Google Customer Match tag

The Google Customer Match tag allows you to send audience data to Google advertising platforms through the Data Manager API. With this tag, you can manage your Customer Match lists by adding or removing users.

Benefits of the Google Customer Match tag

• Automatically manage Customer Lists in Google Ads. With the Google Customer Match tag, you can automate the creation and update of Customer Match lists. So, you won’t need to repeat manual uploads of CVS files with audience data.
• Improved ad audience targeting. When first-party data is provided to Google Ads, the platform analyzes the information and generates audience lists that can be used in campaigns to reach high-intent audiences.
• Build detailed audience segments. Using the Google Customer Match tag,  advertisers can transform first-party customer data into audience segments that can be included or excluded during campaign targeting.

Pre-requisites

To configure the tag, you will need to complete the following steps:

• Configured the server GTM container.
• Set up data transfer from the web to the server GTM container. You can set it up using server-side Google Analytics 4 or Data Tag/Data Client.

Choose and set up an authentication method:

• Use Stape’s connection (recommended) - the easiest way to manage authentication. Simply enable the Data Manager API Connection in your Stape admin account.
• Use your own Google credentials - select this option if you are not using Stape’s services or are on Stape’s free plan.

Select your preferred authentication option and follow the instructions.

How to configure the Google Customer Match tag

1. Add the Google Customer Match by Stape tag to your server GTM Workspace.

Open your Server GTM container. Navigate to Templates → next to Tag Templates, click Search Gallery. Find Google Customer Match by Stape and click Add to Workspace.

2. Create a new tag. Go to Tags → click New. Select Google Customer Match by Stape as the tag configuration.

3. Configure a tag.

3.1 Action - choose the action for the tag. For this guide, we select Add to Customer List. You can also choose to remove users from a customer list.

3.2 Product - default is Google Ads.

3.3 Operating customer ID - enter the Google Ads account ID that will receive conversions.To find it: Sign in to Google Ads → click your profile picture (top-right) → copy the value. Ensure this matches the account used for the Data Manager API connection.

Important: Remove hyphens before using it.

3.4 Customer ID - ID of the account used for authorization.

• If you're using your customer account, use the customer account ID.
• If you access the customer account through a manager account, use the manager account ID.

Remove hyphens before using it.

3.5 Customer List Name - specify the customer list to interact with. Only lists created via Stape are supported.

The audience name format in Google products: stape_<Customer List Name> (e.g., entering “Purchasers” maps to stape_Purchasers).

3.6 Terms of Service Status - it must be accepted to upload to Customer Match. Requirements include good policy compliance and payment history.  You should have:

• A good history of policy compliance
• A good payment history

For more details on Google's policy regarding Customer Match, please check their documentation.

3.7 Validate Only - if enabled, the request is validated but not executed. Only errors are returned.

3.8 Use Optimistic Scenario - if enabled, the tag calls gtmOnSuccess() without waiting for an API response. Speeds up sGTM response but always reports fired successfully, even if it hasn’t.

3.9 Request-level consent - specify consent for Ad User Data and Ad Personalization. User-level consent (set per audience member) overrides request-level consent.

3.10 Audience member section.

- Audience Data Encoding - choose HEX or BASE64 for user identifiers.

This field is required for UserData (User Email Address, User Phone Number, and User Given/Family Name) uploads. For other types (User Address Region and User Address Postal Code) uploads, this field is ignored.

- Audience Data Encryption - encrypts User Email, Phone, Given/Family Name. Assumes data is hashed but not encrypted if left blank.

- User Mode - choose to send data for a single user or multiple users.

3.11 User Data Identifiers - specify up to 10 identifiers. At least one of User Email, User Phone, or User Address must be provided.

4. Add a trigger for the tag. Configure when the tag should fire according to your workflow.

5. Test the configuration. Open Preview mode in both your web and server GTM containers and verify your setup. For more detailed debugging instructions, refer to our server-side tracking debugging guide.