If you’re not already advertising on social media — especially Facebook and Instagram, you should be. For one, the targeting capabilities (in my opinion) are far superior to that of traditional advertising. With traditional advertising, you pay for a placement that is intended to reach your target audience but you don’t know who’s interested or how to reach them next, let alone how to customize your messaging.

Why Facebook & Instagram Custom Audiences

With social advertising, you can not only reach and refine your desired audience, but you can also personalize the message to them depending on what specific actions they take with your ads or on your website.

There is an art to creating custom audience campaigns within Facebook Business Manager that involves a strategic understanding of basic customer behavior and communication. Facebook refers to this process as sequencing — it’s a series of actions a consumer takes with an ad or online that drives them to your end result.

(Save it for later!)

Types of Custom Audiences

There are numerous types of custom audiences you can create. A few examples are below:

  • Website Visitors – people who visited your website including specific pages of your site
  • Standard Events – people who take specific actions on your website such as adding an item to their cart
  • Email Subscribers
  • Video Viewers
  • Engaged with Facebook Page and/or Instagram Page
  • Facebook Fans
  • Customer File
  • Lead List
  • App Activity (Launched your app or took specific actions within the app)
  • Lookalike Audiences – People most similar to your custom audiences (Example: Lookalike of past purchasers)

These are just a few examples, but the options are endless! Let’s walk through a few examples of how to best use custom audiences and sequencing campaigns.

Examples of How to Use Custom Audiences

Real Estate Agent

If you’re a real estate agent, chances are that you serve a particular location or specialize in a given market. Let’s say that you serve the La Jolla community, but most of your clients are people that live throughout San Diego ages 35-55 earning $200K in household income. Using Facebook sequencing you can run a series of ads to reach your target audience.

  1. Launch a lead gen ad targeting men & women in San Diego ages 35-55 earning $200K in household income. This will start building your email list of individuals who may be interested in moving now or later.
  2. Launch a custom email audience ad to anyone that filled out your lead gen form. The people who filled out your lead gen form may be interested in your services now or in the future so this is the perfect opportunity to stay top of mind. You can direct them to your website to see new listings, a guide on the area, or a helpful resource page on what to know before buying a home for example.
  3. Launch a website custom audience ad retargeting anyone who visited that specific page of your website (either viewing new houses or a specific guide). This way you are reaching people who are actively interested in what you’re selling. Using a Facebook conversion ad, you can optimize your campaign to reach people who take a specific action on your website such as click “contact us” or “view listing”.

Hotel Manager

If you manage a hotel, your primary goal may be to increase bookings. There may be some seasonality involved in your booking window so you can use social media ads to increase awareness of the hotel throughout the year and encourage bookings during peak and off seasons.

  1. Launch a video view ad to anyone who has engaged with your Instagram page showing all of the incredible hotel amenities. Make the potential customer experience FOMO and want to book a vacation ASAP.
  2. Launch a website clicks ad to anyone who watched the video ad telling them about your current special offers. They already know they want to get away, they just need a nudge in the right direction.
  3. Launch a website retargeting ad to anyone who viewed the special offers page encouraging them to book their stay. Express urgency by saying “limited time only” or “offer ends X date”.

Apparel Company

If you have an apparel company, your primary goal may be to increase sales. Here is an example of how to use Facebook custom audiences to drive purchases of your product.

  1. Launch a website clicks ad to a lookalike audience of anyone who has made a purchase from your website.
  2. Launch a website conversions ad retargeting anyone who visited your website but did not make a purchase.
  3. Launch a custom offer ad for anyone who added an item from your website to their cart but did not complete the purchase. This way you can measure the results of your Facebook offer and total sales.

Again, these are just a few examples, but there are so many opportunities to reach and refine your target audience to achieve your desired goal. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Questions? Send me a message in the comments below or email me directly at kellen@kellenmcavoy.com.