The Ultimate Guide to

FacebookCustomAudiences

by

by Massimo Chieruzzi

CEO, AdEspresso

Table of contents

1. What are Custom Audiences?

2. How to Create a Custom Audience

3. How to Create a Lookalike Audience

4. How to target your Facebook Ads to a Custom Audience

5. 7 Ideas to Boost Your Campaigns with Custom Audiences

6. Website Custom Audiences – The Power of Retargeting

7. Doing More with Audiences andAdEspresso

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There’s a reason why all the top marketers are using Custom Audiences in their Facebook Ads -- they actually work! If you’re not using them already, chances are you’re losing money, which clearly shouldn’t be in your marketing plan!

If you’re not up on Custom Audiences, here are some case studies that'll quickly prove their worth (you'll find them all in this ebook):

! KingNet: +75% CTR, +46.6% Conversion Rate, 43.37% lower CPA

! OpenSky: +30% Conversion Rate

! JackThreads: 30% Lower CPA for member signups

! KIXEYE: 2x Higher conversion rate, 5.5X higher LifeTime Value

In the end, Custom Audiences can boost your Facebook Ads in amazing ways.

Plus, if Facebook Ads are already working for you, Custom Audiences can make your ROI skyrocket.

If you’re in a niche where Facebook Ads tend to be a less-effective channel, such as B2B, Custom Audiences can make your ads work much better and reach hundreds of thousands of new customers in the process.

Want proof? We experienced the power Custom Audiences ourselves. As a B2B startup, Facebook wasn't our most effective acquisition channel. Now, thanks to Custom Audiences, it generates more signups than Google AdWords at just one-third the cost!

In this ebook, you’ll discover what Custom Audiences are, how to start using them, and someof the best ideas to grow your business with them! Let’s get started.

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Chapter One WHAT ARE CUSTOM AUDIENCES?1

Custom Audiences are a new, extremely effective way for marketers to target their Facebook Ads. Through Custom Audiences, you can target your Facebook Ads with a list of email addresses, phone numbers, or Facebook user IDs.

The opportunities for precisely targeting potential customers are basically endless. You’re no longer limited to hard-guessing your advertising targets by gender or vague interests. Instead, you can target a very precise niche of highly-targeted users. Let’s look at an example: Say you have an email list of 10,000 customers who’ve bought yourproduct. You want to promote the launch of an

updated product version to these customers. By simply uploading your email list to Facebook, you'll create a new Custom Audience. Facebook will then try to match those email addresses with its users.

For the sake of our example, let’s say Facebook was able to match 70% of your list. You can now target advertising for the new, improved version of your product to 7,000 customers who already loved the previous one -- I bet the conversion rate will be pretty high! This example is just the beginning. In just a few months since launching Custom Audiences in October 2013, Facebook has already added some significant updates, making it much more

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powerful and flexible. As of now, you can use the following options:

Standard Custom AudienceUpload a list of emails, phone numbers, or Facebook User IDs you want to target andFacebook will match them with it’s users. Facebook will usually match between 60-80% of the contacts on your list.

LookAlike AudienceOnce you’ve created a Custom Audience, you can ask Facebook to create a broader LookalikeAudience to target your ads towards similar users. Facebook will look for patterns and characteristics your users have in common -- such as age, gender, or interests -- and create a much bigger list of very similar users. With the ability to immediately expand your list and target users who are likely to convert, you can

see why Lookalike Audiences are so powerful. Since launching, Facebook has made Lookalike Audiences even more powerful by allowing you to create them based on yourFacebook Page fans and website’s conversions.

Website Custom AudiencesWebsite Custom Audiences are the latest addition to the family. This feature means you don’t need to have target users' email addresses or phone numbers. Instead, simply insert the Facebook tracking code on your website and you’ll be able to target your Facebook Advertising for all users that have visited a specific page on your website during a set time period.

If this marketing technique sounds familiar, it’s because it's basically Retargeting on Facebookwithout the hassle and the costs of the FBX program.

