How to Create High-Quality Audience Files in Facebook Ads

Saved Audience

What is a Saved Audience?

A saved audience consists of targeting files (Targets) that were previously set up or used and saved for future use. For example, if you had created an ad group targeting women aged 18-25 with an interest in shopping and residing in Hanoi, and then saved this audience as a “Saved Audience,” you can easily select it later whenever you need to run a similar campaign. Instead of setting up all the audience details from scratch, you just pick the saved file and run the ad.

Saving targeted audiences helps you reuse these files across different ad groups or campaigns efficiently. It eliminates the need to re-enter targeting details like location, age, gender, interests, or behaviors every time you create a new campaign.

How to Create a Saved Audience

There are two ways to save your audience targeting files:

Method 1: Save Audiences from Active or Previous Ad Campaigns

Step 1: Open the ad group that is currently running or has run in the past.
Step 2: Scroll down to the middle of the page and click on the “Save This Audience” button.

Step 3: Name your audience file and click “Save”

Method 2: Create from the Audience Manager

Step 1: Click on the three-line menu icon in the top-left corner and select “Audiences”

Step 2: Click on “Create Saved Audience”

Step 3: Choose the source of your audience.

This audience file retains information about individuals who have interacted with your Fanpage over a specific period.

Steps to Create a Custom Audience Source from People Who Have Interacted with Your Fanpage:

Step 1: Select the Custom Audience source as “Facebook Page” and then click “Next.”

Step 2: Configure and set up the details of the audience file you want to create.

Important Information Fields to Note:

• Page: Select the page for which you want to create the audience of users who have interacted.
• Event: You can choose specific types of user interactions that you want to save and use for retargeting later. You can create audience files for those who have liked your Fanpage, anyone who has interacted with the Fanpage, those who have visited your Fanpage, or those who have messaged your Fanpage. It’s advisable to create multiple Custom Audiences for different interaction behaviors to help classify their interest levels in your brand.
• Retention: This is the number of days individuals remain part of your audience after interacting with the Fanpage. They will be removed from the audience file after the specified period unless they interact with the Fanpage again. The maximum time you can set is 365 days. Choosing the maximum number of days will include anyone who has interacted within that timeframe.
• Expand or Narrow Audience: You can expand the size of the audience or narrow the number of users by using the options “Add More People” or “Exclude Audience.”

Step 3: Name your audience and click “Create Audience.”

Now you have successfully created a Custom Audience of individuals who have interacted with your Fanpage.

After creating the audience, you will need to wait at least one hour for Facebook’s system to update the audience size, and at that point, your audience will be ready to use in ad campaigns.

2. Audience Source from Individuals Who Have Visited Your Website

As the name suggests, this type of Custom Audience file will retain information about people who have visited your website over a specific period.

Note: You must install the Facebook Pixel on your website first to create this type of Custom Audience.

Steps to Create an Audience Source from Individuals Who Have Visited Your Website:

Step 1: Select the Custom Audience source as “Website” and click “Next.”

Step 2: Set up the specific criteria for your Custom Audience file.

Important Information Fields to Note:

• Source: Choose the Pixel source that you have installed to track a specific webpage you want to use for creating the Custom Audience.
• Event: Select the type of action that users have taken on your website to include them in this Custom Audience file. For example, you can include people who have visited your website, those who have accessed specific URLs, or even those who have completed a specific conversion event on your site.
• Retention: This is the number of days you want to retain the information about users who have visited or performed a specific conversion action on your website. After this period, if users do not return or create any conversions on your site, they will be automatically removed from the list. The maximum retention period is 180 days.
• Expand or Narrow Audience: You can expand the size of the audience or narrow down the users by using the options “Add More People” or “Exclude Audience.”

Step 3: Name your Custom Audience file and click “Create Audience.”

Now you have successfully created a Custom Audience from individuals who have visited your website.

After creating the audience, you will need to wait at least one hour for Facebook’s system to update the audience size, and then your audience will be ready to use in ad campaigns.

3. Custom Audience Source from Your Customer List

A Custom Audience from a customer list is a type of audience you can create to increase your reach. This audience is based on the information from your customer list, also known as “identifying information” (such as email addresses, phone numbers, addresses) that you have collected about your customers and provided to Facebook. Before use, Facebook will hash this information.

