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Facebook Custom Audiences: What Small Businesses Need to Know
Let’s skip the intro and cut to the chase.
Small business owner or marketing manager? If you’re advertising on Facebook and not taking advantage of custom audiences, it’s like you brought a megaphone to the rally but refuse to use it.
Don’t be the megaphone guy. Get your message out to the right people with custom audiences. It will make your social media marketing efforts worth it.
Hold On, First Things First. What Exactly Are Custom Audiences?
In a nutshell, a custom audience on Facebook is a way to target the EXACT people that you know are interested in your services. How do you know they are interested in your services? Because with a custom audience you can target ads to people based on information you already have, including:
- People on your email list or existing clients
- People who have already visited your website
- People who have taken an action on your mobile app
- People who have engaged with your company on Facebook
Why You Should Use Custom Audiences to Advertise on Facebook
At Blue Corona, we are all about owning your online real estate. And guess what? Online real estate is booming on Facebook. In fact, people spend on average 50 minutes on the social media platform PER DAY.
If you knew ALL OF YOUR CUSTOMERS hung out at a specific coffee shop for at least an hour a day, wouldn’t you post some flyers? Partner with the coffee shop?
So why wouldn’t you advertise where you know they already are?
Types of Custom Facebook Audiences Small Businesses Can USe
There is no one “custom Facebook audience.” There are actually four:
- Customer File
- Website Traffic
- App Activity
- Engagement on Facebook
Custom Facebook Audiences: Customer File
The Customer File audience is information you already know about former or existing clients, called Identifiers. Identifiers you can use include:
- Email addresses
- Phone numbers
- Names
- Facebook app user ID
- Facebook page user ID
- Zip codes
- Cities
- States
- Countries
- Date of birth
- Year of birth
- Mobile advertising ID
- Gender
How it works:
You upload your client information into a CSV or TXT file in Excel. Facebook then takes that information and matches it to Facebook and Instagram users.
Using at least one identifier, you can then show ads, boosted posts, videos, and other content ONLY TO THOSE PEOPLE.
Custom Facebook Audiences: Website Traffic
With this type of customer Facebook audiences, you can target ads to people who have either been to your website or taken an action on your website (fills out contact form, visits a web page, etc.)
How it works:
Ever heard of a Facebook Pixel? The Facebook Pixel is a little snippet of code you put on every page of your website. When someone visits a webpage with a Facebook Pixel or completes a specific action on your website (gets to the thank-you page after a contact form is filled out, puts something in a shopping cart, completes a transaction, etc.) it remembers and records the data.
You can use Facebook pixels to either remarket ads to people on Facebook who have completed a certain action or visited a certain page, or track activity across the website.
Custom Facebook Audiences: App Activity
If your small company has an app, Facebook custom audiences is where it’s at. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
With a custom app activity audience, you can target users based on:
- Frequency, or how many times a user uses your app
- Dynamic date, or targeting users based on a range of time when they used the app
- Devices, which includes Android, iOS, desktop, and other mobile electronics.
- Aggregate values, or the total amount of time someone has used your app
You can also use similar targeting options as the “website visits” audience (see above).
How it works:
Just like the “website visits” audience, you can track specific events within your small business’s app.
Custom Facebook Audiences: Facebook Engagement
Wish your small business could advertise to people who have engaged with your page? Now you can! With the Facebook Engagement custom audience, you can target people who have engaged with your company in the form of video views, lead ad completions, and people who have engaged with a canvas.
How it works:
It’s simple. Facebook already knows the users that have engaged, you just need to specify which video, lead ad, or canvas you want to target.
How to Use a Custom Audience.
Start in your ad account in Facebook’s Ads Manager. There should be three horizontal lines next to the words “Ads Manager” in the top left-hand corner.
Scroll over to windows-looking square that says “Assets.” Scroll down to “Audiences.” Click it.
You’ll be greeted by this page. Click on “Custom Audiences.”
From here, you’ll click the type of custom audience you want, upload your identifiers in a CSV or TXT format and you’re off!
Using Custom Audiences for Small Business Owners
There are 1,001 ways to use your custom audiences, and since you’re a business owner (or marketing manager), you probably don’t have the time to research the best way to use the combination of information you have. We recommend starting out with a simple remarketing campaign. If you want to get more technical, contact us! We’re always happy to help.
About The Author: Blue Corona's Editorial Staff is determined to help you increase your leads and sales, optimize your marketing costs, and differentiate your brand by passing on our tribal knowledge. The team vigilantly stays on top of the latest in digital marketing, bringing you the top insights with expert commentary. Want to see something on our blog you haven't seen yet? Shoot us an email and our marketing team will get to work.
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The information on this website is for informational purposes only; it is deemed accurate but not guaranteed. It does not constitute professional advice. All information is subject to change at any time without notice. Contact us for complete details.
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