Target Genders and Age Groups in Google Ads

Not in the same way across all types. For Search, Display, Shopping, and Video (optimised for views) campaigns, you can directly edit Demographics to include or exclude specific genders and age groups — this is hard targeting. For Performance Max, Demand Gen, and Video (optimised for conversions) campaigns, you can only set an Audience Signal, which is a recommendation rather than a strict filter.

Targeting (via Demographics) strictly limits who sees your ads — if a gender or age group is excluded, they will not see your ad. Audience Signal is a hint to Google's AI about who is most likely to convert. The algorithm uses it as a starting point but will expand beyond the signal if it finds higher-converting users outside those demographics. You cannot force PMax or Demand Gen campaigns to ignore entire audience segments.

Google Ads offers the following age brackets: 18–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64, 65+, and Unknown. You can include or exclude any combination. Note that a large proportion of users may fall into the "Unknown" category — excluding it can significantly reduce your reach, so only do so if you have a strong reason.

Generally, no. The "Unknown" category can represent a significant volume of traffic — these are users Google hasn't been able to categorise. Excluding them can dramatically reduce your impressions without necessarily improving quality. Unless your product is strictly for a specific demographic (e.g., a legal requirement to only target adults), it's usually best to leave "Unknown" included.

Yes. Rather than excluding demographics entirely, you can apply bid adjustments — increase bids for high-performing groups and decrease bids for lower-performing ones. This gives Google more flexibility to serve ads across all groups while prioritising your best audiences. Bid adjustments are available for Search, Display, and Shopping campaigns under Demographics.

In your campaign, go to Audiences, keywords and content → Audiences → Demographics tab. You'll see a breakdown of impressions, clicks, conversions, and cost by gender and age group. Use this data to identify which demographics drive the best results before making exclusions or bid adjustments.