Google Ads Introduces Commerce Audience Sharing: What It Means for Brands, Retailers and Paid Media

 

From Retailer First-Party Data and Campaign Activation to Measurement, Incremental Sales and Profitable Growth

Introduction

Imagine L'Oréal wants to increase sales of its skincare products through Douglas Germany.

Douglas has valuable first-party customer data. It understands which customers purchase skincare products, which shoppers regularly buy premium beauty products, and which audiences demonstrate purchasing interest across different brands and categories.

L'Oréal has its own Google Ads account, advertising budget, product portfolio and customer acquisition objectives.

Both companies have valuable customer intelligence, but they see different parts of the shopping journey.

Google Ads Commerce Audience Sharing introduces a way to connect retailer first-party audiences with brand-managed advertising.

Eligible retailers and marketplaces can share selected first-party audience segments with their advertising partners. Brands can then activate those audiences through eligible Google Ads commerce media campaigns, directing customers to the retailer's approved website.

The retailer controls which audiences are shared. The brand manages its own advertising campaigns.

For brands with significant retail distribution, this creates an opportunity to use retailer shopping signals in their Google Ads activity while keeping the transaction within the retailer's commerce environment.

The practical questions are straightforward: What can retailers share? How do brands access these audiences? How does the Google Ads setup work? Which campaigns can use them? And what can both businesses measure?

I'll explore these questions through a fictional collaboration between L'Oréal and Douglas Germany.

Both companies are real, but the collaboration, audience segments and campaign examples in this article are illustrative.

01. What Google Ads Has Introduced

Commerce Audience Sharing allows eligible commerce partners, such as retailers and marketplaces, to share first-party audience segments with advertising partners, including brands and sellers.

There are two distinct participants.

Participant	Responsibility
Douglas Germany: Commerce partner	Maintains and shares selected first-party audiences
L'Oréal: Advertising partner	Uses approved audiences in eligible Google Ads commerce media campaigns

The customer journey in our example would be:

Douglas customer audience → L'Oréal Google Ads campaign → Douglas.de → L'Oréal product purchase

The retailer provides access to relevant audience segments, while the brand can use those segments in its own eligible advertising campaigns.

There is an important restriction.

Campaigns using Douglas's shared audiences must direct traffic to the domain approved by Douglas.

L'Oréal cannot use those audiences to send customers to its own webshop.

The capability is also limited to eligible commerce media network campaigns. It does not make retailer audiences available across every Google Ads campaign.

This distinction matters because Commerce Audience Sharing is specifically designed around advertising products sold through commerce partners.

02. The Business Opportunity: L'Oréal × Douglas Germany

Consider a fictional scenario in which L'Oréal wants to promote three skincare products through Douglas.

Product	Illustrative price	Advertising objective
Daily Cleanser	€25	Reach relevant skincare customers
Vitamin C Serum	€50	Drive product discovery and purchases
Skincare Starter Bundle	€100	Promote higher-value product combinations

 Douglas already has customer relationships across several beauty categories.

Some shoppers purchase skincare regularly. Others browse premium serums or buy products from multiple competing brands.

These audiences could be relevant to L'Oréal's advertising strategy.

Which audiences could Douglas share?

Illustrative Douglas audience	Potential use for L'Oréal
Skincare purchasers	Reach customers with demonstrated skincare purchasing behaviour
Premium beauty shoppers	Promote premium serums and bundles
Beauty category browsers	Reach customers showing interest in relevant products
Repeat beauty purchasers	Promote complementary products
Previous L'Oréal purchasers	Support relevant repeat-purchase or cross-sell activity

 

The actual availability of these audiences would depend on which eligible segments Douglas maintains and chooses to share.

L'Oréal would not automatically gain access to all Douglas customer audiences.

Douglas decides which segments are shared, with which advertising partners, and can stop sharing them later.

That retailer control is a fundamental part of the capability.

03. What Changes With Retailer First-Party Audience Sharing?

L'Oréal already has access to its own first-party data, including eligible customer segments from its direct customer relationships.

Douglas has a different perspective.

It can understand shopping behaviour within its retail environment, including customer interest across brands and categories.

Commerce Audience Sharing allows these two sources of customer intelligence to support eligible advertising activity.

Audience source	What it contributes
L'Oréal first-party audiences	Brand-owned customer relationships
Douglas shared audiences	Retailer shopping and purchasing signals
Combined eligible audiences	Additional possibilities for audience selection and campaign activation

For example, L'Oréal may want to reach Douglas customers who regularly purchase premium skincare products but are not already known to L'Oréal through its direct customer data.

Alternatively, L'Oréal may want to promote a skincare bundle to an eligible segment of Douglas shoppers with demonstrated category interest.

The feature supports the use of shared commerce audiences alongside the brand's own first-party data segments, subject to eligibility and campaign capabilities.

The value is in bringing relevant retailer customer signals into the brand's advertising activity without requiring the retailer to surrender control of its audience-sharing permissions.

04. How the Actual Google Ads Setup Works

The implementation involves two businesses and their respective accounts.