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Chapter Two HOW TO CREATE A CUSTOM AUDIENCE2

Creating your first Custom Audience is as simple as accessing the Facebook Ads Manager and uploading some basic information about your target audience. To get started, you’ll need to prepare a file containing the contacts you want to add to your Custom Audience. Just open a simple text editor and insert one value per line like this:

• email1@gmail.com

• email2@gmail.com

• email3@yahoo.com

• email4@outlook.com

Remember, your file can contain either email addresses, phone numbers, Facebook User IDs, or mobile advertiser IDs. Note that you cannot mix different data types. This means your file should contain only emails, only phone numbers, and so on.

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For best results, save your file in .txt or .csv format and go to the "Audience" section of the Facebook Ad Manager -- it's in the left menu as shown in this screenshot:

Here you’ll find the list of your existing Custom Audiences. Since this is your first Custom Audience, you'll need to create a new one by clicking the green “Create Audience” button on the top right in the page. A popup window will open and ask you to pick which audience you’d like to create. Select “Data File Custom Audience”.

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You’re now ready to create your first Custom Audience. The process is extremely simple:

! Give your Custom Audience a short, easy-to-remember name that describes this specific audience. Some ideas include "Former customers," "Email signups," or something similar.

! Add a description. This is optional. You'll eventually want to use this field to insert notes every time you add a new audience. However, you don't have to worry about it at this point.

! Select what’s inside the file you created, such as emails, phone numbers, etc.

! Select the .txt or .csv file you previously created from your computer.

! Agree to Facebook's Terms and Conditions (more on this later) and click "Create Audience". According to how big your file is, it may take some time for Facebook to match your list content with Facebook users.

Once your audience has been created and it’s ready to go, you’ll receive a notification. You can go back on the “Audience” page and see how many users have been matched.

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How to do it on AdEspressoCreating a Custom Audience on AdEspresso is simple and in-line with what you’ve already learned for Facebook Ads Manager:

! Login into AdEspresso.

! Go to "Settings → Custom Audiences" and click “Create Audience”.

! Select the first option, Data File Custom Audience.

! Now create your audience exactly as you’d do it on Facebook: Pick a title, a description, select the content type of your file, and the data file to upload.

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Chapter ThreeHOW TO CREATE A LOOKALIKE AUDIENCE3

Lookalike Audiences are a great new addition to the Facebook Advertising toolbox. They allow you to create a broader Audience of people very similar to those already inside one of your Custom Audiences.

It's not hard to guess how powerful this feature can be. For example, you could create a Custom Audience with 10,000 of your customers and get a Lookalike Audience with 200,000 people who are very similar to your customers and ready to be targeted with advertising!This example is just the tip of the iceberg -- we’ll give you many more tips on how to use them in Chapter 5.

Since you have to use the complex Power Editor to make them, creating a Lookalike Audience is a bit trickier than creating a Custom Audience. Here's how to do it:

! Assuming you’ve already created your first Custom Audience, head to the Power Editor.As usual, you’ll find this link in the left column of the Ads Manager. It’ll open a brand new interface to manage your ads.

! On the top right of the page, you’ll find a menu called “Ads Tools”. Open it and select "Audiences". You’ll find a list of all your Custom Audiences.

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! Click on the audience you want to use as a base for your new LookAlike Audience.

! Below the list, you’ll get a name and description of your audience and three action buttons. The first two are to add and remove users from your audience. The last one is the one we’re looking for: “Create Lookalike Audience”. Click It.

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! Insert a name for your new Lookalike Audience, then select the country you'd like your Lookalike Audience users to be in. Unfortunately, you can only create a Lookalike Audience that targets users of a single country. However, if you're using AdEspresso, you can quickly and easily generate multiple Lookalike Audiences to target users in multiple countries.

