Mailchimp + Google Ads: lead forms in, customer lists out

What this integration unlocks

• Google lead form submissions landing in a Mailchimp audience, usually about every 15 minutes
• A choice of syncing new leads as subscribed or non-subscribed contacts
• A Mailchimp segment uploaded to Google Ads as a Customer Match list, by CSV or through Zapier
• Customer exclusions on prospecting campaigns, available even to accounts below the Customer Match targeting threshold
• An existing-customer list for Google's customer acquisition goal

Setup steps

1. 1

   Connect Google Lead Ads to a Mailchimp audience

   This is the native piece. On Mailchimp's Google Lead Ads integration page, click Connect, sign in with the Google Business account that owns the lead form, and grant permissions. Then pick the Google account, the lead form, and the Mailchimp audience it should feed. You need at least one lead form already connected to that Google account.

   Map each lead form field to a Mailchimp audience field, choose whether leads sync as subscribed or non-subscribed contacts, confirm the subscription rules checkbox, and click Sync now. Syncs then run regularly, usually about every 15 minutes. You can manage or disconnect it later under Integrations > Manage > Google Lead Ads.

2. 2

   Choose subscribed or non-subscribed with care

   The subscription choice is the decision that matters most. Syncing leads as subscribed means they receive your email campaigns, so only choose it when the lead form clearly asks for marketing consent. Non-subscribed contacts sit in the audience for transactional or one-to-one follow-up without joining your campaign sends.

   On the Google side, lead form assets run on Search and Performance Max campaigns and require a privacy policy, a good compliance record, and an eligible vertical. Set the form copy and the Mailchimp subscription status together so they say the same thing.

3. 3

   Recover leads collected before the connection

   Mailchimp's documentation does not describe a backfill of older leads, so treat the sync as starting from when you connect. Google stores lead form data for a limited time: leads expire after 60 days, and the CSV download in Google Ads covers the last 30 days.

   If the form ran before you connected Mailchimp, download those leads from the Lead form section under Assets in Google Ads and import them into the same Mailchimp audience now, before they age out.

4. 4

   Export a Mailchimp segment for Customer Match

   For the reverse direction, Mailchimp's Google integration does not sync audiences to Google Ads, so the list goes over as a file. In Mailchimp, open Audience, choose the segment from the Segments dropdown, click Export segment, then Export CSV. Only Owners and Admins can export a whole audience, and exports stay available in the account for 30 days.

   The export can arrive as a ZIP with separate CSV files for subscribed, unsubscribed, non-subscribed, and cleaned contacts. Decide deliberately which files to upload: cleaned addresses will not match, and unsubscribed contacts need a consent basis for advertising before they go anywhere near an ad platform.

5. 5

   Upload the file as a Google customer list

   In Google Ads, go to Tools > Audience Manager, click the plus button, and choose Customer list. Upload plain text or pre-hashed data. With plain text, Google hashes email, phone, first name, and last name on your computer with SHA256 before sending. The CSV must be ASCII or UTF-8 with English column headers, and processing can take up to 48 hours.

   Google recommends Data Manager for customer data uploads, so check whether your account offers it as the upload path. A list needs at least 100 members added or updated in the last 540 days to stay eligible.

6. 6

   Automate the list with Zapier instead of re-exporting

   A one-off export goes stale as people buy and unsubscribe. Zapier closes that gap with standard actions: the Mailchimp trigger New Subscriber in Segment or Tag can fire the Google Ads action Add Contact to Customer List, and New Unsubscriber can fire Remove Contact From Customer List. That keeps the Customer Match list close to the Mailchimp segment without monthly uploads.

   Our Zapier + Google Ads guide covers the connection itself and the offline conversion actions that run through it.

7. 7

   Use the list for exclusions and the acquisition goal

   What you can do with the list depends on the Google Ads account. Targeting and manual bid adjustments need more than 90 days of history and over $50,000 USD in lifetime spend. Below that, Customer Match lists work for Observation and exclusions only, which still covers the two jobs that matter most for a small business: excluding current customers from prospecting, and feeding the customer acquisition goal so bidding favours new customers.

   Similar audiences are gone; Google stopped generating them on May 1, 2023. If you want reach beyond the list, Lookalike segments run only in Demand Gen and Video brand campaigns.

Common issues

Common questions