Facebook Custom Audiences: 7 Strategies Marketers Can Start Using Today

At the end of January, Facebook announced the global rollout of Custom Audiences, an ad targeting and retargeting solution it began testing in October.

Custom Audiences allows marketers to retarget Facebook users who earlier visited their websites or mobile apps, as well as combine first-party data such as customer emails, purchase data, and CRM data with Facebook's own targeting parameters to make their Facebook ads much more relevant.

Already, Facebook's easy-to-use Custom Audiences targeting has proved highly popular among marketers. By simply appending Facebook's tracking pixel, you can now segment website visitors into target audiences and re-engage them with highly targeted messages across the world's largest social network.

Finally, advertisers have a Facebook retargeting solution with the power and scale of FBX, but without the monthly fees charged by third-party FBX media-buying partners.

Now that Custom Audiences are here to stay, what are some of the coolest ways marketers can use the targeting platform to reach more customers? Here are seven Custom Audiences strategies you can start using today.

1. Retarget Website Visitors

The most basic way to use Custom Audiences is to re-engage consumers who have visited your website, but left without converting.

Most often, when visitors "bounce" from your website it's because they're still researching products, or they aren't convinced your product is right for them.

Use Custom Audiences retargeting on Facebook to give them a reason to reconsider your brand. Make sure your ads include calls-to-action tailored to the devices they're using to access Facebook.

2. Product-Level Retargeting

You can now reengage website visitors based on the products, services, or destinations they last viewed on their websites.

Simply create a new Custom Audience based on a segment of website visitors who viewed a particular category of products. Then, use Facebook advertising to re-engage the product-category page visitors on with a tailored creative, incentive, or offer to help stimulate action or conversion.

3. Reach Mobile App Users on the Desktop

If you're investing heavily in mobile apps, but still struggle with how to justify mobile app ROI, use Facebook Custom Audiences to more easily connect the dots between customers who use their mobile apps, but purchase on other devices.

For example, a customer may use a mobile app to research flights, but only consider purchasing the flight on his laptop. With Custom Audiences, a travel marketer could present this person with a desktop-based incentive offer on Facebook, driving him to complete the purchase he originally researched on the mobile app.

4. Retarget Website Visitors on Mobile

Using the inverse of the previous example, marketers can also retarget visitors who have come to their websites through a desktop device with a mobile-targeted ad.

For example, a retail marketer could create a Custom Audience of website visitors from desktop devices who have abandoned during the final stages of the shopping process. Then, retarget the same users while they are "on the go" on their mobile devices with a geo-specific mobile campaign that will drive them into your brick-and-mortar store with the goal of conversion.

5. Cross-Sell/Upsell to Existing Customers

One of the primary ways marketers can increase sales with Custom Audiences is to reengage with existing, high-value customers. Marketing to existing customers is a great way to boost repeat sales.

With Custom Audiences, you can create new segments comprised solely of converting visitors, and then reengage them on Facebook with offers and promotions for similar or adjacent products.

6. Nurture Leads and Engage Customers

Despite huge advances in digital marketing, email still often works best for lead nurturing and customer communication. Custom Audiences offers another viable solution for nurturing leads and engaging current customers that is far easier than launching an email campaign.

Simply create new Facebook campaigns with the specific goal of lead outreach, and then tailor your KPIs accordingly.

For example, a B2B marketer could nurture leads by providing this audience segment with useful, topical, or thought-leadership content about its industry. That same marketer could build rapport and reduce churn with existing customers by using Facebook ads to update them on new blog posts, whitepapers, and customer events.

7. Retarget Facebook Users Based on Search Histories

It's now possible to combine the power of Custom Audience targeting with search retargeting using a digital marketing platform. This advanced form of Custom Audience retargeting helps you map the buying intentions (Google and Bing search history) of website visitors to their potential lifetime value (audience DNA), and then serve relevant ads to them on Facebook based on these profiles.

For example, with combined search and Custom Audience retargeting, you could target Facebook users who searched for "black running shoes" who are also female, 25-30 years old, high household income, and have made purchases from its website in the past year.

Summary

With Facebook Custom Audiences, you now have a way to engage customers, leads, and website visitors across devices, based on dozens of parameters, including search history and their stage in the buying cycle. Best of all, the new solution is easy to implement and less costly than advertising on FBX. Start with these seven simple tips and you'll be well on your way to Facebook retargeting success.

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