The last parameter, “Optimize for”, is very interesting. It allows you to specify a smaller reach with better similarities to your original Custom Audience. It also allows you to reach more people, though at the risk of lower similarities. We always suggest optimizing for similarity even if it means having a lower overall reach. This ensures your campaigns will perform better overall. It takes Facebook longer to generate Lookalike Audiences than Custom Audiences. Once you’ve completed your request for a new Lookalike Audience, it can take from several hours to a couple of days before your brand new audience is ready to be used for ad targeting.

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How to do it in AdEspressoCreating Lookalike Audiences with AdEspresso is much simpler than using Facebook's platform:

! Go to "Settings → Custom Audiences" and click the “Create Lookalike” button next to the Custom Audience you want to use as a seed. You can also use AdEspresso to create Lookalike Audiences for multiple countries at once.

! Just type the name of the countries you’re interested in.

! AdEspresso will create one Lookalike for each country. It'll also append the target country's name after the base audience's name in your audience list, making it easy to keep track of your audiences.

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Chapter FourHOW TO TARGET YOUR FACEBOOK ADS TO A CUSTOM AUDIENCE4

Targeting Audiences are extremely simple. Start with opening the Facebook Ads Manager and create a new ad. After you’ve created your ad’s creative, you’ll get to the “Audience” section. Choose the first option, “Custom Audiences”. By placing them as the first option, Facebook is making a big effort to get you to use Custom Audiences when setting your target demographic. There’s a reason for this: Custom Audiences work great! Just start typing the name of the Custom Audience you want to target and select it from the autocomplete list.

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If you want, you can select more than one Custom Audience to increase your reach.Simple, right? But wait, there’s more! Once you’ve selected an audience, you’ll notice that hovering your mouse cursor over it will cause two icons to appear. The X deletes your audience and clicking the down arrow gives you the option to exclude the audience. This can be extremely powerful as we’ll see in Chapter 5.

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How to do it on AdEspressoTargeting Custom Audiences in AdEspresso is very similar to how it's done in Facebook. When defining your campaign’s target at Step 3 (in the "Interests" section), open the "Advanced options" box. You’ll find two distinct fields: One to select the Custom Audiences you want to target, and one for those you want to exclude.

To help you get the most out of your advertising dollars, AdEspresso also allows you to perform a split test on your audiences. This way, a set of ads will be created for each Custom Audience you’re targeting. This will give you detailed statistics on the effectiveness and CPA of each one.

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Chapter Five7 IDEAS TO BOOST YOUR CAMPAIGNS WITH CUSTOM AUDIENCES5

Now that you know how to create and use Custom Audiences, it’s time to switch from theory to practice. Custom Audiences are a powerful tool, and using them can make the difference between wasting your advertising dollars and building a money-making campaign that lasts.

To begin experimenting with Custom Audiences, here’s a list of the seven top strategies used directly by the AdEspresso team or our customers to get amazing results from Facebook Ads.

1) Reach users who are not reading your emails Though it's frustrating, a lot of the people receiving your emails aren't even opening them. This doesn't necessarily mean they don’t like your product or service. For some reason they've just stopped noticing your messages.

If you have something really important to announce, export a list of email subscribers who didn't open your latest emails and try to reach them through Facebook Advertising instead. Most email services allow you to segment and export lists based on who's opened your recent emails.

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2) Regain lost customers How many times have you discovered a great site only to forget about it later? This clearly happens often, even if you’ve bought a great product. This may be the case for your old customers, as well. To solve this, create a Custom Audience with a list of all the people who have bought something from you in the past, but haven’t bought anything recently, and target them with ads about your

new products. They already know and trust you since they've purchased from you in the past. Leverage this! Remind

them that they’ve done business with you in the past, and maybe offer them a sweet deal since they are long time customers.

For these kinds of campaigns, craft a very direct and friendly message. Use your brand in thepicture or in the title. These users will recognize and trust your brand.Here’s a nice example from a great marketer, Neil Patel. He knows I already visited his blog andsubscribed to his email list, so he boldly uses his name and picture in the ad to get my attentionand boost my trust.

