7 Facebook Custom Audience Best Practises

In this post we will continue with our top 7 series and look at the best practises for creating and using Facebook Custom Audiences. As a recap, Facebook Custom Audiences allow you to reach your most valuable audiences on Facebook, using CRM data and intent data from your website.

1. Select the right data

Create a custom audience by importing a list of contacts from your CRM database to retain and re-engage. Implement the Facebook conversion pixel on your website to acquire prospects who showed intent on your website and re-engage with customers who recently purchased (see tip 6 for examples).

2. Target customers across devices

Think about your cross-device conversions to ensure you’re reaching the right people, on the right device with a relevant message, which is based on where they are in the conversion funnel (You can view your cross-device conversions by enabling the cross-device view in Facebook ads reporting). For example, if you know that your customers convert more on desktop, then build a Custom Audience of people further down the conversion funnel and reach them with strong call-to-action messaging on the device they’re likely to convert on.

3. Find people who are similar to your best customers

Use Facebook Lookalike Audiences to find potential customers who are similar to your best customers. Build lookalike audiences from your CRM database, website visitors and mobile app customers. Check out the blog, '7 Facebook Targeting Best Practices for Ecommerce' to learn more.

4. Match bid type with goal

If you’re running a direct response campaign, use oCPM to deliver ads to people likely to convert.

5. Exclude people who already bought a particular product

Exclude your current customers from your campaign to ensure your messaging is on target. You can exclude a list of customers from your CRM database using Custom Audiences from a data file, or do it automatically by excluding customers based on activity, using Custom Audiences from your website or mobile app.

6. Target engaged Customers

Implement the Facebook conversion pixel on your website and/or the Facebook SDK in your mobile app to target people based on intent. With Custom Audiences, you can target people based on the specific actions taken on your website or mobile app and reach them on Facebook.

Here are a few other ways to target and retarget:

• Target visitors who viewed certain sections or product types on your site with related products.
• Target visitors who visited a particular section or product on your website, but did not complete an action like purchase or sign-up.
• Target customers who bought a particular product with related products or accessories to cross-sell.

7. Use quality data to build your Facebook Custom Audience

To improve the match rate when using a data file, look for high quality data. Complete email addresses that have been obtained recently will really help.