Digital Marketing

Facebook Custom Audience 101: How to setup Meta pixel and list-based custom audiences

Social media advertising is helping businesses test, track and target their digital advertising strategies to increase sales and conversions.

Platforms like Facebook provides businesses with robust ad targeting techniques that help companies achieve their long-term advertising goals.

Facebook Ads has one of the best ad targeting options for businesses looking to reach a particular group of prospects or customers. 

With the help of Facebook Ads, you can target audiences who may have interacted with your brand before, making it easier for them to convert and become paying customers of your business. 

This digital advertising approach is used by many businesses to serve meaningful and relevant ads to people who are likely to interact with your business.

For example, I wanted a popup form on my website, so I decided to sign up for Mailmunch scroll/popup form builder(free version). I have been enjoying it ever since I signed up.

The next time I was browsing through Facebook, I saw a customer testimonial video Ad from Mailmunch encouraging me to upgrade my current package and join those happy customers in the video.

That is called Facebook Ads retargeting. With the power of Facebook Ad custom audiences, you can create powerful ads that target people who have already shown interest in your products/services. 

What is Facebook custom audiences?

Custom audiences are a group of people you specify to show your Ads to who have engaged with your business previously, both online and offline.

By creating custom audiences on Facebook, you can use your ads to remind customers to complete purchases, run cross-sell and upsells promos, or show targeted ads to specific segments of your audiences – like people you consider sitting at the bottom of your funnel.

There are three(3) types of custom audiences you can use in Facebook Ads Manager. You can create list-based audiences by uploading the email contact list in your CMS to Facebook, Meta pixel audiences by targeting your company website visitors, or App users by targeting people returning to a game or viewing an item in your company’s app.

However, this guide will be focusing only on Facebook pixel and List-based audiences.

What is Meta pixel Custom Audiences?

Facebook or Meta Pixel is a piece of tracking code that is placed on your website that allows you to collect data on actions that have taken place on your website, build a target audience, track Facebook ad conversions, optimize ads and remarket to segments of your website visitors.

What are some events on your website you can track with Facebook Pixel?

There are 17 standard events you can track on your website with the Meta Pixel. They are:

Website EventTrigger description
Add payment infoWhen a customer adds their payment information
Add to cartWhen someone adds a product to their shopping cart
Add to wishlistWhen someone adds a product to their wishlist
Complete registrationWhen someone completes a form registration
ContactWhen someone contacts your business
Customize productWhen someone selects a variable product, like color, size etc.
DonateWhen someone makes a donation to your organization
Find locationWhen someone searches for your business location
Initiate checkoutWhen someone starts a checkout process
LeadWhen someone submits their information. like form sign up
PurchaseWhen someone completes a purchase
ScheduleWhen someone books an appointment
SearchWhen someone searches for information on your website
Start trialWhen someone starts a free trial for a product or service
Submit applicationWhen someone submits an application for a product or service
SubscribeWhen someone starts a paid subscription for a product or service
View contentWhen someone visits a webpage you care about. eg. Landing page

How to setup Facebook pixel conversion tracking for your website

Now that you know what event to track with your Facebook pixel, here is how to set it up.

Step 01: Create your Facebook Pixel

  • In the Meta Business suite for your company’s Page, click on All Tools and select Events Manager.
  • In the Events manager, click connect Data sources in the left-hand menu, then select Web. Click Get Started to continue.
  • Enter the Name of your pixel and click Create Pixel. Choose your partner integration and click Next.

Step 02: Add Facebook Pixel to your website

Add Meta pixel to your site by installing the tracking code on webpages you want to track on your website. There are a few ways you can do this. 

  1. By manually adding the pixel code to your website.
  2. Or by using a partner integration. (WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Hubspot, Squarespace, etc.)

For our example, we will be using one of Facebook’s Integration partners( WordPress) to install our tracking code on our website. 

Facebook will guide us through how to install the code on our website using the WordPress plugin (Facebook for Business). Download and follow the steps.

If you work with a developer or someone else who can help you edit your website code. You can email them the tracking code to install it for you. 

Else, you can install the tracking code by placing it in the <head></head> tag of all the HTML pages you want to track.

Step 03: Setup Facebook pixel event

  • Select your Facebook pixel, and then go to Settings, scroll down to Open Event Setup Tool
  • Enter your website URL and click open Website
  • Facebook will provide you with a list of events you can track on your website with the pixel. You can also customize what you want to track with their AI tool. Click Finish Setup to complete.

Step 04: Verify whether your pixel code is working properly

To verify that your Facebook pixel tracking is working well, head to the Pixel Activity Overview; you will see a list of events that are been tracked so far with your website.

What is list-based targeting on Facebook?

List-based targeting on Facebook allows you to target particular people in your email contact list by serving relevant ads to them. Contact list targeting connects your customers and contacts on Facebook using information from your CRM or email list.

NB: Facebook will only show ads to people in your CRM who used the same email address to register for their Facebook accounts.

How to setup list based targeting on Facebook Ads Manager

Step 01: Create your list

  • In your Meta Business suite, Tap on audiences
  • Tap on create a custom audience
  • Select customer list

Step 02: Add your Facebook list

  • Tap import list from Mailchimp or choose to import a custom list from a CSV file.

What is the difference between list-based and Facebook pixel custom audiences?

Pixel-based targeting allows you to redisplay your ads to anonymous visitors on your company’s website whiles list-based targeting redisplays ads to existing customers in your CRM. 

Conclusion 

Custom Audiences allow you to connect with people who have already shown interest in your business. Setting up list-based and Meta pixel custom audiences is a great way to put your business in front of people who are interested and likely to in your product/ services. 

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Joseph Appiah-Duku

Joseph Appiah-Duku is a Digital Marketing Specialist at NALO Solutions, leveraging his IT background to excel in PPC, SEO, and content marketing. His career began in IT, but extensive training in digital marketing facilitated a seamless transition. Joseph's expertise has driven significant month-on-month increases in traffic and sign-ups at NALO Solutions. He has authored articles on SEO algorithm changes, guiding businesses in adapting to industry shifts. In addition to his writing, Joseph hosts video shows and webinars, engaging audiences and promoting NALO Solutions as a passionate brand ambassador. His commitment to the company's values and solutions is evident in all his endeavors. Outside of work, he enjoys watching sci-fi movies and learning new languages, showcasing his love for continuous learning.

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