With ane.47 billion daily active users, Facebook offers a huge potential audience for advertisers. So huge, in fact, that information technology's of import to laser-target your ads to make sure you reach the Facebook users who are nigh likely to exist interested in your business. This allows you to minimize your ad spend and maximize ROI.

Facebook Custom Audiences offer some of the best targeting available. They are highly defined groups of people who already take a relationship with your business organisation, such every bit past customers, people who have visited your website, or people who accept installed your app.

Even amend, Custom Audiences can be used to create lookalike audiences—new potential fans, followers, and customers who share fundamental characteristics with your existing customers and fans.

Bonus: Download a complimentary guide that teaches you lot how to plough Facebook traffic into sales in iv simple steps using Hootsuite.

Types of Custom Audiences

Custom Audiences from customer lists

Customer lists offer a mode for you to let Facebook know virtually existing relationships yous have with customers that cannot be mapped through Facebook appointment or the Facebook pixel.

For case, you might have a listing of newsletter subscribers or past customers. These are people who accept clearly expressed an involvement in your business, merely Facebook has no way to identify them unless you upload a list. When you upload the information, Facebook uses a procedure called "hashing" to keep specific customer data individual while nonetheless assuasive it to detect matches with Facebook user profiles.

Proceed in mind that y'all can only upload information from customers who have given you lot permission to market place to them. Yous tin can't use a purchased customer list, for example, or data you lot've gathered from other websites—and if someone opts out of your electronic mail list, you need to remove them from your Custom Audience, too.

You should also know that customers can see which companies accept uploaded client lists that include their data. If you want to check which advertisers have uploaded lists that include you, log into your Facebook account and click Settings. Then click Ads in the left column, and select Advertisers you lot've interacted with.

advertisers you've interacted with screen

Information technology's a expert idea to bank check out Facebook's Custom Audiences terms of service to brand sure you're following the electric current rules.

Custom Audiences from your website

Once y'all install the Facebook pixel on your website, Facebook tin friction match your website visitors to their Facebook profiles.

You can utilize this information to create Custom Audiences that target all website visitors, or to remarket to people who have visited a specific product page or product category. You set the timeframe for how far back you lot want to go, so yous can cull to target simply your most recent website visitors, or people who visited upwardly to six months ago.

If you haven't installed the Facebook pixel yet, y'all're missing out on this rich source of data. Bank check out our total guide to using the Facebook pixel to get it gear up on your site.

Custom Audiences from your mobile app

After y'all register your app and gear up up the SDK on the Facebook for Developers site, you can create a Custom Audience of people who accept interacted with your app.

(If this sounds similar Greek to you lot, talk to your programmer and ask them to assistance y'all with these preliminary steps.)

This blazon of Custom Audience can be a great basis for app date campaigns, since you can target people who have downloaded your app just may not be using it however, people who have made in-app purchases, or people who have achieved a certain level in your game.

Engagement Custom Audiences

An appointment Custom Audience allows yous to target people who accept already interacted with your brand on Facebook or Instagram.

How to create Facebook Custom Audiences

For all Custom Audience types, you'll showtime by opening your Facebook audiences page in Ads Manager and clicking Create a Custom Audience.

Custom Audience creation screen

From hither, the process depends on what kind of Custom Audience you want to create.

How to create a customer list Custom Audition

1. Click Customer File and and so choose whether to add together client information or import a list from MailChimp.

Importing from MailChimp menu
Since non everyone uses MailChimp, we'll look here at how to import your own client data. If y'all exercise apply MailChimp, you'll enter your MailChimp login credentials and follow a few uncomplicated steps. For everyone else…

2. Before moving on, you'll demand to accept the Custom Audience terms of service. Essentially, you must acknowledge that you have permission from the people on your list to apply and share their data. Once you've read and understood the terms, click I Accept.

3. Prepare your customer list. Be sure to follow Facebook's data formatting best practices to get the well-nigh matches on your listing. You should read the best practices in full to make sure you become the all-time matches, but here are three central tips:

  • Include separate columns for first and last names
  • Always include the land code on phone numbers (even if all telephone numbers are from the aforementioned country). Don't include a leading zippo in the country code. For instance, if your client are in the U.s. or Canada, the state code is 1.
  • Ever include a land column (once again, even if all your customers are course the aforementioned land)

4. Upload your client data file in .CSV or .TXT format, or copy and paste it into the box provided. Give your audience a name that clearly defines who appears on this list (for example, email subscribers), and then click Adjacent.

naming your audience screen

5. Await. Facebook will prepare your Custom Audition, which should be ready in about one-half an hour.

How to create a website visitors Custom Audience

Earlier y'all can use website visitors Custom Audiences, you need to install the Facebook Pixel. If you haven't already done so, cheque out our total guide to using the Facebook Pixel on your website.

one. Click Website Traffic, and so choose the pixel you want to utilise to build your audience.

Choose your pixel screen

ii. Choose who to target: all website visitors, people who visited specific pages, or people who spent a specific amount of time on your site. Then set your desire timeframe, from xxx to 180 days. You can further define your audience using rules, which permit you to specify the number of times someone has visited your website and the specific device that they employ.

3. Requite your audience a name yous will think and click Create Audience.

4. Expect. Facebook will prepare your Custom Audience, which should exist ready in virtually half an 60 minutes.

How to create a mobile app Custom Audience

ane. Click App Activity and choose the events you want to target from the drib-downward menu.

2. Cull the timeframe you desire to target: from 30 to 180 days.

3. Further define your audience using details like in-app purchases and which device people use.

4. Give your audition a name you volition call up and click Create Audition. You can use your audition right away, but it may have up to an 60 minutes to be fully populated with past app users.