3) Target people very similar to your customers This tactic is perfect to get new customers without going crazy figuring out how old are they, where they live or what interests they have. Let Facebook figure it out! Create a Custom Audience with the emails or Facebook User IDs of your customers. Then create a Lookalike Audience from that list, optimizing for similarity. You don’t need 10,000,000 users.

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Anything between 100,000 and 500,000 will be more than enough. The important thing is that they are as similar as possible to our customers.Once the Lookalike Audience is ready, target these new prospects with a presentation of your service or product.

4) Grow your Facebook page likes In your product is a long-term asset that every serious business should seek. Custom Audiences can be a cheap way to have your contacts like your page. Simply create a Facebook Ads campaign targeted to a Custom Audience containing all your contacts.To avoid wasting money, exclude all of your existing Page fans from your targeting options. They've already liked your Page and typically won’t add value. 5) Get personal targeting by name If you have a big contact list complete with the contact’s first names, you could create an audience for each of the most popular names such as John, James, Richard, etc.Once you’ve made an audience for each of the most popular names, create an ad containing their name.

BONUS TIP #1

If you’re advertising on Facebook to generate new leads or grow your mailing list, always remember to create an updated Custom Audience with all the contacts you already have. Then, exclude this audience from your advertising. You don’t want to waste money by targeting ads at people you’re already in contact with.

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The ads should read something like this: “Hey James, a special offer just for you." This tactic usually has a big impact and drives high Click Through Rates. However, it may be abit too creepy for your more privacy-concerned customers. If you try it out, be sure to monitorcomments on your News Feed Ads and pull the plug if there are too many complaints.

6) Upsell products or upgrades As this guide has already mentioned, it’s easier to sell to someone who has already bought from you than to a total stranger. Custom Audiences make it extremely simple to get your customer to buy more. Create Custom Audiences of people who have bought from you, segmented by product category or kind.

BONUS TIP #2

Looking for new sources to feed your Custom Audiences? There’s a place where you have lots of email addresses of people highly related to your industry: LinkedIn!

It’s also super simple to export all your contacts' emails in a .csv file. Just go into your contacts settings page and click on “Export LinkedIn Connections” in the right column -- or try accessing it directly here.

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WARNING!

Many Facebook advertising guides about Custom Audiences note ad-hoc software that crawls Facebook’s Pages and Groups, saving the Facebook User IDs of fans and group members for targeting purposes. This technique is extremely effective. So, why are we not discussing it here? Because it violates Facebook’s Terms & Conditions. No matter how effective it is, it may get you in trouble and your account may be banned. Use it at your own risk!

7) From Web to Mobile & vice-versaNowadays, many businesses rely both on a website and a mobile app. Facebook CustomAudiences can be a great way to move users from one platform to the other, making sure you can reach your customers everywhere.

Simply create two audiences -- one with just your website users and one with the mobileadvertiser IDs of the mobile users. Then create two campaigns: one mobile app install campaignto have your website users install your mobile application, the other allowing your mobile users to access your website where it may be easier to close a sale.

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Chapter SixWEBSITE CUSTOM AUDIENCES – THE POWER OF RETARGETING6

With the recent introduction of Website Custom Audiences, Facebook opened a whole new world of opportunities to advertisers. Custom Audiences, as we’ve just seen, are simply great. They allow you to target your advertising at the right people and achieve awesome ROI’s for your ad spending. However, what do you do if you don’t have a big enough database of emails, Facebook User IDs, or phone numbers to create your own Custom Audiences? Enter the brand new Website Custom Audiences. This feature doesn’t require you to have anydata about the users you want to target. All you

have to do is wait for a user to visit your website. Thanks to a special tracking code -- which you’ll have to install -- Facebook will recognize users and automatically add them to an Audience, making them ready to be targeted with advertising. This technique is called Retargeting and it was previously available only through selectedpartners. Now, everyone can take advantage of it directly from the Facebook Ads Manager -- and AdEspresso, of course!

