What Are Facebook Custom Audiences, and How Do You Use Them?

When it comes to running Facebook ads, the last thing you want is to waste your budget on people who won’t bite. That’s where Facebook custom audiences come in handy. These bad boys let you hone in on the people most likely to engage with your business, ensuring you're not just casting a wide net but fishing where the big catches are.

I’ll explain what Facebook custom audiences are, the various types you can create, and their key benefits. I'll also show you how to use these audiences for maximum impact, including how to turn them into lookalikes to expand your reach and find new customers.

What is a Facebook custom audience?

Facebook custom audiences are an ad targeting option that allows you to identify and create your audience segments. These groups consist of individuals who have interacted with your business in some way—whether by visiting your website, engaging with your Facebook Page, or making a purchase.

Unlike broader targeting options, custom audiences help you connect with people already familiar with your brand, which increases the likelihood of conversions.

Facebook also allows you to create custom audiences based on interactions on and off the platform:

• On-Facebook custom audiences consist of users who have engaged with your brand directly on the Facebook platform. This includes individuals who have liked, commented, shared your posts, or followed your Facebook Business Page. 
• Off-Facebook custom audiences include individuals who have engaged with your business outside of Facebook, such as website visitors, customers from your CRM, or people who have interacted with your offline marketing efforts. To create these audiences, you provide Facebook with data such as customer email addresses, phone numbers, or website visitor information. This data matches Facebook user profiles, allowing you to build a targetable audience for your ads.

Benefits of Facebook custom audiences

Using Facebook custom audiences can provide several advantages for your advertising campaigns:

1. Improved conversion rates: You'll likely see higher engagement and conversion rates by targeting people familiar with your brand. Retargeting conversion rates, for example, can be 150% higher than acquisition campaigns. Since these audiences know your business, they’re more receptive to your ads than cold audiences, resulting in more efficient ad spend.

2. Cost-effective advertising: Custom audiences, particularly those used for remarketing, often lead to lower costs per action and higher ROI. You increase the likelihood of conversions by targeting warm leads—individuals who have previously interacted with your business.

🛎️ Speaking of costs, we’ve got a Facebook ad cost calculator that helps you determine how much you need to spend on your ads to reach your revenue goals. Be sure to bookmark the link!

3. Personalized messaging: Custom audiences allow you to tailor your ad content to specific audience segments based on their previous interactions with your brand, providing a more personalized experience. In fact, according to a survey by Forbes, 81% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company that offers personalized experiences. 

Custom audiences facilitate this by letting you show relevant ads, such as retargeting people who visited a specific product page with a discount offer, which increases the chances of conversion.

Take a look at this ad:

The phrase "Still on the fence?" suggests it's aimed at people who have previously interacted with the brand but haven’t completed a purchase. Free shipping encourages them to finalize their decision, making it a classic retargeting tactic to re-engage potential customers who may need an extra push to convert. 

Retargeting also encourages repeat purchases and builds stronger customer loyalty, as customers are reminded of your brand and its value. 

5. Better Facebook audience insights: Custom audiences offer valuable insights into your customer's behaviors and preferences on Facebook by tracking their interactions with your ads, posts, and website. These insights help you identify which audience segments are the most engaged, allowing you to refine your targeting and craft more personalized, data-driven campaigns that resonate better with your audience.

6. Optimized ad delivery: Facebook custom audiences are unique in allowing you to target individuals who already have a connection to your brand. Because these audiences consist of people engaged with your business, Facebook’s algorithms can more accurately optimize ad delivery within this group. 

The data and insights you gather from your custom audience campaigns can be valuable for planning future campaigns. For example, if you notice that specific custom audiences respond particularly well to your ads, you can effectively leverage that knowledge to target lookalike audiences in your future campaigns. 

Types of Facebook custom audiences

Facebook offers several types of custom audiences to help you target the right people:

1. Customer list: Upload a list of customer information (like email addresses or phone numbers) to create an audience. This is great for reconnecting with past customers or leads directly in their feed.
2. Website traffic: Target people who have visited your website or specific pages. You can focus on visitors who spent time on high-converting pages or those who abandoned their cart.
3. App activity: Reach people who have taken specific actions in your mobile app, such as purchasing or completing a level, to drive further engagement or sales.
4. Offline activity: Target customers who have interacted with your business in-store or through other offline channels. This is perfect for bridging the gap between your physical and digital marketing efforts.
5. Facebook Page engagement: Create an audience based on people who have engaged with your Page, whether through likes, comments, shares, or other interactions. These engaged users are already showing interest, making them valuable targets for further ads.
6. Instagram account engagement: Similar to Facebook Page engagement, but for your Instagram account. Target those who have interacted with your posts or Stories to re-engage them with new content or offers.
7. Video engagement: Target people who have watched your videos on Facebook or Instagram. You can choose viewers based on how long they watched, allowing you to prioritize more engaged users.
8. Lead form: Create an audience of people who have filled out a Facebook lead generation form in your ads. Retarget these leads with follow-up offers or nurture campaigns to move them through the sales funnel.
9. Events: Reach people who have responded to your Facebook events. This can help you remind attendees about event details or promote similar future events to those interested.

