What is a Custom Audience?

A custom audience is an advertising audience in Meta Ads built from people who already have a connection with your brand: website visitors, customers or people who have interacted with your social media content. Custom audiences are the foundation of effective remarketing.

Types of custom audiences in Meta Ads

Website traffic audiences via the Meta Pixel (e.g. everyone who visited the product page), customer list audiences based on hashed email addresses, engagement audiences of people who responded to your organic content, and app activity audiences for mobile apps.

Custom audiences and the advertising funnel

Custom audiences are used at the bottom of the funnel. These people already know your brand, which increases the chance of conversion and lowers the CPA compared with cold audiences. Combine them with lookalike audiences for prospecting at the top of the funnel.

Custom audiences and privacy

When you upload customer lists, Meta hashes the email addresses automatically. Make sure your customers have given consent for the processing of their data in line with the GDPR.

How long does someone stay in a custom audience?

Up to 180 days. Set shorter windows for people with a recent high purchase intent.

Can I exclude custom audiences as well?

Absolutely. Exclude existing customers from prospecting campaigns to avoid waste. More at developers.google.com/search.