Create Custom Audiences for Retargeting

A custom audience is a reusable group of people who have already interacted with your business, which you can retarget in Meta campaigns. Build one from website activity, Page engagement, lead form activity or a customer list.

Where to create one

• In the campaign builder at ad set level, open Retargeting, then the Create new or select retargeting audience dropdown, and choose Create a Custom Audience.
• Or go to Marketing > Ad Manager > Settings > Audiences and click Create new audience > Custom Audience.

Build the audience

1. Choose a source and click Next.
2. Fill in the details for that source (below).
3. Set Audience retention, which is how many days a person stays in the audience after interacting.
4. Optionally click Include more people or Exclude people to add up to four extra conditions.
5. Add a name and description, then create the audience.

Source options

• Website: choose a pixel, then either all visitors or visitors by time spent (pick a top percentile, such as the 10% who stayed longest). Maximum retention is 30 days.
• Facebook Page: choose a connected Page and one of the available engagement events. Maximum retention is 365 days.
• Lead Form: choose the event (opened and submitted, opened but did not submit, or anyone who opened), then the Page and the form. Maximum retention is 90 days.
• Customer List: upload a CSV or use a Smart List, as covered in the customer list article.

Using the audience

New audiences appear in the Retargeting dropdown. Meta needs time to process them, and you can only select an audience once its status shows Ready. A very small audience may stay Not Ready.

Good to know: Use Exclude people to keep recent buyers out of a prospecting audience so you do not pay to advertise to people who already converted.