How to create Facebook custom audiences

Creating a custom audience in Facebook Ads Manager is pretty straightforward. Here's a step-by-step guide:

1. Go to Facebook Ads Manager and click on the ‘Audiences’ section.

2. Click ‘Create audience’ and select ‘Custom audience’ from the dropdown menu.

3. Choose the custom audience you want to create (e.g., customer list, website traffic, etc.). For the sake of this demonstration, I’m choosing ‘Customer list.’ When you’re done, click ‘Next.’

4. From there, follow the prompts to set up your audience. For a ‘Customer list,’ upload your file and add your list of identifiers, such as email addresses or phone numbers. You can also include customer value to show Facebook which customers are more valuable to you—based on metrics like Lifetime Value (LTV) or Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR). This helps Facebook optimize your ad delivery to target those high-value customers effectively.

🛎️ For ‘Website traffic,’ ensure you install the Facebook Pixel on your site and select the specific pages or actions you want to target. For ‘App activity,’ connect your app and choose the events you want to target.

Another option is to paste your list instead of uploading it.

5. Name your audience and click ‘Next.’

6. Now we wait! Facebook can take up to 30 minutes to generate your new audience.

While this process works well, it can be time-consuming, especially when managing multiple audiences. That's where Madgicx's Audience Launcher comes in handy. It offers tons of pre-built, ready-to-launch targeted audience segments.

You can launch these audiences with just a few clicks, saving you valuable time and effort. Try Madgicx for free and see how easy audience creation can be!

How to use Facebook custom audiences

Now that you know how to create custom audiences, let's explore how to use them effectively and some best practices to keep in mind:

1. Segment your audiences: Don't treat all custom audiences the same. Segment them based on purchase history, engagement level, or time since the last interaction. This allows you to create more targeted and relevant ad campaigns.

2. Use exclusion targeting: Exclude specific custom audiences from your campaigns to avoid showing redundant ads. For example, exclude recent purchasers from a campaign promoting the product they just bought.

3. Combine with lookalike audiences: Base your lookalike audiences on your best-performing custom audiences. This allows you to reach new people with characteristics similar to your existing customers, expanding your audience while maintaining targeting precision. 

4. Refresh your audiences regularly: Keep your custom audiences up-to-date by uploading new customer data or adjusting your website traffic audiences.

5. Test different audience sizes: Experiment with broader and narrower audience definitions to find the sweet spot for your campaigns.

6. Use custom audiences for retargeting: Create Facebook retargeting ads to re-engage website visitors or cart abandoners with personalized messages.

7. Analyze performance: Regularly review the performance of your custom audiences to identify which segments are driving the best results. Madgicx's Targeting Insights provides granular analysis of your performance by audience type, size, recency, and more, helping you make data-driven decisions.

8. Cross-campaign analysis: Use Madgicx's Audience Studio to consolidate your performance data across all campaigns. Its robust analytics capabilities provide insights into overall performance, allowing you to understand which strategies drive the best results. This insight enables you to make more informed targeting decisions, even when using the same audience in multiple campaigns.

9. Respect privacy: Always comply with data privacy regulations and Facebook's policies when creating and using custom audiences.

10. Optimize ad content: Tailor your ad creatives and messaging to each custom audience based on their relationship with your brand and where they are in the customer journey. You should also optimize for the correct Facebook ad size to ensure your creatives perform well.

By following these best practices and leveraging Madgicx's targeting tools, you can maximize the effectiveness of your Facebook custom audiences. 

Try Madgicx for free to access the full potential of your audience targeting.

FAQs

Alright, it's time to get into the most commonly asked questions on the net.

Why can't I create a custom audience on Facebook?

If you're having trouble creating a custom audience, it could be due to one of these reasons:

1. You haven't accepted Facebook's Custom Audience Terms of Service.

2. You don't have the necessary permissions in your ad account.

3. Your account is new, and Facebook is still verifying it.

4. There's a temporary issue with Facebook's systems.

To resolve this, try accepting the Custom Audience Terms of Service, checking your account permissions, or waiting a few hours before trying again.

How do I add a custom audience list to Facebook?

To add a custom audience list to Facebook:

1. Go to ‘Audiences’ in Ads Manager.

2. Click ‘Create audience’ and select ‘Custom audience.’

3. Choose ‘Customer list’ as your audience type.

4. Upload your file (CSV or TXT) or copy and paste your data.

5. Name your audience and click ‘Create Audience.’

Remember to format your data according to Facebook's requirements for the best match rate.

Conclusion

Facebook custom audiences are a powerful tool for advertisers looking to reach their most valuable customers and prospects. You can create highly targeted campaigns that drive better results and ROI by leveraging the different types of custom audiences and following social media advertising best practices.

Remember, continuous optimization and analysis are the keys to success with custom audiences. Regularly review your audience performance, test different strategies, and refine your approach based on the data. Check out our comprehensive guide on Facebook CBO for more insights on optimizing your campaign budgets.

With Madgicx's targeting capabilities, you can pinpoint conversion-ready segments for any Facebook ad type. These features simplify audience creation, provide in-depth performance analysis, and help you make data-driven decisions to improve your campaigns.

Eager to get started? 🤩 Try Madgicx for Free now.