Facebook then uses a matching process to align the hashed information with Facebook user profiles, allowing you to advertise to your customers on Facebook, Instagram, and the Audience Network. The more information you provide, the higher the match rate (likelihood of a successful match).

Note: Facebook does not learn any new identifying information about your customers.

Steps to Create a Custom Audience Source from Your Customer List:

Step 1: Prepare an Excel file containing the email addresses or phone numbers of your customers.

Step 2: Select the Custom Audience source as “Customer List” and click “Next.”

Step 4: Choose how to upload your customer list to Facebook and click “Next.”

You can choose to upload your file (in .csv or .txt format) or select “Paste Comma-Separated Values” to copy and paste your customer list directly.

And don’t forget to name your audience file.

Next, make sure the system correctly identifies the type of information fields you are uploading. If the system misidentifies any fields, reselect the correct type for each one. After that, click “Upload and Create”.

Step 5: Check if there were any errors during the upload process. If Facebook indicates that the upload was successful, click “Done.”

Now you have successfully created a Custom Audience from your customer list.

After creating the audience, you will need to wait at least one hour for Facebook’s system to update the audience size, and then your audience will be ready to use in ad campaigns.

4. Custom Audience Source from People Who Have Viewed Your Videos

This audience file retains information about users who have watched videos on your Fanpage, your business’s Instagram page, or your ads. This can include users who watched for over 15 seconds, 50%, 75%, or the entire duration of one or multiple videos.

Steps to Create a Custom Audience Source from People Who Have Viewed Your Videos:

Step 1: Select the audience source as “Video” and click “Next.”

• Retention: The number of days people remain in your audience after they interact with your video. People will be removed from your audience after the set period if they do not interact with these videos again. The maximum retention period can be up to 365 days.
• Expand or Narrow Your Audience File: You can either expand the size of the audience file or narrow it down by using the options “Add More People” or “Exclude Audience.”

Step 3: Name your audience file and click on “Create Audience.”

You have now completed the process of creating a custom audience based on video viewers.

After creating the file, you need to wait at least one hour for Facebook’s system to finish updating the audience size, at which point your file will be ready to use in ad campaigns.

Lookalike Audience

What is a Lookalike Audience?

A Lookalike Audience is a group that Facebook identifies based on users with similar characteristics such as interests, behaviors, demographics, and devices used, in relation to a custom audience file you have created.

For example, if you are trying to manually identify the common traits of your customers in order to target ads and find more potential customers for sales, creating Lookalike Audiences based on your existing customer files will help you achieve quicker and more accurate results.

Things to Note Before Creating a Lookalike Audience

Before creating a Lookalike Audience, you must have an existing custom audience file for Facebook to base its search on this original custom audience and find similar potential customers for you.

Additionally, you must ensure that your audience file has at least 1,000 people. If your custom audience has fewer than 1,000 people, Facebook’s system will not have enough data to accurately find similar audiences for you. The larger your custom audience file, the more accurate the creation of Lookalike Audiences will be.

How to Create a Lookalike Audience

Step 1: Click on the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner and select “Audiences.”

Step 2: Select “Create Audience” > “Lookalike Audience.”

• Source for Lookalike Audience: Click on this box and select “Other Sources” to choose the custom audience file you want to use as the source for this Lookalike Audience.

• Location: Select the country where you want to find Lookalike Audiences based on your original source audience.
• Audience Size: The number of Lookalike audiences you want to create from the original file. (Note: The larger you set the audience size, the lower the similarity of this audience file will be compared to the original file.

Step 4: Click on the “Create Audience” button.

You have now completed the creation of a Lookalike Audience based on your initial custom audience file.

After creating the file, you need to wait at least one hour for Facebook’s system to finish updating the audience size, at which point your file will be ready for use in ad campaigns.

Summary

To run effective ads and maximize results from Facebook Ads, you need to know how to create custom audience files and Lookalike Audiences. Particularly, if you want to run retargeting/remarketing campaigns, you must have a solid understanding of these types of audience files and how to apply them to different campaign objectives.