Question from Reddit user:
Hi guys, I am new to PPC and could really use some help understanding how the retargeting audience actually works. Google and MailChimp aren’t providing any clarification and are contradicting each other and I’m so lost.
I work at a small agency where PPC knowledge is little to none. 2 months ago my coworker set up a Google remarketing display ad through MailChimp for a client. She has since left and I am tasked with managing this. To my knowledge, this is the first ad ever done for this clients business.
The ad was approved and “published” 2 months ago on MC but is not running.
The minimum audience for the ad to run is 100. MailChimp shows we are at 80 today (the audience actually decreased since yesterday. It was at 88 for 9 days straight). MailChimp told me they have no information and can only see what I see and recommended asking Google.
Google told me they cannot assist since I don’t have a client ID for this ad (since this ad was submitted through MailChimp instead of Google directly) so they have no info other than what is mentioned below. Neither are able to assist me, and meanwhile the client is asking why his ad isn’t running.
1 – For remarketing Ads, Google told me that you can only remarket people who visited the website via an ad. If this was true, the audience should be 0. MailChimp says the ad is targeting ALL website visitors, not just those who visited via an ad.
This is contradictory – which is true? What is the audience of 80 that I’m seeing in MailChimp? Where did it come from? If what Google is saying is true this number should be 0, given we have never run an ad.
2 – Google Analytics shows almost 400 site visitors since the ad was published. Again, the Google Ads audience in MailChimp shows 80?
3 – A week ago I tried creating a Google ad account for the client to run the ad thru Google directly instead of MC.
I linked the GA4 account to the Ads account. The audiences still all say 0. Again Google told me this is because I haven’t run an ad yet? But I thought it was coming from Google Analytics? And if that is the case, how do I have any people in my Google ad audience in MC?
I am so confused at how this works. I have been researching and asking a Google and MC but have gotten nowhere.
If someone could explain this to me I would be so so grateful. It’s been 2 months of me trying to figure this out, and my job and the client are looking to me to get this ad running. I have asked my agency if we can hire a PPC expert, but in the meantime I have to figure this out. Thank you SO much in advance to anyone who answers. Feel free to ask if you need any other info from me!
Answer from Nabil:
The short answer is:
Your confusion is completely understandable because you’re dealing with a complicated, non-standard setup (MailChimp’s ad integration) and receiving conflicting information.
The key issue is that the MailChimp-created remarketing audience is not working properly, and the information you received from Google that you must run an ad to build an audience is incorrect.
The audience of 80 in MailChimp is likely a misreported figure from an outdated or broken tracking method that MailChimp uses.
The solution is to immediately stop relying on MailChimp’s ad integration and set up the remarketing audiences directly in your new Google Ads account using Google Tag Manager and the official Google gTag or Google Ads Remarketing Tag.
This will use the legitimate traffic data from Google Analytics and fix your zero-audience issue.
The long answer is:
Let’s break down the three main points of confusion.
First, to address the core contradiction:
Google was wrong to tell you that you can only remarket to people who visited the website via an ad.
That statement is fundamentally false.
A standard Google Ads remarketing audience is built by tagging your website with a snippet of code, usually via Google Tag Manager, which then collects data on ALL website visitors, regardless of their source (organic search, direct, social, paid, etc.), and sends that data to Google Ads.
The audience of 80 you see in MailChimp is a mystery number because their proprietary integration is likely flawed.
It could be old, cached data, or it could be the result of a very small, specific audience definition that your coworker set up through the MailChimp interface that neither you nor MailChimp support can fully see.
It’s safe to disregard this number and focus on establishing a direct connection.
Second, the reason Google Analytics shows 400 visitors but your new Google Ads account audiences show 0 is that simply linking your GA4 account to your Google Ads account is not enough to build a remarketing audience.
For Google Ads to build its own Remarketing Audience, your website needs to have the dedicated Google Ads Remarketing Tag or the Google gTag installed and configured to send traffic data to your specific Google Ads Client ID.
The MailChimp integration likely only installed its proprietary tracking code, which is tied to the now-stalled ad and not to your new Google Ads account.
Third, the solution is a multi-API approach that secures your data flow and eliminates the need for MailChimp’s faulty integration.
You need to transition to a future-proof setup using the Google Ads API, the MailChimp API, Google Tag Manager, and a server-side solution like Stape or Google Cloud Platform.
You would use Google Tag Manager to implement the official Google Ads Remarketing Tag to instantly start populating audiences in your new Google Ads account.
Then, for a complete solution, you can build a server-side data pipeline.
Your server-side container (Stape/GCP) can use the MailChimp API to instantly pull lead data when someone subscribes to a mailing list and, simultaneously, use the Google Ads API to send that lead information back to Google as an Enhanced Conversion or Offline Conversion Import.
This ensures that even for leads captured offline or through MailChimp, you get accurate conversion data and are not solely relying on the browser.
This professional setup gives you direct control, eliminates the conflicting data from MailChimp, and ensures your audience of all website visitors builds instantly based on the correct GA4 traffic.
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