How to build effective Meta Ad audiences

Keeping your source audiences clean, well-segmented, and frequently updated is essential to maintaining effective Meta ad campaigns, especially with Meta’s shift towards more automation and reduced manual targeting control.

Here’s exactly how to do that in Meta Ads Manager and Business Suite:

1. Use High-Quality First-Party Data

Your source audiences should start with accurate and relevant data. Focus on:

  • Website Visitors – via the Meta Pixel (or Conversions API)
  • Customer Lists – CSV files with email addresses, phone numbers, etc.
  • Leads – from lead forms, website enquiries, or CRM integrations
  • Purchases – import past customer data from your ecommerce platform

Tip: Use as much matching data as possible (email + phone + postcode) to improve match quality.

2. Segment Your Audiences for Better Targeting

Don’t lump all your data into one Custom Audience. Instead, break it down:

  • Recent purchasers (last 30–90 days)
  • Lapsed customers (past 6–12 months)
  • Engaged website visitors (people who visited key pages)
  • High-intent audiences (e.g. people who viewed pricing or added to cart)
  • Lead form opens vs. form submissions

This allows you to create tailored messaging and more accurate Lookalikes.

3. Regularly Refresh Your Custom Audiences

Outdated data = reduced performance. Keep your Custom Audiences up to date by:

a. For Customer Files:

  • Re-upload updated CSVs every 30–60 days
  • Use tools like Zapier or native CRM integrations to automate audience syncing (e.g. Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Shopify)

b. For Website Activity:

  • Ensure your Meta Pixel or Conversions API is properly installed and tracking key events (PageView, ViewContent, AddToCart, Purchase, Lead)
  • Set rolling windows (e.g. last 30, 60, or 90 days) when building Custom Audiences to keep them dynamic

4. Name & Organise Audiences Clearly

To avoid confusion and optimise testing:

  • Name audiences using a standard format:
    Source_Type_DateUploaded e.g. CustomerList_LoyalPurchasers_Mar2025
  • Use folders and notes inside Audience Manager to keep track

5. Sync Audiences to Lookalikes Intentionally

Now that Meta combines Lookalikes with Advantage Audiences, the quality of your source audience is critical.

  • Build Lookalikes only from high-quality, goal-aligned segments - if your website conversion is rubbish but you get good social engagement, create lookalikes based on your social pages! And vice versa! 
  • Avoid mixing too many types of actions (e.g. don’t combine purchasers and newsletter subscribers)
  • Prioritise audiences of at least 500–1,000 people for better performance

Pro Tip:

When using Advantage+ or Broad targeting, Meta still relies on your source data (audiences, events, and conversions) to train its machine learning. If that data is poor, automated campaigns won’t perform well either.

If you would like some help don't hesitate to reach out to our team! 

info@mymarketingagency.co.nz