Definition
A Meta Custom Audience is a targeting segment built from your customer data, website traffic, app activity, or engagement on Meta platforms. Custom Audiences power retargeting and seed Lookalike Audiences for prospecting.
Detailed Explanation
Sources include customer lists (hashed PII), website Custom Audience from Pixel, app events, offline activity, and Instagram/Facebook engagers.
Minimum sizes vary (~100–1,000 users) before delivery stabilizes. Combine with location filters (Kathmandu, Pokhara) for local service offers.
Lookalike expansion (1%–10%) finds similar users; 1–3% usually performs best for conversion campaigns in smaller countries.
Nepal Context
Nepali lead-gen accounts often have small seed lists — start with engagers and website 180-day pools before customer match. Festival flash sales benefit from 7-day engager exclusions on new promo creative.
Upload festival buyer lists post-Dashain with hashed phone numbers collected at checkout to suppress repeat offers or upsell warranties.
Practical Examples
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Beginner: Create IG engager 90-day audience, run reach campaign before sale.
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Intermediate: Pixel-based cart abandoner 14-day audience with dynamic product ads in NPR.
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Advanced: Value-based lookalike from top quartile purchasers, exclude 30-day buyers, layer income interest targeting cautiously.
Key Takeaways
- Custom Audiences anchor Meta retargeting and lookalikes.
- Hashed first-party data improves match rates post-ATT.
- Keep audiences logically named and dated for audit trails.
- Smaller geos like Nepal need broader lookalikes or engagement seeds.
- Refresh seeds quarterly as customer base grows.
Common Mistakes
- Building lookalikes from unqualified leads or freebie seekers.
- Overlapping audiences causing self-competition in Auction overlap tool ignore.
- Uploading plain-text customer files against Meta policy.
