6.03 – Different Ways To Build Custom Audiences

CUSTOM AUDIENCES

Custom Audiences are groups of people from sources both on and off Facebook. Custom Audiences are created by going to your Asset Library, then Audiences in your Business Manager account. It’s linked in the top navigation.

There are ten sources to create Custom Audiences. The first four are derived from your sources:

1. An uploaded list of customers or prospects called a Customer File

2. Website traffic using the Facebook Pixel

3. Activity from Mobile Apps that use Facebook’s Plugin (called the SDK)

4. An Uploaded List of Offline Activity

These Audiences can come from your website, shopping cart, customer relations management (CRM) software, app, or even other businesses. When you upload your list, Facebook will attempt to match the people in your list to its users and allow you to advertise to them.

The other six are Custom Audience Sources derived from Facebook:

1. Video Engagement

2. Lead Forms

3. Instant Experiences

4. Your Facebook Events

5. Your Facebook Page

6. Your Instagram Business Profile

Other than the Customer File and Uploaded List of Offline Activity, all of these Audiences are dynamic. That means people will be automatically added when they perform an action and removed from the audience after a timeframe you specify. Let’s dive into all ten.

BUILDING CUSTOM AUDIENCES FROM CUSTOMER LISTS

Audiences based on an uploaded list of customers or prospects are called a Customer File Custom Audience. This is one of the most powerful Audiences you can create.

You can either use an automatic integration from someone like Mail Chimp or Constant Contact, or you’ll upload a file with your existing customers or prospects in it. Even though Facebook calls this a Customer File Audience, it is not limited to just customers. It can be your prospects or even people who haven’t heard of you.

For security, Facebook takes your data and hashes it before uploading it. That means Facebook doesn’t have access to your actual customer list. Facebook will know who they matched, but it won’t have any personal information about the non-matches.

There are three reasons to create a Customer File audience:

1. You can use this list to serve ads directly to your customers. Since your existing customers are the most likely people to buy from you again, therefore the very best strategy when starting to advertise on Facebook is to advertise to your existing customers.

2. It’s a good practice to keep an updated list of your customers on Facebook as a way to suppress prospecting ads. You don’t want to spend advertising dollars on prospecting ads to existing customers. It not only drives up your ad costs, it also prevents customers from having to say, “I already have this.” It also keeps customers from potentially seeing discounts and other prospecting strategies that don’t apply to them.

3. Lookalike Audiences are lists of people Facebook builds for you that look like a model list you provide them. You will use Lookalike Audiences for targeting cold traffic. Logically, it makes sense to give Facebook a list of your customers so they go find more people that are just like them. This audience almost always outperforms any manual targeting you can do for prospecting.

When you upload your customer file, you can select whether the file contains Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) data in it. If you include this column of data, it helps Facebook get you more customers like the big spenders. If you don’t include this column, it treats all customers equally.

If you can get LTV exported out of your CRM or shopping cart, great. If not, don’t spend much time trying to calculate it. The benefit of having LTV is it helps Facebook segment your customers into big spenders and small spenders and will try to get more people like the big spenders when you create Lookalike Audiences. This will be covered later in the chapter.

When you create a Customer File Custom Audience, you can download a file template and use that to help format your exported file. You’ll notice the example data has multiple rows named “email” and “phone.” That’s a big benefit if you have multiple contacts for a customer. If you have business and cell numbers or home and work email addresses, include all of them. The more info you can give Facebook, the more likely it will match your list to its users.

The 15 possible identifiers are: Email, Phone Number, Mobile Advertiser ID, First Name, Last Name, ZIP/Postal Code, City, State/Province, Country, Date of Birth, Year of Birth, Gender, Age, Facebook App User ID, Facebook Page User ID. The most common ones are First Name, Last Name, Phone, and Email.

If your file has full names in one column, you can either split them into First and Last or ignore them. When you include phone numbers, be sure to include the country code, even in the U.S. A correct U.S. number would be 1-800-555-1212. Always include the two-letter country code as well even if everyone is from the same country for the country field.

