Google is planning on letting advertisers use email addresses to advertise using a forthcoming tool called "Customer Match," which will be released in the next few weeks, according to The Verge. The tool will allow advertisers to target potential customers that are logged into Google and have given their phone number to a retailer.
"Customer Match" will give businesses the opportunity to tap into users who are logged into Google or YouTube and advertise to them using information about their search habits and preferences, according to The Wall Street Journal. Furthermore, an additional tool called "Similar Audiences" will allow marketers to target audiences that display similar preferences and behaviors as existing customers.
"Customer Match" will compete with Facebook's similar tool called "Custom Audiences," which also allows advertisers to use email addresses for target ads, according to Fortune.
"With Customer Match, your brand is right there, with the right message, at the moment your customer is most receptive," said Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google's senior vice president of ads and commerce.
Targeting ads using email addresses is something that Google is doing due to the increased use of mobile devices, which has opened up potential for more revenue - tapping into email addresses for marketing purposes gives Google a higher percentage of profits from the higher-cost targeted ads on platforms like Gmail and YouTube.
