customers list excluded from acquisition campaigns; the
   all-visitors segment excluded from prospecting-only campaigns. Where audience exclusions cannot be written
   through the available tools, mark HUMAN STEP with the exact list names and windows to exclude. Sanity-check that
   nothing excluded is also targeted.
10. **Brand-safety and pacing settings.** HUMAN STEP (outside VigilDog): Video content exclusions (sensitive
    categories, known junk placements) and frequency caps, roughly 3–5 impressions/user/day for remarketing, 2–3
    for prospecting, 1–2 for awareness. Demand Gen inherits account-level content suitability.
11. **Document and hand off.** Produce a per-ad-group table: segments, mode, expansion stance, modifiers,
    exclusions. Give targeting-mode changes 7–14 days and new segments 14–30 days before performance judgments, then the recurring review belongs to `optimize-audience-performance`.

## Decision rules
- **Goal → configuration map:**
  - Remarketing: your-data segments + Customer Match; restrictive mode; expansion OFF; converter exclusion on.
  - Prospecting: custom intent segments, 1–3 in-market picks, Demand Gen lookalikes; restrictive mode; expansion
    is a measured test, not a default.
  - Awareness: affinity, life events, broad in-market; expansion ON; judged on reach/CPM, not CPA.
  - Data collection: any candidate segments in observation; no restriction; graduate later on evidence.
- **Segment counts:** remarketing 1–3, prospecting 2–5. Beyond that, attribution turns to mush and no segment gets
  enough data to judge.
- **Lookalike seeds (Demand Gen only):** 1,000+ matched users, built from converters or high-LTV customers. Start
  at balanced reach; go narrow for efficiency, broad only when scaling with proof. Seed quality beats seed size.
- **Expansion posture:** IF the goal is remarketing THEN expansion OFF is non-negotiable. IF prospecting with a
  conversion goal THEN pick ON or OFF deliberately and measure the expansion row later. Awareness: ON.
- **Isolation rule:** the same user should be reachable by exactly one of {remarketing, prospecting}, enforce with
  mutually exclusive exclusions, not hope.
- **Bid modifiers:** manual bidding only; start modest and revisit on the optimization cadence rather than
  front-loading extreme values.

## Common failure modes
- **Accepting default modes and toggles.** The single most common setup bug: observation where restriction was
  intended, or optimized targeting ON for remarketing quietly spending outside the list. Verify per ad group
  (step 6/8), never assume.
- **PMax habits applied here.** Treating these audiences as "hints" and over-attaching. On Video/DG the audience is
  the delivery boundary; keep it tight and intentional.
- **No exclusions at launch.** Prospecting then pays to reach existing customers, remarketing chases people who
  already converted. Step 9 is part of setup, not a later optimization.
- **All-visitors as a lookalike seed.** Convenient, large, and low-quality, lookalikes inherit their seed's
  quality. Seed from converters or high-value customers only.
- **Attaching every plausible in-market category.** 1–3 relevant picks; a ten-category pile is untrackable.
- **One audience shared across campaigns with no isolation**, the campaigns bid against each other for the same
  users and the reports blur together.

## Related skills
- Run before this: `build-customer-match-lists` when lists or seeds are missing/stale.
- Sibling for PMax surfaces: `set-up-audience-signals` (signals, not targeting, different system).
- Run after this: `optimize-audience-performance` on a monthly cadence; `expand-audience-reach` when considering
  the next controlled reach expansion.