Again, it’s highly recommended to download the file template, then copy and paste your data into the template.

Create a Customer File Custom Audience

Here is how you create a Customer File Custom Audience:

1. Choose Custom Audience from the Create Audience Box at the top of Audience Manager.

2. Choose Customer File under Use Your Sources.

3. Choose if you have Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) in your file.

4. Once you are ready to upload your file, you will have to tell Facebook the source of the data. Usually, it’s sourced “Directly From Customers” since it came from your CRM or shopping cart. If you acquired the data some other way like renting, trading, or purchasing it from a broker, you should choose the Partner option. Choose the Original Data Source as shown in Figure 5-1.

5. Download the file template CSV.

—- Customer list upload screenshot example —-

6. Copy and paste your data into the template.

7. Save the template. The name you use doesn’t matter.

8. If you’re using desktop software like Microsoft Excel, exit the software.

9. Click Upload File or drag and drop the CSV file you created.

10. Name your Audience. The source of the list is usually enough. For example, “Customer List Export Dec 25, 2020” or “Prospects From Trade Show.” It will show the date of upload so you could skip that part in the name.

11. Click Next.

12. Now you’re on the Preview and Map Your Data screen as seen in Figure 5-2. If you follow the template, everything should be mapped properly. Facebook shows you the column headers and a few lines of sample data so you can choose what fields to map.

13. Click Upload & Create to finish.

14. After your list is uploaded, Facebook will match it to its users in the background. This takes as few as five minutes and up to a few hours. You don’t have to wait to use it. Facebook won’t match everyone on your list to its users, but it usually matches 20 percent to 80 percent of your list. If it matches over about 2,000 people, you’ll see a number of matches. If it’s smaller than 2,000, you’ll just get an estimate or it will say it’s not available because it’s too small to display. It will still be large enough to use.

—- Customer list upload screenshot example 2 —-

Adding or Removing Members from a Customer File Audience

You can add or remove members from your uploaded customer lists by selecting the list and choosing Edit. This allows you to upload a new file with the members you want to add or remove. The most common use of this is to add recent sales transactions and new buyers to a list of customers. You want to add to the existing list rather than create a new list of buyers because it will be used for ad targeting in your previously created Ad Sets and you would have to change the Custom Audience everywhere you use it. Adding and removing saves a ton of work.

The 80/20 of Your Customer List-Recency, Frequency, and Monetary Value (RFM)

There’s a simple, yet advanced strategy that will significantly increase the accuracy and performance of your customer list and any Lookalike Audiences you create from it.

This strategy is to create a list of your existing customers and pull out the valuable people from it. The process you will use to select these customers is based on Recency, Frequency, and Money Value (RFM for short).

RFM was first used in the 1930s by mail-order catalogue merchants to target offers to people most likely to buy again. It costs a lot of money to mail advertisements, so they needed a way to know which customers would have the highest chance of responding when testing and mailing their new offers. This method reduced wasted ad costs and increased conversions.

Recency refers to how long ago someone purchased from you. The theory is that customers who most recently bought from will most likely buy again. Recency also refers to the number of days since someone took an action. Facebook puts Recency right into their Audience creation using the term “in the past. days”. You’ll see this setting for all of the Custom Audiences you build with the exception of a customer list.

Frequency refers to how often someone buys from you. The most frequent buyers are the second most likely to buy again after recent buyers. Someone that buys from you two, three, five, or ten times is much more valuable and more likely to buy again than someone who buys just once.

Monetary Value refers to the total amount of money someone has spent with you. Lifetime sales is the value you can append to your customer file (referred to as LTV). A customer that spends more money with you over time is someone that you want to sell more to (because they prove they buy more). It’s also a great person to model when building a Lookalike Audience.

You won’t be surprised as you build this list that your absolute best customers will be in the top 20 percent of more than one category.

RFM not only applies to customers. It can also apply to visitors, app usage, or Facebook engagements.

For example:

How RECENTLY did a person visit your website? Those who have visited more recently will be more likely to convert than those who visited a while ago.

