Google Analytics: create remarketing lists from old users without limits

Remarketing is the ability to advertise to users who have previously visited your site on Google Display Network sites.

About the benefits and basic settings written in the official certificate .
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Simplify the logic for remarketing:

1. Customize the collection of lists for remarketing.
2. Wait until these lists get users from your site.
3. Enable ads through Adwords.

Problem

By creating a remarketing list, you can include users who have already been on your site, but only for the last 30 days.

Suppose your analysts have found an audience that performs target actions well, and in the last 90 days there have been ~ 75 thousand users. Of course, you want to set up remarketing for these users.

How to select these users for advertising? Let's figure it out!

Technical side

Google Analytics marks each client application (browser) with _ga, which contains clientID. And then, at each interaction with the site (viewing a page or an event), it sends information to its server via the Measurement Protocol , and in this request the required parameter is the clientID. Thus, GA understands that actions are performed by one user.

When you turn on the remarketing option in the GA counter, the information is also sent to www.google.com/ads/ga-audiences :

https://www.google.com/ads/ga-audiences?v=1&aip=1&t=sr&_r=4&tid=UA-XXXXXX-X&cid=1446135452.1505374077&jid=1601010692&_v=j67&z=633096611 

This query is used to combine user information in GA and the Google advertising system.

Create an unlimited remarketing list

To create lists through the current method, we need the ClientID of users.
If you don’t collect them yet, it's time to start. This can be implemented, for example, through the collection of raw data GA or through the setting of a special parameter . And it is better to configure both ways.

Sample raw data table



Example table with clientID in special parameter



Unfortunately, if you have not previously collected clientID, this method will not work for you.

Getting clientID

Select the audience that analysts have found, and unload the clientID of these users.

Create remarketing list

We open Google Analytics - Settings - Definition of audiences - Audiences.



Click “Create a new audience”.

Select the audience of users who committed the events:
Event Category: CustomRemarketing
Event Action: CustomListOne

We save. There are no such users now, the list is empty.

Add users to the list

Now, through the Measurement Protocol, we will create events for each of the users.

We need to send the parameters to www.google-analytics.com/collect :

• v = 1
• t = event // interaction type - event
• tid = UA-XXXXXXX-X // site identifier in GA
• cid = 1001931462.1523543343 // clientID of the user
• ni = 1 // necessarily - so that a session is not created, but only an event is created
• ea = CustomListOne // Event Action
• ec = CustomRemarketing // Event Category

Sample link for request:

 https://www.google-analytics.com/collect?v=1&t=event&tid=UA-XXXXXXX-X&cid=1001931462.1523543343&ni=1&ea=CustomListOne&ec=CustomRemarketing 

You can send both GET and POST requests.

For simplicity and clarity, I will use the Google Table.



In the Image column we write the formula = IMAGE (C2) and stretch it on all the lines.
At this point, get-requests will be sent to each of the links in column C.

Please note that in real-time reports you will not see these events. But a little later in the usual reports they catch up.



And during the day the numbers will be updated in Google Adwords.



Due to the latest news - do not forget to disable the automatic deletion of user data.

Successes!