How to Use Custom Audiences in Naver Display Ad Campaigns
- Zohid | 조히드
- Apr 9
- 5 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
If you're running digital campaigns in Korea, you're probably already familiar with Naver Display Ads—also known as Naver Banner Ads. As the dominant search engine and portal in Korea, Naver offers powerful advertising tools, including advanced audience targeting features that help advertisers reach the right users at the right time.
One of the most powerful strategies to maximize the effectiveness of your Naver Display Ad campaigns is using custom audiences. This article will walk you through the various types of custom audiences available in Naver, including how to set them up and best practices for getting the most out of your banner ad campaigns.
What Is a Custom Audience in Naver Display Ads?
A custom audience in Naver allows advertisers to target users based on specific behaviors and characteristics, rather than relying solely on broad demographic or contextual targeting. These audiences can be created using your own data (first-party data) or behavioral data collected through Naver's platform and integrated services.
With Naver Display Ads, you can create and use the following types of custom audiences:
Website Audience
MAT (Mobile App Tracking) Audience
Custom Keyword Audience
Lookalike Audience
External Audience
Let’s dive into each type in detail.
1. Website Target Audience
What is a Website audience?
The Website audience allows you to track and retarget users who have interacted with your website—such as visiting a product/service page, adding to cart, signing up, or completing a purchase.
This is a highly valuable audience for remarketing through your Naver banner ads, helping you reconnect with people who have already shown interest in your offerings.
How to Use Website Target Audience
To create a website audience, you must:
Enable conversion tracking in your Naver Display Ads account.
Install the conversion tracking script on your website.
Choose the event you want to track: visit, add to cart, purchase, registration, etc.
Set a target duration between 1 and 180 days.
📌 Important Note: If your audience size is below 1,000 users, Naver will not allow you to include it for targeting, and any running ad will be paused if the audience size drops below that threshold.
2. MAT Audience
What is a MAT Audience?
MAT Audience (Mobile App Tracking Audience) allows advertisers to retarget users who have interacted with their mobile app. This includes actions like:
App Install
App Launch
In-App Purchase
Reaching a certain app level
Custom in-app events
This type of targeting is crucial for mobile app marketers running user acquisition or retention campaigns via Naver Display Ads.
How to Use MAT Audience
To use MAT targeting, you need:
To integrate with an MMP (Mobile Measurement Partner), such as:
Adjust
AppsFlyer
Airbridge
Adbrix
Branch
Kochava
Singular
Wisetracker
To configure MAT conversion tracking and enable postback settings
To set an audience duration of 1–180 days
🧠 Pro Tip: Include both organic and paid audiences/events to maximize the audience pool. Disabling postback will reduce your audience size and may pause your campaign.
3. Custom Keyword Audience
What is a Custom Keyword Audience?
A Custom Keyword Target (맞춤 타겟) lets you build an audience based on user behavior and interest in specific keywords/topics. You enter keywords related to your brand, products, or services, and Naver builds a targeting segment using behavioral signals from content consumption across its ecosystem.
How to Use Custom Keyword Audience
Enter a list of relevant keywords in your ad group settings.
Avoid sensitive categories like race, religion, sexual orientation, or health status—Naver’s system will flag or exclude these.
Naver may reject keywords that fall under its sensitive category policy during the review process.
📝 Tip: Use custom keyword audiences when you want to expand beyond your own traffic and reach users who are likely to be interested in your offerings.
4. Lookalike Audience
What is a Lookalike Audience?
The Lookalike Audience (유사 타겟) feature helps you expand your reach by finding new users who behave similarly to your best existing customers. You can create lookalikes based on:
Website audience
MAT audience
Customer list uploads (SEED audience)
This is ideal for scaling your campaigns without sacrificing relevance.
Key Features
SEED audience must have at least 2,000 users.
You can set the similarity level from 1 (highly similar, smaller size) to 10 (less similar, broader reach).
You can use lookalike audiences for both inclusion (targeting) and exclusion (negative targeting).
📈 When to Use It:After you have a strong-performing custom audience, use lookalikes to increase impressions and conversions without starting from scratch.
5. External Audience (Third-party Audience Sync)
What is an External Audience?
External Audiences allow you to bring in audiences created in your Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) platform and sync them with Naver’s performance-based display platform.
This is especially useful if you have highly customized audience segments built inside tools like Airbridge or AppsFlyer, and you want to use them directly for Naver banner ad targeting.
How to Use External Audiences
Connect your MMP to Naver via an API key integration.
Ensure your audience list meets Naver's minimum size requirements.
Use the external audience in ad group targeting settings (include or exclude).
🔌 Integration Options: Currently supported MMPs for external audience syncing include:
Airbridge
AppsFlyer
Why Custom Audiences Matter in Naver Display Ads
Custom audiences allow advertisers to be more data-driven, precise, and efficient with their marketing budgets. Whether you're retargeting recent visitors or reaching new lookalike users, the combination of these audience types unlocks performance gains that generic targeting simply can’t match.
Using Naver Display Ads, you can:
Deliver highly relevant messages to the right users
Improve conversion rates
Optimize ad spend
Build brand loyalty through continuous touchpoints
Best Practices for Using Custom Audiences
Keep Your Audience Fresh. Set realistic audience durations (30~90 days is often optimal) and regularly review your targeting setup.
Use Exclusions. Avoid wasting budget on users who’ve already converted by excluding past purchasers.
Segment Smartly. Instead of one broad audience, create segments based on user behavior stages: new visitors, cart abandoners, loyal customers, etc.
Leverage Lookalikes for Scale. After you validate a segment that converts well, use lookalikes to expand reach while maintaining performance.
Monitor Audience Size. Make sure each audience has over 1,000 users to remain active in campaigns.
Final Thoughts
When used correctly, custom audience targeting in Naver Display Ads (also referred to as Naver Banner Ads) can dramatically improve the performance of your campaigns.
From re-engaging high-intent website visitors to scaling with lookalike audiences, Naver offers a robust set of tools tailored for the Korean market.
If you’re advertising in Korea and want to go beyond basic demographic/interest targeting, diving into these custom audience features is not just a good idea—it’s essential.
Ready to upgrade your Naver Display Ad strategy? Start testing custom audiences today and unlock the true potential of precision marketing.
Need help with Naver Ads? Reach out to us to book a consultation call!
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