What is Custom Audience? How to create custom audiences

Custom Audience is a tool on Facebook that helps you create a custom audience for free, tailored to your needs, in order to increase the effectiveness of your Facebook Ads campaigns. From there, you can also launch marketing campaigns based on existing customer data (such as phone numbers, email addresses, country of residence, etc.).

What Benefits Does Custom Audience Bring?

For Facebook advertisers, creating Custom Audiences provides the following benefits:

• Remarketing to existing customer groups (those who have visited the website, interacted with your Facebook page, shown interest in your products, or have items in their shopping cart) to encourage them to complete their purchase.
• Reach existing customer lists to create higher conversion rates by inviting previous customers back to your store or sending them special offers.
• Increase engagement and followers on your app: Custom Audience helps you target the right group of users, increasing interaction with the app, optimizing ad budgets, and boosting followers on your business’s Facebook page.
• Create Lookalike Audiences to expand your Facebook Custom Audience lists. The Lookalike Audience tool allows you to widen your custom audience reach.

Types of Custom Audiences

1. Existing Customer Lists This list includes people who have signed up for newsletters or are former customers, with details like email, phone numbers, and Facebook IDs. Usually, Facebook matches 60-70% of contacts on this list. Uploading the list is done manually.
2. Website Traffic After installing Facebook Pixel on your website, you can compare website visitors with Facebook user profiles. Based on that, you can create a custom audience or remarket to those who have visited your page or product categories. The action must be defined within a specific time frame.
3. User Interactions on the App You can create custom audience groups based on user actions within apps linked to your website. This type of audience is commonly seen on large platforms like Tiki, Shopee, and Lazada.
4. In-Store Customer Interactions Potential customers in your physical store are likely to convert into actual buyers. This Custom Audience will then be updated and uploaded to your Facebook for inclusion in Facebook Ads campaigns.
5. Interacting with Content on Facebook For groups that frequently interact with posts, videos, or events on your business’s social media (Facebook and Instagram), you can create a Custom Audience. However, this Custom Audience is limited to a period of 365 days.

How to Create Custom Audience on Facebook

1. Step 1: Go to Facebook Ads Manager and select “Audiences”.
2. Step 2: Click “Create Audience” on the left, then select “Custom Audience”.
3. Step 3: Choose one of the 10 available Custom Audience types and wait for the system to upload the list.
4. Step 4: Once the status shows “ready”, you can begin using the Custom Audience in your ad campaigns.

Using Custom Audience in Ads

• Method 1: Select Custom Audience from the “Audiences” tab, click “Action” at the top right, and then select “Create Ad.”
• Method 2: In the “Ads Manager” tab, click the blue plus sign on the left and select “Create Campaign”.

1. Step 5: Set up your new ad campaign and ad set, then select the Custom Audience you wish to target.

Creating Facebook Custom Audience Based on Website Traffic

To create a Facebook Custom Audience based on website traffic, ensure that Facebook Pixel is installed on your website. Steps include:

1. Step 1: Choose “website traffic” as the source for your audience.
2. Step 2: Select the type of customers who visited your website and create criteria to target specific actions such as time spent on site or specific pages visited.

Creating Custom Audience from a Customer List

Similar to creating an audience with existing customers, you can create a custom audience from a customer list using the following steps:

1. Step 1: Choose “Customer list” as the source.
2. Step 2: Upload a CSV or TXT file with customer details such as phone number, email, etc.

Creating Custom Audience from App Activity

For this type, you must have Facebook SDK (Software Development Kit) installed. This helps track user activity and optimize app interactions. Custom Audience can be created based on app interactions like purchases or user engagement.

Creating Custom Audience from Offline Activity

Offline activities, such as in-store events, can also be used to create Custom Audiences, similar to the customer list method. The audience can be segmented by purchase transactions, event participation, etc.

How to Expand Custom Audience

To effectively reach a larger audience with Facebook Ads, use advanced targeting strategies. You can increase bid amounts to speed up the process of building Custom Audiences. Additionally, Facebook Audience Insights helps you analyze demographic data to better target potential customers and turn them into new Custom Audiences.

With a good understanding of Custom Audience, you can maximize its potential to increase customer conversion rates. Would you like to learn more about any other Facebook Ads tools?