What are Facebook custom audiences and what are they for?

Sílvia Martí
Sílvia Martí
Facebook’s Custom Audience is a resource that Facebook Pages offer for generating lists of specific users. It is used for making sure that the adverts and posts sponsored by Facebook are displayed to your specific target audience.

To create a list of custom audiences you need email addresses, telephone numbers, Facebook user IDs or advertiser identifiers for mobiles. You can also create custom audiences from those who visit your website or use your mobile app. Bear in mind that for adverts to reach a worthwhile number of potential clients, the personalized target audience should include at least 100 people.

Where to create the “custom audiences”

They can be created from the Facebook adverts administrator. You can choose whether to upload the audience information by Mailchimp or via a data file. In this link we explain step by step how to create a custom audience.

Where do I obtain the data necessary for creating custom audiences?

You can obtain the data from your website by collecting it from visitors and then sending it to Facebook via API labels. You can also do it by inserting a registration form in the webpage, enabling you to obtain a database of the visitors who sign up. Visitors could be encouraged to complete the form in order to receive a newsletter, take part in a sweepstake, and obtain an eBook or exclusive information.

There are also ways to obtain data from possible clients via sources other than your website. Your Facebook Page, for example, could be another method. When you create an application to carry out a sweepstake, contest or other type of promotion with Easypromos, the platform saves all the Facebook IDs of participants in an exportable list. You can download this information in a CSV/Excel file and create a personalized public which includes all your participants. In this way, for your next promotion or sponsored posts, you can use this list to directly influence users who you know to be proactive and loyal to the brand.

You can also create custom audiences with email addresses gathered from any contest or promotion that you have published in Facebook, in a microsite, website or blog. As long as you have requested this piece of information, you will find the email addresses of participants in the Excel file that you can download and use to create your custom audiences.

How do I take advantage of custom audiences in my online marketing strategies?

When you use contests and promotions for your online strategy, you can easily capture new leads for possible clients and consumers loyal to your brand. This data, especially the emails, allows you to generate lists of custom audiences very easily. Use these to improve your online actions:

  • Take the opportunity to advertise to these participants – who you know to be loyal to your brand – about your Facebook Page content or information about your products and services.
  • Publicize the URL of your new contest to these previous participants so that they can get to know about your new promotion and become the first to participate in, and disseminate, it. They will be familiar with promotional actions and loyal to your brand, which converts them into good ambassadors.
  • Create similar audiences based on your custom audiences. In this way, you’ll be able to deliver the advert to a wider audience who will be more likely to be interested because they have comparable tastes and lifestyles.