Custom audiences let you apply your own customer or prospect lists in ChatGPT Ads.
How custom audiences work
Custom audiences are created from lists of customers or prospects using email addresses, phone numbers, hashed email addresses, hashed phone numbers, or Google Advertising IDs (GAID). You can create and manage custom audiences in Ads Manager. After you create an audience, you can use it in ChatGPT Ads in the following ways:
Campaign-level inclusion: Use inclusion audiences to limit campaign eligibility to people in one or more selected audiences. This can help you reach known customers, qualified prospects, or audiences you want to target with a specific campaign.
Campaign-level exclusion: Use exclusion audiences to prevent campaign delivery to people in selected audiences. This can help you avoid reaching existing customers, recent purchasers, or audiences that should not see a specific campaign.
Ad-group audience bid adjustments: Use a bid multiplier to increase or decrease an ad group’s maximum bid when the viewer matches a selected custom audience. This can help you bid more competitively for your high-value customers, or bid more selectively for lower-priority audiences.
Note that inclusion audiences and audience bid adjustments require at least 25,000 matched users. Audiences below 25,000 matched users can be used for exclusions. We recommend audiences of at least 100,000 users for inclusion targeting or bid adjustments.
Custom audiences are applied as audience-level controls. Ads Manager does not show individual matched users or let you select specific people from an audience.
Creating your custom audiences
Preparing your audience file
Prepare a valid UTF-8 CSV or TXT file up to 500 MB, or 500,000,000 bytes. A UTF-8 BOM is accepted.
Audiences can contain more than 5,000,000 members. If needed, add members in multiple uploads after the audience is created.
Uploads can include email, phone number, SHA-256 hashed email address, SHA-256 hashed phone number, or Google Advertising ID (GAID) identifiers. You can mix supported identifier types in the same CSV upload.
TXT files must include one identifier per line.
CSV files must include a header row. In the header row, include a supported column name for each identifier type in the file, such as email, phone_number, email_sha256, phone_number_sha256, or gaid.
After creating a custom audience, you can add, remove, or replace members in Ads Manager without recreating the audience or updating campaigns and ad groups that already use it.
Before uploading your list, review the Custom Audiences eligibility and data-use requirements.
To create a custom audience in Ads Manager:
In Ads Manager, expand Tools in the left sidebar.
Select Audiences.
Select Create audience.
Enter a name for the audience.
Upload your audience file.
If you upload a TXT file, choose the identifier type for the upload: email address, phone number, SHA-256 hashed email address, SHA-256 hashed phone number, or Google Advertising ID (GAID). For CSV files with headers, Ads Manager infers the identifier type from the header.
Review the details, then select Create.
After you create a custom audience, Ads Manager processes the file before the audience can be used. Processing usually takes about 20-30 minutes, but can vary based on file size.
Note that uploaded rows may differ from the final matched audience size because invalid values, duplicate values, or identifiers that couldn’t be matched do not count toward the matched users.
Audience statuses show whether the audience can be used:
Processing means the file is still being processed and the audience is not ready yet.
Ready means the audience has been processed and can be used. Audiences with fewer than 25,000 matched users show as Ready with an Exclusion only note.
Failed means the file could not be processed. Check that the file is a valid UTF-8 CSV or TXT file, uses supported identifier types, and meets the file size and formatting requirements before trying again.
Some intermediate statuses, such as Upload pending, Indexing, or Publishing, mean the audience is still being prepared and cannot be used yet.
Use custom audiences in a campaign
To use custom audiences in a campaign:
Create or edit a campaign in Ads Manager.
In the campaign setup, go to the Custom audiences section.
To limit delivery to selected audiences, select Include audience and choose one or more ready custom audiences.
To prevent delivery to selected audiences, select Exclude audience and choose one or more ready custom audiences.
Review the campaign settings, then save the campaign.
Within the same campaign, you can include audience, exclude audience, or both:
Inclusion only: Ads in the campaign are eligible only for people in at least one included audience.
Exclusion only: Ads in the campaign are eligible broadly, except for people in any excluded audience.
Inclusion and exclusion together: Ads in the campaign are eligible only for people in at least one included audience, except anyone who is also in an excluded audience. If you use both included and excluded audiences, the resulting eligible audience after exclusions must still meet the minimum size of 25,000 matched users for inclusion targeting.
Note that a custom audience cannot be set as both included and excluded in the same campaign.
Use audience bid adjustments at ad groups
To set bid multiplier at the ad group level:
Create or edit an ad group in Ads Manager.
Open Advanced settings.
Go to Audience bid adjustments.
Select Add multiplier.
Choose a ready custom audience.
Enter a multiplier between 0.1x and 10x.
Add more multipliers if needed, then save the ad group.
A bid multiplier raises or lowers the ad group’s maximum bid when the viewer belongs to the selected custom audience. For example, you might set a 2x multiplier for high-value customers, a 5x multiplier for people who have previously engaged with your brand, or a 0.5x multiplier for lower-priority audiences.
If a viewer belongs to more than one selected custom audience, the highest matching multiplier is applied. Bid multipliers do not determine who is eligible to see the campaign.
Uploaded audience file retention
Uploaded audience files are deleted after processing, usually no later than 24 hours after upload.
Identifier formatting rules
All uploaded files must be valid UTF-8. If you are exporting from another tool, re-save the file as UTF-8 CSV or TXT before uploading.
Email address
Use a valid email address with one @.
Uppercase letters are accepted and normalized to lowercase.
Leading or trailing spaces are removed.
Spaces within the email address are not accepted.
Phone number
Use E.164 format, including + and country code.
Spaces, dashes, parentheses, and periods are removed during normalization.
Phone numbers without a country code are not accepted.
SHA-256 hashed email address
Hash the normalized email address: lowercase and trimmed.
The uploaded value must be a 64-character SHA-256 hex digest.
SHA-256 hashed phone number
Hash the normalized E.164 phone number, including + and country code.
The uploaded value must be a 64-character SHA-256 hex digest.
Google Advertising ID (GAID)
Use a valid Google Advertising ID.
Do not remove dashes, and do not hash the value.