Segment AdWords Remarketing By Traffic Source





What's Changed?

The previous setup was fairly straightforward: put a tag onto page A, and anybody who has seen page A is eligible to see your ads. If a person saw a tag on page B then they're eligible for both sets of ads. You can then set up simple "include A but not B" rules to add priorities to those (e.g., excluding people who have completed a purchase).

We now have the choice to generate just one tag and put it on every page of the site. We then specify features of the URL to decide who should see each set of ads. A typical use might be to say something like "URL contains /shoes" vs "URL contains /boots" to determine which list to put them in, and which ad to show them.

Why Segment by Traffic Source?

Why segment by any visitor feature? Because everybody is different. You wouldn't analyze your site's traffic by bundling all your visitors together to look at overall stats. (If you do, it's time for a quick primer on personas.)


People are different and have different goals. Their behavior on your site won't be the same, and their motivations won't be the same. Showing them different remarketing ads that reflect their individual features will give you better response rates.

Now I Know Why, But How?

Google's recent change to the system lets us do this. If you're using any web analytics package you almost certainly use query strings in your landing pages to track those visitor types.



In the remarketing interface you will choose "Define a list of site visitors based on the selection below" and you will have the ability to specify features of the URL. In this instance you're going to choose "contains" and add the query string key and value you are interested in. For example, setting up a list that only includes AdWords visitors:


To set up a list that only includes email visitors:


What Do I Do With it?

You should know what your major traffic sources are and how you're tracking them in your analytics program. Hopefully you have a nice spreadsheet somewhere detailing all the tracking parameters you're using. (If not, consider building one!)


  • Create custom ads for each visitor type
  • Bid individually for each visitor type