How FREQUENTLY did a person visit your website? A person who visits more than one time is more likely to buy than someone who visits once.

How MUCH TIME (time equals money) did a person spend on your website? A person who spends more time on your site is more likely to buy than someone who spent less time.

You’ll see how to do each of these in the Audience setups later in this chapter.

BUILDING WEBSITE TRAFFIC CUSTOM AUDIENCES

Audiences built from visitors to your website are called Website Traffic Custom Audiences. You must already have Facebook’s Tracking Pixel installed to be able to use this Audience type. You can advertise to everyone who has been on your website in the last 180 days. Because there is constant traffic on your website, this Audience constantly changes.

The simplest Website Traffic Custom Audience is All Website Visitors (see Figure 5-3). This Audience is made up of anyone who visited your website within your given time frame.

While All Website Visitors is a good starting place, you will want to create smaller, more targeted Audiences based on specific key pages of your website. In the Seniors In

— Custom audience builder screenshot —

— Custom audience builder screenshot 2 —

Service example, we created an Audience of anyone who visited any pages containing the word “RSVP,” indicating a person was getting more information about one of their RSVP volunteer programs. See Figure 5-4.

You can also segment the Audience based on any custom events you have defined or more likely standard events like Add To Cart or those who filled out a contact form. These events are especially useful if your pages and URLs don’t lend themselves to creating an Audience (like a one-page site with many sections).

If you want to create more events since you set up your pixel in Chapter 3, go to your Asset Library -> Events Manager. Then, choose your pixel, click Settings, then finally choose the Event Setup Tool. See Figure 5-5 on page 53.

Facebook allows you to target people who have spent the most time on a page or across all the pages on your site. Instead of choosing a duration in minutes, you choose the top 5 percent, 10 percent, or 25 percent of time spent. This lets you target the biggest time spent without having to figure out what the time thresholds are. See Figure 5-6 on page 53.

When you create an Audience based on events or specific pages, you can further refine your Audience by choosing the frequency or device. You can use the frequency of visits to only target people who have been to your website more than once, or by device. Your device choices are desktop, mobile (including tablet), iOS, and Android. These are useful if you are promoting an app that only runs on iOS or Android.

— Custom audience builder screenshot 3 —

— Custom audience builder screenshot 4 —

Just like you can add people, you can also exclude people when setting up your Audience. When you click on Exclude People, you’ll get the same options as you would if you included them. One of the best uses of this is to exclude people who have taken the next step. Figure 5-7 shows the Seniors In Service Audience for all visitors who haven’t given their contact information.

As you have seen, you can create a very simple Audience all the way to a very complex one. One warning: Be careful when setting up too many criteria for your Website Custom Audience because your Audience may be too small for Facebook to target people.

BUILDING CUSTOM AUDIENCES FROM MOBILE APP ACTIVITY

Building Custom Audiences of people that engage with your app is very useful if you want to run an ad to your users to promote something like a new feature. You might also want to create a Model Audience of people who purchase things from your app so you can target cold traffic using a Lookalike Audience of purchasers.

You must have the Facebook SDK installed in your app to track any events inside your app. This functions the same way as a website pixel in that you can use common events like app instals, percentage of active users, or even in-app purchases.

BUILDING CUSTOM AUDIENCES FROM OFFLINE EVENTS

You can define any events that happen offline like phone calls or in-store purchases. The most common application is to upload sales transaction data from your point of sale system. You can also upload a list of people that attended an event or leads you collected at a trade show.

In order to make sense of these audiences, you will have to define these events in your Event Manager section of your Business Manager. Once that’s done, you can create these Audiences and run ads to them.

BUILDING CUSTOM AUDIENCES FROM FACEBOOK SOURCES

Your next source of Custom Audiences comes from activity that happens on Facebook and Instagram. You can easily create audiences from interaction with your videos, Lead Forms, instant experiences, events, Facebook Page, and Instagram profile. Video Engagement Audiences

You can create an Audience based on a user’s video consumption. This is tracked by video so you can be very specific.

How much of a video people watch is a good indicator of how interested they were in the content. You can create Audiences based on either time watched or percentage watched.