In our example, Douglas is the commerce partner providing the audience data. L'Oréal is the advertising partner using it.

Step 1: Establish the required account links

Before L'Oréal can use Douglas's shared audiences, the relevant accounts must be connected.

Account connection	Purpose
Douglas Google Merchant Center ↔ L'Oréal Google Ads	Establish the required retailer Merchant Center connection
Douglas advertising data sharing account ↔ L'Oréal Google Ads	Enable approved audience sharing and relevant retailer conversion data

Inside L'Oréal's Google Ads account, the linking requests can be reviewed through:

Tools → Data Manager → Connected products

For the relevant Google Merchant Center and Advertising partners entries, L'Oréal selects Manage & link, opens the Received tab and approves the pending invitations.

The advertising data sharing account connection can also create new retailer-reported conversion actions in L'Oréal's Google Ads account.

Accepting the links does not give Douglas direct access to manage L'Oréal's Google Ads account.

Step 2: Douglas shares its selected audiences

Douglas opens Audience Manager in its advertising data sharing account.

The process is:

1. Select the eligible audience segments to share.
2. Choose Share with partners.
3. Select L'Oréal from the actively linked advertising partners.
4. Review the sharing details.
5. Confirm Share.

Only actively linked, eligible advertising partners appear in the sharing selection.

Douglas can subsequently stop sharing a segment.

Step 3: L'Oréal accesses the shared audiences

L'Oréal opens Audience Manager inside its own Google Ads account.

The shared Douglas audiences appear with a Shared badge.

L'Oréal can identify the segments provided by Douglas and review available segment information, including audience names, customer types, list sizes and membership status.

Step 4: Add the audiences to eligible campaigns

L'Oréal selects the relevant shared audiences in Audience Manager.

It then chooses Add to, selects the eligible campaigns and applicable targeting settings, and confirms Add audience segments.

The audiences can only be used in supported commerce media network campaigns that direct traffic to the domain approved by Douglas.

The exact audience targeting and application options depend on the eligible campaign type.

The implementation checklist

Requirement	What L'Oréal and Douglas must confirm
Account linking	Both required connections are active
Audience eligibility	Shared segments meet applicable requirements
Audience permissions	Douglas has approved the selected segments
Campaign eligibility	The campaign supports commerce audience sharing
Conversion reporting	Relevant retailer-reported conversions are available
Approved domain	Campaign traffic goes to Douglas's permitted website

 

For Customer Match audiences, both participating accounts must meet the applicable Customer Match eligibility requirements.

This is particularly important for larger brands working with multiple retail partners, where account permissions, audience availability and destination restrictions must be managed carefully.

05. From Shared Audiences to Campaign Activation

Once the account connections and audience permissions are established, L'Oréal can incorporate the approved Douglas audiences into its eligible commerce media activity.

The advertising strategy should reflect the products being promoted and the shopping behaviour represented by the available audience segments.

An illustrative activation approach

Shared audience	Product focus	Advertising opportunity
Skincare purchasers	Vitamin C Serum	Reach relevant category buyers
Premium beauty shoppers	Skincare Starter Bundle	Promote higher-value products
Beauty category browsers	Daily Cleanser	Reach customers exploring skincare
Previous L'Oréal purchasers	Complementary skincare products	Encourage relevant additional purchases

 

These are potential audience-product combinations, not guaranteed targeting options or performance outcomes.

The available campaign types and audience controls must be confirmed within the eligible commerce media setup.

What changes in campaign planning?

The brand can now consider retailer-supplied shopping audiences alongside its own eligible first-party audiences.

This creates additional possibilities for audience selection, product promotion and campaign evaluation.

For example, L'Oréal could compare the performance of different eligible Douglas audience segments when promoting the same skincare product.

It could also examine whether different product categories perform better with particular retailer audience groups.

The important operational distinction remains that the advertising is managed by L'Oréal, while the customer purchases through Douglas.

06. What Can Brands and Retailers Measure?

Commerce Audience Sharing provides both participants with access to information relevant to their roles.

However, the brand and retailer do not receive identical access to each other's data.

Measurement area	Douglas: Commerce partner	L'Oréal: Advertising partner
Audience segments	Creates and controls sharing	Accesses approved shared segments
Audience information	Maintains the first-party segments	Views available shared segment details
Campaign performance	Can access relevant spend and performance metrics	Reviews its own campaign performance
Retailer conversions	Provides relevant conversion data	Can access retailer-reported conversion performance
Domain permissions	Specifies the approved destination	Must use the permitted domain

 

For L'Oréal, the relevant campaign reporting can include advertising spend, impressions, clicks, conversions and conversion value, according to the available campaign and conversion configuration.

The retailer-reported purchase conversions are especially relevant because the transaction happens on Douglas.de rather than L'Oréal's own website.

Illustrative campaign reporting

Suppose L'Oréal runs an eligible commerce media campaign promoting its skincare products through Douglas.

Metric	Illustrative result
Advertising investment	€20,000
Clicks	40,000
Retailer-reported purchases attributed to the campaign	2,000
Average order value	€50
Attributed retailer sales	€100,000
Reported ROAS	5.0x

 

These hypothetical results demonstrate the reporting relationship.

