February 3, 2020

Creating Facebook Custom Audiences

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Michael Jenkins
Michael Jenkins

CEO - Shout Agency
[email protected]

Overview

Facebook is one of the world’s largest social network, with 2.7 billion active users per month.

In the vast landscape of social media marketing, Facebook continues to reign supreme as one of the most powerful platforms for businesses to connect with their target audience. With its extensive user base and advanced targeting capabilities, Facebook provides an unprecedented opportunity to reach potential customers and drive meaningful engagement. In this blog post, we will explore the concept of creating Facebook custom audiences and delve into the strategies that can help you leverage this feature to target the right audience, maximise your advertising efforts, and achieve optimal results.

Advertising on Facebook allows businesses to accurately target and connect with the right audience to maximise ad spend. Moreso, your Facebook ads can reach people who matter to you and will most likely buy your products or services. This Facebook for Business ad feature allows you to create custom audiences based on your customer list, website traffic, app activity, offline activity. Furthermore, you can also use Facebook sources, including video, lead forms, events, instant experiences, Facebook page, and Instagram business profile.

Understanding your audience is the cornerstone of any successful marketing campaign. With Facebook’s custom audience feature, you can refine your targeting efforts and focus on reaching individuals who are most likely to be interested in your products or services. By harnessing the power of data, you can create highly specific custom audience segments based on factors such as demographics, interests, behaviours, and even past interactions with your brand.

One of the key benefits of creating custom audiences on Facebook is the ability to retarget website visitors. By placing a Facebook pixel on your website, you can track the actions and behaviours of visitors, allowing you to deliver tailored ads to individuals who have already shown interest in your offerings. This form of remarketing can significantly increase conversion rates and drive higher ROI by reminding potential customers of your brand and enticing them to take the desired action.

By mastering the art of creating custom audiences on Facebook, you can unlock the full potential of this powerful advertising platform, optimise your marketing budget, and achieve remarkable results. So, join us as we dive into the world of Facebook custom audiences and discover how to connect with the right audience at the right time for maximum impact and success.

In the following sections of this blog post, we will delve deeper into the process of creating Facebook custom audiences, provide step-by-step instructions, and offer practical tips to optimise your targeting efforts. We will also explore advanced strategies, such as using the Facebook Audience Insights tool to gain deeper insights into your audience and refining your targeting based on engagement data.

Image Credit: Austin Distel

Getting Started with Facebook Audience.

To create a Facebook custom audience, visit the menu section of your Facebook Ads Manager. Click on Audiences.

Then click on Create Audience and select Custom Audience from the drop-down menu.

Next, you will see a page showing a list of audiences. Choose any of the available options.

Add people to your audience, name your audience, and click on Create Audience.

Creating a Custom Audience using your sources

Let us take a look at how you can create custom audiences using your sources.

1.Website

This targeting option allows you to create an audience of people from website visits.

To capture data of people who have visited your website and taken action, such as adding to cart, you need to install Facebook Pixel.

You can create custom audiences based on

  • All your website visitors. You can set a specific time range.
  • People who have visited specific webpages. You can set time range and set URL and keyword rules.
  • Time spent on your website or specific webpage (measured in percentage).

The maximum time range for each option is 180 days.

You can also create a custom combination to include or exclude more people from your audience list.

2. Customer List.

With this option, you can create a custom audience by uploading your customer list from a CSV or text file or copy and paste to the content field.

You may either use a file that includes or does not include customer lifetime value or import your list directly from your Mailchimp account.

You may download the file template or prepare your file using specified identifiers.

Next, you can preview and update your data, and Facebook will use your data to create your custom audience.

3. App Activity

This option allows you to create a custom audience of people who have used your app and completed specific actions such as in-app purchases.

You can create custom audiences based on

  • Anyone who has opened the App within a specific time
  • Most Active users
  • Users by the purchase amount
  • Users by segment

4. Offline Activity

With this feature, you can create custom audiences from a set of offline activities or events such as POS transactions, calls, store visits.  You may need to set offline events and enable offline conversions on Facebook to use this feature.

Creating a Custom Audience using Facebook sources

Let us review some of the features available under this option :

1. Video

This feature allows you to create a custom audience of people who have watched your video on Facebook or Instagram.

You can create custom audiences based on

  • People who viewed at least three or ten seconds of your video
  • People who have either completed or seen at least 15 seconds of your video (ThruPlay)
  • People who watched either 25 percent, 50percent, 75 percent, or 95 percent of your video.

The maximum time range for measurable views are 365 days

2. Lead Form

With this feature, you can create a custom audience of people who have engaged with your lead generation ads by either opening or completing a form.

You can create custom audiences based on

  • Anyone who opened the form
  • People who opened but didn’t submit the form
  • People who opened and submitted the form

3. Instant Experience

This feature allows you to create a custom audience of people who have engaged with your Instant Experience on Facebook or Instagram.

You can create custom audiences based on

  • People who opened your Instant Experience
  • People who click any links in your Instant Experience

4. Instagram Business Profile

With this feature, you can create a custom audience of people who have viewed your Instagram ad or visited your business profile.

You can create custom audiences based on

  • Anyone who visited your business profile
  • People who engaged with or saved any post or ad
  • People who have sent messages to your business profile.

5.  Events

This feature allows you to create a custom audience of people who have interacted with your Facebook events

You can create custom audiences based on

  • People who responded
  • People who have visited the event page
  • People who have engaged or purchased tickets.

6. Facebook Page

With this feature, you can create a custom audience of people who follow or interact with your page.

You can create custom audiences based on

  • Anyone who visited your page
  • People who engaged with any post or ad
  • People who sent messages to your page or clicked any call-to-action button

Get Started with Creating Your Facebook Custom Audiences

You don’t need to be an expert to use this feature. Go ahead and create a custom Facebook audience to target your most valuable customers effectively. If you need help from us, contact our Facebook advertising agency in Melbourne. Our social media experts will help you to customize the target audience.

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        Shout logo in grey

        As Founder and Director of Shout Web Strategy, Michael Jenkins is at the forefront of digital marketing. Since it’s inception in 2009, Shout has built a strong reputation as one of Australia’s leading strategic SEO agencies, assisting online businesses to formulate, implement and track successful marketing strategies. Michael is a respected thought leader and digital strategist, specialising in online strategy, corporate SEO, Google retargeting, email and conversion rate optimisation, and online reputation management. Follow Michael on Google+, connect with him through LinkedIn or visit the Shout Web Strategy website.

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