One of the most powerful advantages of using BigQuery with Vertex AI is the ability to push highly segmented audiences—created from predictive models—directly into marketing platforms like Google Analytics and the Google Marketing Platform (GMP), which includes Google Ads, Display & Video 360, and Campaign Manager 360. Instead of relying on broad, one-size-fits-all targeting, you can build precise audience groups by combining Vertex AI’s model outputs with BigQuery’s data management capabilities. For example, you might target “users with a 70%+ likelihood to purchase in the next week.”
Solving Marketing Challenges with AI-Powered Audience Targeting
Many organizations struggle with scaling audience targeting and predictive modeling due to fragmented data, high implementation costs, and generic marketing strategies. These limitations often result in wasted spending—sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars—on approaches that are both technology- and resource-intensive, ultimately failing to meet growth and marketing targets.
Working with customers on this challenge, we’ve found that BigQuery combined with Vertex AI provides a powerful solution to streamline the end-to-end audience activation process. Instead of relying on broad targeting, marketers can now create precise, high-value audience segments by unifying first-party behavioral data from Google Analytics with model outputs from Vertex AI, directly within BigQuery.
This seamless integration enables real-time activation into platforms like Google Analytics and Google Ads, empowering teams to tailor messaging, optimize bidding strategies, and achieve measurable improvements in performance, efficiency, and ROI.
Author’s Note: This article is an excerpt from a recent webinar on similar topics. Click here for the full on-demand session.
The Activation Process
Once predictive models, such as propensity models, identify valuable user segments (e.g., high-propensity buyers), these segments can be created within BigQuery. BigQuery’s integrations allow these precisely defined audiences to be exported or linked to platforms like Google Analytics, which can then pass them to other integrated media platforms like DV360 or Google Ads. This enables marketing teams to personalize messaging, tailor campaigns, and optimize bidding strategies specifically for these high-value groups.
Because these segments are built on rich, unified first-party web and app behavioral data from Google Analytics and Vertex AI’s refined predictions, you’re no longer operating blindly with generic audiences. Instead, you deliver the right message to the right person at the right time, achieving higher return on ad spend (ROAS), reducing customer acquisition costs, and improving overall marketing efficiency. The ability to automate the refreshing of these audience segments ensures that activation efforts always target the most relevant users based on the latest predictions.
Google Cloud’s Customer Data Platform (CDP) capabilities can enhance this workflow by making data ingestion, identity resolution, and activation seamless. You can ingest and blend additional first-party data directly in BigQuery. Vertex AI then resolves identities and trains advanced models (such as propensity scoring or advanced segmentation). Finally, Google Cloud’s activation tools automate segment updates and push audiences into Google Ads and DV360, eliminating manual overhead.
Driving ROI with End-to-End Activation
A complete end-to-end activation solution enables the following capabilities:
Predict & Activate
Use BigQuery ML or Vertex AI along with additional Cloud CDP capabilities to automate the process of scoring customers, then push segments to Google Analytics, Google Ads, DV360, or Campaign Manager 360.
Visualize in Looker
Connect Looker Studio to BigQuery for live dashboards that track model performance, segment growth, and campaign KPIs.
Close the Loop
Tie every ad dollar back to revenue, conversions, and customer lifetime value by combining GMP reporting with your unified data, ensuring marketing spend consistently drives measurable ROI.
By modeling in Vertex AI, storing and managing data in BigQuery, and activating directly in Google Analytics and GMP, organizations transform raw signals into laser-focused campaigns. The result is more efficient marketing spend, stronger personalization, and measurable improvements in both performance and cost.
Let’s Continue the Conversation
If you’re exploring how to move from data collection to activation or are curious about applying predictive models to your own marketing strategy, contact us today to discuss your organization’s unique needs.