L'Oréal manages the advertising investment and can review relevant campaign performance.

Douglas receives the customer traffic and processes the purchases on its website.

The feature supports this collaboration through approved audience access and relevant retailer conversion information.

The results still need to be interpreted according to the actual conversion configuration and reporting available to each partner.

07. What Does This Mean for Retailers?

For retailers such as Douglas, Commerce Audience Sharing provides a way to make selected first-party audiences available to trusted advertising partners.

The retailer can support brand-funded advertising that directs customers back to its own commerce environment.

Three opportunities stand out.

Stronger advertising collaboration with brands

Retailers can share relevant audiences with eligible brands that want to promote products sold through their platforms.

Additional traffic and sales opportunities

Brand-managed advertising can direct shoppers to the retailer's website, where purchases take place.

Control over first-party audience access

The retailer decides which eligible segments to share, which advertising partners receive them, and when sharing should stop.

The retailer also controls the approved destination domain.

This means audience collaboration does not require the retailer to give the brand unrestricted access to its underlying customer data or advertising account.

For retailers working with many brands, the capability creates another way to support commerce media partnerships while retaining control over audience-sharing permissions.

08. What Does This Mean for Brands?

For brands such as L'Oréal, the main opportunity is access to retailer first-party audience segments within their own eligible Google Ads commerce media campaigns.

That can be useful when a meaningful proportion of sales occurs through retail partners rather than directly through the brand's webshop.

Three practical advantages

1. Access to relevant retailer shopping audiences

L'Oréal can potentially reach eligible Douglas audiences based on customer behaviour within the retailer's commerce environment.

2. Brand-managed advertising using retailer data

L'Oréal can manage its own eligible Google Ads campaigns while using audience segments that Douglas has approved for sharing.

3. Visibility into retailer-reported purchase outcomes

The account connections can make relevant retailer conversion information available for campaign reporting.

This creates a closer relationship between the brand's advertising activity and purchases occurring through the retailer.

The brand can also use shared commerce audiences alongside its own eligible first-party data segments, subject to campaign support and applicable requirements.

For brands selling through several retailers, the capability may support distinct advertising collaborations with different commerce partners, each with its own account links, audience permissions and approved destination.

09. Practical Requirements and Limitations

The capability creates new opportunities, but its use depends on several specific conditions.

 

Area	Requirement or limitation
Eligibility	Shared audiences can only be used in eligible commerce media network campaigns
Account connections	Required Merchant Center and advertising data sharing links must be active
Audience availability	Retailers must maintain relevant eligible segments and choose to share them
Audience permissions	Brands only receive access to approved shared audiences
Customer Match	Both parties must meet applicable eligibility requirements when using Customer Match
Destination restriction	Campaigns using shared audiences must direct traffic to the approved retailer domain
Reporting	Each participant receives access to relevant information according to its role
Access control	Retailers can stop sharing audiences and account links can be managed or removed

 

One particularly important point is that Commerce Audience Sharing does not provide a brand with general-purpose access to retailer audiences across its entire Google Ads account.

The shared audiences are specifically intended for eligible commerce media activity connected to the approved commerce partner.

This is also why the setup requires coordination between the retailer and the brand before campaign activation.

10. The Commerce Audience Sharing Opportunity

The fictional L'Oréal and Douglas example demonstrates how the capability connects five elements of a brand-retailer advertising collaboration.

Element	What the feature enables
Retailer first-party data	Douglas can share selected eligible shopping audiences
Brand advertising	L'Oréal can activate approved audiences in its own eligible Google Ads campaigns
Account connectivity	Merchant Center and advertising data sharing links support the collaboration
Retailer purchase destination	Customers are directed to Douglas's approved website
Campaign measurement	Relevant advertising performance and retailer conversion information become available

 

The opportunity is especially relevant for brands with established retail distribution and retailers that want to support advertising activity from their brand partners.

The practical value comes from connecting customer audiences, advertising execution and retailer purchase outcomes within an approved account-sharing arrangement.

Conclusion: A New Connection Between Retailer Data and Brand Advertising

Google Ads Commerce Audience Sharing introduces a new way for brands and retailers to collaborate using first-party customer audiences.

Retailers can share selected eligible segments with their advertising partners. Brands can use those audiences through supported Google Ads commerce media campaigns while directing shoppers to the retailer's approved website.

For retailers, this creates another way to support brand advertising partnerships, generate traffic and maintain control over audience access.

For brands, it provides an opportunity to incorporate retailer shopping intelligence into their own advertising activity and measure relevant purchase outcomes through the commerce partner.

The operational details are important. Account linking, audience permissions, campaign eligibility, conversion reporting and destination restrictions determine how the collaboration works in practice.

For performance marketers managing brands with significant retail distribution, the capability is worth examining because it connects retailer first-party audiences, brand-managed paid media and retailer transactions more directly.

The significance of Commerce Audience Sharing is the ability for retailers and brands to use their respective strengths together: retailer customer intelligence, brand advertising investment and a shared commercial objective of driving product sales through the retailer's platform.