Reading a blog post title that’s asking you to hurry up and create three audiences for your Facebook ads account before you ever run your first Facebook ad, may feel intimidating (I promise, it’s not meant to be). It may sound like it’s a lot of work (it’s not). It may sound like it will take a long time (it won’t). It may seem like you are putting the cart before the horse (you aren’t).

These 3 custom Facebook audiences are all easy to create and you want to set them up before you start running your first Facebook ad because it takes time for these custom audiences to grow. Let’s get started.

3 Custom Facebook Audiences to Create Before You Advertise 

Create a Custom Audience of those who engaged with your Facebook Page – This is a custom audience that does not require your Facebook pixel code. To get started, visit Ads Manager –> Audiences.

Click on the blue Create Audience button. Select Custom Audience.

Choose Facebook Page in the Use Facebook sources section.

Next, name your Facebook Page Engagement audience, decide how many days’ worth of activity you want to group together to create that audience, and then determine what type of engagement you want to track.

You have choices like: anyone who viewed your Facebook Page, anyone who engaged with a post of ad, and anyone who clicked on the Call to Action button on your Facebook Page.

It will take some time for Facebook to populate that audience. To check on the audience size once it’s been created, visit Ads Manager –> Audiences. Note: This is a similar process if you’d like to generate a custom audiences from people who engaged with your Instagram Business Profile.

Create a Custom Audience of All Website Visitors – Yes, you can track and accumulate a Facebook custom audience filled with people who visited your website while being logged in to Facebook. To learn how to set this up, check out our Facebook Remarketing Pixel post.

Create a Custom Audience of your Email List – Facebook has made it possible for you to create a custom audience full of people who are already on your email list. You can connect your MailChimp list or simply copy and paste your customer emails (or phone numbers, etc.) into a field located inside your Ads Manager, and Facebook will generate your custom audience off of matches to your list. To see how to do it, read our post about creating a Facebook audience from your email list.

Two of these Facebook custom audiences are fluid audiences that grow and update with each passing day. That’s why it’s so important to get your Facebook pixel installed and tracking your website visitors, and set up your Page Engagement audience; they’ll both grow in size and update in recency each and every day. 

All 3 of these Facebook custom audiences represent people who are at least ‘warm’ leads, if not current customers. Tracking them to later advertise to means you’ll likely have more success with those ads; these people are already familiar with your business and what you sell. Creating lookalike audiences based off these 3 types of Facebook custom audiences is another valuable ads tool to have.

*Updated: 4.20