Clarification on Custom Audience Type Mapping Between UI and API

[Amit Tomar]

Hi Team,

I’m working on creating Custom Audiences using the API (CustomAudienceOperation).
I noticed that while creating a custom segment via the UI, there are two options:

1. People with any of these interests or purchase intentions

2. People who searched for any of these terms on Google

At the API level, we have the following CustomAudienceType enums:
AUTO, INTEREST, PURCHASE_INTENT, and SEARCH.

Could you please help clarify how these UI options map to the respective enum values in the API?
Also, under what scenarios should each enum type be used?

Thank you

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for contacting the Google Ads API support team.

I understand you're working with the Google Ads API for Custom Audiences and seeking clarification on how the UI options map the CustomAudienceType enum values.​ The UI option "People with any of these interests or purchase intentions" corresponds to "INTEREST" and "PURCHASE_INTENT" in the API and the option "People who searched for any of these terms on Google" directly corresponds to "SEARCH" enum in the API. Kindly note that for the CustomAudienceType "INTEREST" OR "PURCHASE_INTENT" is not allowed for newly created custom audiences but kept for existing audiences. Hence, I would recommend using  the option "AUTO" and then Google Ads will auto-select the best interpretation at serving time.​

I hope this clarifies your issue. Please feel free to reach out to us for further queries related to Google Ads API.
 

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-07-24 22:18:45Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01swhWK:ref" (ADR-00320128)