The time elements you can build Audiences with are 3, 10, and 15 seconds (which Facebook defines as ThruPlay). You can also create audiences of people that watch 25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent, and 95 percent of selected videos. Anyone who watched 75 percent or more of a video is really engaged with the content and found it interesting enough to stay tuned. This will be important when we discuss specific Retargeting strategies in Chapters 21 to 23. Note that Facebook will allow you to be charged on ThruPlays or impressions.

However, if you consider your own activity on Facebook, you may scroll by most posts with videos while some you will watch for longer.

The best practice is to create two types of Video Engagement Audiences. Those who watch three seconds or more will make up one Audience that you suppress from seeing the same prospecting ad twice in a time period. The other will be an Audience of 75 or 95 percent or more watchers who indicate they are interested in what you’re presenting and indicate they are becoming warmer and more aware of the business.

Again, note that this has nothing to do with your pixel. They never leave Facebook in this instance so there is no pixel activity. This is all done on Facebook, and you can use these Audiences to nurture an ongoing conversation over a time period with a prospect. Here’s how to create a Video Engagement Custom Audience:

1. Choose Custom Audience from the Create Audience Box at the top of Audience Manager.

2. Choose Video under Use Facebook Sources.

3. In the Engagement box (as seen in Figure 5-8), choose how long you want the person to have engaged with your video. Your choices are at least 3, 10, or 15 seconds viewed, or at least 25 to 95 percent watched.

4. Click Choose Videos to pick which video or videos you want people to have watched to be in the Audience.

— Video engagement custom audience builder —

5. Fill in how many days you’d like people to stay in the Audience using the In The Past box.

6. Name your Audience. We recommend a format of <time frame> <video content or titles> Video Viewers <engagement amount>. For example: 7 Day Prospecting (RSVP) Video Viewers 75 percent.

7. Optionally, you can add a longer description to help you know who is included in the Audience.

Lead Form Audiences

You can segment people who have completed a Lead Form Ad you advertised, and also target those who viewed it but didn’t complete it. An obvious strategy for those incomplete forms will be to run a new ad inviting them again to fill out your Lead Form as shown in Figure 5-9.

You can target people that completed the form as well, and you might want to invite them to something like a webinar online or invite them to an event in your office or place of business.

— Lead form custom audience builder —

Instant Experience Custom Audiences

You can create an Audience based on someone opening or clicking inside one of your Instant Experiences (which you will learn about in Chapter 12). You can target people who have interacted as long as a year ago.

Facebook Event Custom Audiences

If you’re promoting an event on Facebook, this Audience is segmented by people who have engaged with your event in a number of ways. This includes:

• People who had the intention of purchasing

• People who have engaged with tickets

• People who have engaged

• People who have purchased tickets

• People who have responded Going

• People who have responded Interested

• People who have visited the event Page

• People who responded Going or Interested

You can come up with all kinds of ideas on how you can run different ads to folks who engaged with your event.

You can post updates to the event and run an ad (to be sure people see it) by targeting the ticket purchasers and those that RSVP’d Going. You could target people that landed on the Page and didn’t respond and also those that responded Interested. Run an ad to remind them of a sign-up deadline.

Facebook Page Audiences

People who engage with your Page are another source for Audiences. Although, you will find this is no longer as useful as other Audience types. You can target people who have viewed or interacted with your Page or posts in five different ways:

1. Anyone who visited your Page

2. People who engaged with any post or ad

3. People who clicked any call-to-action button

4. People who sent a message to your Page

5. People who saved your Page or any post

If you don’t have any website traffic but you do have over 100 fans, this might be a good first audience.

Instagram Business Profile Audiences

Similar to Facebook Pages, creating people that engage with your Instagram Profile isn’t as often used. However, if you see a need, you can target people in five ways that have interacted with you on Instagram:

1. Everyone who engaged with your business.

2. Anyone who visited your business profile.

3. People who engaged with any post or ad.

4. People who sent a message to your business profile.

5. People who saved any post or ad.