Facebook has over 2 million users and over 3 million businesses put their ads on Facebook.

With so many people on Facebook, it is one of the best social media platforms to advertise your brand.

In 2012, Facebook launched a Custom Audiences tool. 

Today you can create a Custom Audience on Facebook that will help you to reach users that are most likely interested in your products or services. 

Why Create a Custom Audience on Facebook and What Is It? 

Using Custom Audiences, you can retarget those who have previously interacted with your brand by making a purchase either online or in-store. 

It is understood that the more you know about whom you are advertising to, the better your ads will be as it leaves you with a better chance for personalization and you can expect better results. 

The main reason for using Custom Audiences with Facebook is to increase conversion rate and sales. It should be noted that you can create a total of 500 Custom Audiences per ad account.

How Facebook Ads Create Audiences to Target

Custom Audiences on Facebook can help you target people better. You should aim at targeting people who have purchased a product or service from you in the past. 

Custom Audiences are also great for those who have abandoned their carts. Additionally, you should also target active subscribers. These are the people who have subscribed to your email list and open your email whenever you send them one. 

Using Facebook, you can build up your email list and target those who have visited your website but have not yet subscribed.

This way, you will get more subscribers to your email list —  people who have visited your website will be more inclined to subscribe to your newsletter since they are familiar with your brand.

How to Create Custom Audience Facebook Ads

There are different types of Custom Audiences you can create. These are as follows.

Website Custom Audience

As the name suggests, you can create a custom audience from your website for people on Facebook that have visited your website.

You will have to use the Facebook pixel. This will reach a group of visitors that will be targeted within the Facebook ads. An example would be to create an ad for people who visited your website in the past two months.

Here are the steps to create a custom audience using your website.

• First, make sure that your Facebook pixel is active. 
• Next, head over to “Ads Manager” and click on “Audiences”.
• Click on “Create Audience'' and select “Custom Audience”. If there are no audiences, you will come across an audience creation button.
• Choose the audience that you want to create and select “Website”.
• Choose which people to include and the people that you want to target. A drop-down list will appear including:
• All website visitors within a specific period
• People who visited specific pages
• Visitors by time spent
• Create a rule section. You will have to start with an inclusive rule. You will come across standard rules and pixel event rules. Add inclusive exclusive rules as desired. For every audience, you can include five rule sections.
• Name your audience and give it a description
• Click on “Create Audience”.

App Activity Custom Audience

An App Activity Custom Audience is used to target ads to specific groups of people whom you think will perform the action you would like them to on your app.

You can transfer information to Facebook from your app using the Facebook SDK. This data can then be used to specify whom you want to include in your custom audience.

Before you begin, register your app on the Facebook for developers site, install the SDK, and log app events.

• In Ads Manager, navigate to "Audiences" at the Ad Set level.
• Select "Create  New".
• Choose "Custom Audience” from the drop-down menu.
• Choose "App Activity".
• Choose which app events you want to base your audience on from the drop-down menu.
• By selecting "Refine by" and selecting the type of details you want to specify, you can add details to the app events on which your Custom Audience is based.
• Give your audience a name.
• To finish, click "Create Audience".

Customer List Custom Audience

Ascertain that you have the ability to create an ad for a Customer List Custom Audience.

You can create a Customer List Custom Audience if you own the ad account linked to Business Manager, or if the owner has granted permissions.

For new accounts or accounts that have been recently linked to an already existing account, it may take a few weeks before you can create a customer list. 

• Add your customer list: In Ads Manager, you can create a Custom Audience. Once logged in, navigate to "Audiences", then "Create Audience" > "Custom Audience" > "Customer list".
• Make a list of your customers: Choose the people you want to include, then add the customer list you want to use for your new Custom Audience and name it.
• Examine your customer list: Confirm that you correctly mapped your identifiers or ensure that all errors have been resolved. You'll receive one of the following alerts:
• If you see a green check mark symbol, it means your identifiers were correctly mapped and are ready to be hashed and used for matching.
• The yellow exclamation mark indicates that you either chose not to include specific identifiers or that some identifiers must be manually updated.
• Upload your customer list: Select "Upload and Create" once your list has been added and is ready for use.

Engagement Custom Audiences

• Select "Engagement". A new pop-up will appear, asking you whether you want to create your engagement audience based on interactions with your Facebook Page, videos, lead forms, Instagram business profile, or event.

• Select one of the following options:
• Choose how much of your video people have seen: starting from 3 seconds to at least 95% of the video.
• Choose whether you want people to have submitted or just opened the form for lead forms.
• Choose which types of interactions you want to target for your Facebook Page or Instagram profile: messaging, visits clicks, etc.
• Choose if you want to target people who have expressed interest, those who have purchased tickets, for your event, etc.
• You have the option of targeting a timeframe of up to 365 days.
• Give your audience a name and then click "Create Audience".

Custom Audiences on Facebook are an excellent way to boost your brand and it is well worth the time. As soon as your first Custom Audience is ready you can begin to start advertising your eCommerce brand!