Similar Audiences (Deprecated)

Similar Audiences were a Google Ads targeting feature that automatically generated audience segments of users who shared behavioral characteristics with your existing remarketing or Customer Match lists. Google deprecated Similar Audiences in August 2023, replacing the functionality with optimized targeting and audience expansion features built into Smart Bidding and Performance Max campaigns.

Key Takeaways

• Similar Audiences were fully deprecated in August 2023 and are no longer available
• They worked by analyzing your remarketing lists and finding new users with matching behavioral patterns
• Replacement options include optimized targeting, audience expansion, audience signals in Performance Max, and Customer Match lookalikes
• Existing campaigns that used Similar Audiences were automatically migrated to alternative targeting
• The core concept (finding users who resemble your converters) lives on within Google’s AI-powered campaign types

What Were Similar Audiences

Similar Audiences (sometimes called “lookalike audiences”) were automatically generated segments that Google created by analyzing the users on your Remarketing Lists or Customer Match lists and finding new users across the Google network who exhibited comparable behaviors.

For example, if your remarketing list contained users who had visited your enterprise software pricing page, Google would analyze their:

Signal Analyzed	Example Pattern
Search behavior	Frequent searches for B2B software comparisons
Browsing patterns	Regular visits to technology review sites
YouTube activity	Watching software demo videos
App usage	Using business productivity apps
Location patterns	Concentrated in business districts

Google would then build a “Similar to Pricing Page Visitors” segment containing users who matched these patterns but had never visited your site.

Why Similar Audiences Were Deprecated

Google retired Similar Audiences as part of a broader shift toward AI-driven audience optimization. The rationale:

1. Privacy landscape — reduced signal availability from third-party cookie deprecation and iOS privacy changes made behavioral matching less reliable
2. AI automation — Google’s Smart Bidding and Performance Max campaigns incorporate similar-audience logic internally, making a standalone feature redundant
3. Optimized targeting — a newer system that automatically expands beyond your selected audiences when Google predicts conversions, effectively replacing manual similar audience selection

The deprecation timeline:

• May 2023: Similar Audiences stopped being generated for new campaigns
• August 2023: All existing Similar Audiences removed from campaigns
• Post-2023: Functionality absorbed into automated targeting systems

What Replaced Similar Audiences

Advertisers who previously relied on Similar Audiences now have several alternatives:

Replacement	Campaign Types	How It Works
Optimized targeting	Display, YouTube, Discovery	Automatically expands targeting beyond selected audiences to find likely converters
Audience signals	Performance Max	You provide audience hints (including remarketing lists); Google’s AI uses them as starting signals to find similar users
Audience expansion	Display	Broadens your audience targeting to reach additional users similar to your defined segments
Customer Match + Smart Bidding	All	Upload customer data; Smart Bidding implicitly optimizes toward users who resemble converters

Practical Example

Before deprecation (2022), an online education company used Similar Audiences:

Audience	Clicks	Conv. Rate	CPA
Remarketing (past visitors)	800	6.2%	$42
Similar to past visitors	2,400	2.8%	$93
No audience targeting	5,000	1.1%	$236

After migration (2024+), the same company uses Performance Max with audience signals:

Targeting Approach	Conversions	CPA	Monthly Spend
PMax with remarketing + Customer Match as signals	145	$78	$11,310
PMax without audience signals	98	$115	$11,270

The audience signals approach delivers 48% more conversions at 32% lower CPA. While the granularity of the old Similar Audiences reporting is gone, the performance outcomes are comparable or better because Google’s AI uses a richer set of signals than the standalone feature ever did.

Why It Matters

Understanding the deprecation of Similar Audiences is important for two reasons. First, many legacy accounts and older guides still reference this feature, and attempting to use it will not work. Second, the underlying concept — finding new users who resemble your best existing customers — remains central to Google Ads strategy. It has simply moved from a manual audience selection to an AI-integrated system.

The practical takeaway is to invest in strong first-party data foundations. Upload robust Customer Match lists, build detailed remarketing segments, and provide these as Audience Segments signals to Performance Max and Smart Bidding campaigns. The better your input data, the more effectively Google’s AI can find new users who match your ideal customer profile.