4. Custom Audiences: Introduction

The Custom Audience is what happens when you combine your offline customers with Facebook advertising. And the result is glorious!

Ready? Let’s go!

What You Are Going to Learn Today

Today’s lesson is Custom Audiences: Introduction. We’re going to focus on the following:

  • What Custom Audiences Are
  • Types of Custom Audiences
  • Examples of Use Cases

The Lesson

If you’re struggling to build an audience on Facebook, it’s time to leverage the one you already have!

What Custom Audiences Are
Custom Audiences provide advertisers the ability to target their offline (or off-Facebook) customer list in Facebook ads.

This is done by uploading your customer list file into Power Editor to create a Custom Audience. Facebook then matches up the data you provide with users on Facebook (for example, matching up email addresses). Depending on the list, anywhere from 20-60% of the list will tend to be matched up to Facebook users.

When you create an ad, you are then able to select Custom Audiences to target. This could be an entire list to target your customers broadly or a segment (buyers of a particular product, for example).

The results are pretty incredible!

Types of Custom Audiences
You can create a Custom Audience if you have a list of any of the following:

  • Email Addresses
  • Facebook User IDs
  • Phone Numbers
  • Facebook App User IDs

How you do this will be covered in the next lesson!

Examples of Use Cases
Here are a few ways that you can effectively use Custom Audiences in your Facebook ads…

Find new Fans by targeting subscribers who aren’t current Facebook Fans. If they’ve subscribed to your content, chances are very good they’d be interested in liking your Facebook Page! They just may not have been motivated to do so before. Craft an ad with copy and imagery specifically suited for these people.

Target general subscribers to make a product announcement. Do this in addition to your email marketing. This way, users are first of all more likely to see your message or be reminded of it. Think of someone who opened your email and didn’t act on it. They’re likely to forget about it. But if they go to Facebook, they may be reminded several times in the form of your ad (and they don’t have to be a Fan to see it!).

Target segmented subscribers for a specific product. This is pretty powerful. You have a list of customers who purchased Widget 1.0. When Widget 2.0 is launched, you undoubtedly send them an email to announce it. But you can also target those specific users with Facebook ads. Think, “You have Widget 1.0. Now it’s time to upgrade!”

Your Assignment

Action Items:

  1. Collect all customer lists that are eligible for Custom Audiences
  2. Create a list of ways that you could target those lists in Facebook ads
Need personal one-on-one help from Jon?
Set up a training session!