How to create an engagement Custom Audience

1. Click Engagement. A new pop-up will open up asking you to cull whether you want to create your engagement audience based on interactions with your videos, lead forms, Facebook Page, Instagram business profile, or event, or people who have opened your collection or Sail Facebook ad. Click on the option you prefer.

ii. Cull the advisable options:

  • For video, choose how much of your video people accept watched: from a minimum of 3 seconds to at least 95% of the video.
  • For pb forms, choose whether you want people to have submitted the form, or just opened it.
  • For your Facebook Page or Instagram contour, choose which kinds of interactions you want to target: visits, messaging, clicks, and so on.
  • For your consequence, choose whether yous want to target people who accept indicated interest, those who have actually purchased tickets, and so on.

three. Choose the timeframe you desire to target, up to 365 days.

4. Give your audience a proper noun you lot will remember and click Create Audience.

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How to use your Custom Audience

Once y'all've set up ane of more Custom Audiences, they're very easy to use.

1. Open up Facebook Ads Manager and click Create Advertizing.

2. Follow the steps to set up your ad. If yous're new to Facebook advertising, follow the steps in our complete guide to Facebook ads.

3. Prepare the advert to target your selected Custom Audition.

4. Refine your targeting options. For example, if you're running a entrada to offer a disbelieve to new customers, exist sure to exclude existing customers from your Custom Audience targeting for that particular ad.

five. Set your budget and timing every bit usual and you lot're fix to get.

But that's merely the technical side of using Facebook Custom Audiences. Yous also need to call back about how to use Facebook Custom Audiences strategically. Here are some ideas:

Use Facebook Custom Audiences for remarketing

Remarketing is an effective way to remind people about products they're interested ins—or take even abased in a shopping carts—encouraging them to take the final footstep of making a buy.

For example, Jolly, an art and writing supplies company from Austria, used Custom Audiences to target ads to people who had recently visited its website. Combined with lookalike audiences (more on those below), this strategy allowed Jolly to increase website conversions past 1.65 times, with a i.vii times return on Facebook advertising spend.

Use Facebook Custom Audiences to achieve your nigh likely echo customers

Existing customers already know and trust your brand—so marketing to them tin produce much higher conversion rates than trying to reach people who have not bought from y'all before. It's much easier to convince a satisfied client to brand a second buy than it is to acquire a new customer in the first place.

This doesn't merely apply to online purchases. Using a Custom Audition from a customer listing, you can invite past customers to return to your retail store, send special offers for repeat clients, or allow people know when you lot release a new version of a production they already ain.

For instance, the tour operator TUI Kingdom of belgium used a Custom Audience of people who had previously booked tours with the visitor as the target for a collection ad campaign promoting holiday packages.

Utilise Custom Audiences to increase app date

If yous're running an ad to increment app engagement, there's no point showing the advertising to people who accept however to download your app. With a Custom Audition of people who already take your app downloaded, y'all can target your advertizing effectively, helping you to become the maximum impact for your upkeep.

Use Custom Audiences to grow your Facebook following

People who are already interacting with your business would brand swell Facebook Page followers. Some of them are likely following your Folio already, but many of them might not know y'all take a Facebook Page, or just might never have thought to seek yous out on social media.

Use a Facebook advert with a Custom Audience based on website visitors or a customer list to promote your Facebook Page to this highly targeted group. Just make sure to exclude people who take already liked your Page, so you don't pay to reach existing Facebook fans.

Employ lookalike audiences

Yous can utilize lookalike audiences to target people who are similar to people who already interact with your concern—pregnant they are likely to be interested in the products and services you lot offer.

Even if you don't have a large enough list withal to create a Custom Audition from your client listing (you demand a minimum of 1,000 contacts), you lot tin create lookalike audiences based on a Custom Audience of people who have visited your website or who already similar your Facebook Page.

For instance, Shopify used this strategy to achieve a 2 times lower cost per pb when they used a lookalike audition of people based on a Custom Audience of website visitors. Paessler IG used a lookalike audience based on a Custom Audience of people who had previously completed lead forms to reach relevant It professionals who were non aware of its products and achieved a 63 percent subtract in CPM, 51 percent subtract in cost per atomic number 82, and 64 percent decrease in cost per click.

How to expand your Custom Audience

There's value in trying to expand your Custom Audiences, since they put your advertizement in front end of more targeted potential fans, followers, and customers.

Hither are some ways to expand your list.

Use Facebook Advertizement types effectively

When you're trying to build your Custom Audience, you want to go your Facebook ads in front of a big number of people, targeted appropriately. Use the Sensation campaign objectives to make sure your ads accomplish a large number of people in your targeted group.

Increasing your advertizing bid slightly can aid reach fifty-fifty more people and build your Custom Audience more quickly.

Exam and tweak your ads for maximum conversion

In order to abound your Custom Audience, you demand people to engage with your ads. The more constructive your ad, the more apace yous volition build your Custom Audience.

Nosotros've got a whole blog post on how to exam and refine social media ads, only here are some primal ad elements to exam:

  • Headline
  • Advert text
  • Link preview text
  • Call to action
  • Image or video
  • Ad format

Use Facebook Audience Insights

Facebook Audience Insights tin give you valuable information most the demographics of any of your Custom Audiences. Y'all tin can and then use that information to target ads to new potential Facebook connections. If any of those new people engage with your ads or your Facebook Page, they will become part of your date Custom Audience.

Manage your Facebook presence alongside your other social media channels using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you tin schedule posts, share video, appoint your audience, and measure out the impact of your efforts. Endeavor it costless today.

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