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Here's how to create a Custom Audience using this method:

! In the Facebook Ads Manager, click on the “Audience” button in the left menu, and then click the “Create Audience” button at the top-right of the page. A popup will ask you what kind of audience you want to

create. Select “Custom Audience from your Website”.

! Facebook will ask you to agree to the Terms & Conditions for Website Custom Audiences and provide a link to get your tracking pixel.

! Click the link, get your tracking code (or email it to your webmaster), and insert the code in every page of your website. Without completing this action, you won’t be able to do anything.

! You’re now ready to create your first Website Custom Audience. As always, you’ll need to pick a title and, optionally, a description.

Now comes the interesting part: you can choose to add every user to your Custom Audience who has visited any page of your website or those who qualify according to specific rules. Rules are powerful and pretty easy to create. You can include or exclude people who visited a given url. Clicking the “+” icon will add another rule.

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For someone to be added to the Custom Audience, all the rules must match (it’s a logical AND operator). In the screenshot, you can see an example of the amazing things you can do with Website Custom Audiences. We decided to target everyone who visited the AdEspresso checkout page, expressing an intention to buy, but didn’t see the "Thank You" page (meaning they did not complete the purchase). This gave us a "second chance" to get them to complete their purchase.

Finally, you can select how many days to track website visitors. This means that your audience will only include people who match the specified rules during the last X days. While Facebook’s suggested value is 30, the maximum value is 180 days.

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Building an effective Website Custom Audience really depends on how much traffic you’re getting and how strict your chosen rules are. If your website receives a lot of traffic, you can stick with 30 days or even less.On the other hand, if your website doesn’t have a lot of traffic, or you’ve set very strict rules, it may be wise to set this value to 180 days so you don't end up with an audience that's too small.In either case, the sooner you reach out to potential customers through ads, the more likely they are to be effective.

Targeting Website Custom Audiences works exactly like any other audience you’ve created so far: start typing the name and select it when the autocomplete shows up. It's as simple as that.

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How to do it on AdEspressoCreating Website Custom Audiences in AdEspresso is extremely simple:

! Go to "Settings → Custom Audiences".

! Click on "Create Audience", and then select “Custom Audience from your Website”.

! You’ll then need to give your new audience a name and select the rules for inclusion. The options are the same as Facebooks: Just hit the "+" icon to add a new rule.

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Chapter SevenDOING MORE WITH AUDIENCES & ADESPRESSO7

If you’re an AdEspresso user -- click here to sign up for a 30 day free trial -- you’ll have access to some tasty additional features so you can play with Custom Audiences and get the most out of them.

AdEspresso also has exclusive features to make your advertising even smarter. When creating an Audience from "Settings → Custom Audiences", you’ll see two additional options not available in Facebook Ads Manager or power editor. Let’s check them out!Let’s check them out!

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1. Page Fan LookalikesSimply select the "Facebook Page" that you’d like to use as a base for your Lookalike Audience. AdEspresso will create a Customer Audience of people very similar to your fans, a list which will continuously be updated.

If you’ve built a solid community on Facebook, Page Fan Lookalikes is an amazing way to reach out new customers or to add new, targeted likes to your page. However, this function is really only effective if you have an active, well targeted community on Facebook. For example, a good amount of fans, at least 5,000-10,000, can provide a similarity pattern for the Lookalike Audience.

If, in the past, you’ve bought fans from shady websites, your Page is probably full of bot or fake

profiles and people not really interested in your product. If that’s the case, you’d end up creating a worthless audience.

2. Lookalike Audience from Conversion Pixel If you don’t want to constantly update your customer’s Custom Audience and then create aLookalike, this feature is for you.

Install the Facebook Conversion Pixel to track your campaign’s conversions and then create a Lookalike Audience that will be constantly updated with users as similar as possible to those converting on your website.

This is an amazing opportunity to expand your reach to new potential buyers without having to figure out interests, ages, gender, and so on!

Thank you for reading! If you liked this ebook please share it:

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