3 Types of Audience in Meta Ads Every Business Should Know
Custom Audience in Meta Ads: Reconnect With People Who Already Know You
Custom Audience in Meta Ads is a powerful targeting option that lets you reach people who have already interacted with your business. This could include website visitors, app users, customer lists, or even people who engaged with your Facebook and Instagram content.
Unlike broad targeting, a custom audience focuses on people familiar with your brand — making your ads more personalized, cost-effective, and highly effective at driving conversions.
Uses of Custom Audience in Meta Ads
1. Retargeting Visitors
Show ads to people who visited your website or app but didn’t complete an action (like purchase or signup).
💡 Example: “You left items in your cart—complete your order today & get free shipping!”
2. Upselling & Cross-selling
Promote new, advanced, or premium services to existing customers.
💡 Example: “Loved our basic package? Upgrade today and unlock exclusive features!”
3. Re-engagement Campaigns
Reconnect with inactive customers or followers and remind them of your value.
💡 Example: “We miss you! Come back and enjoy a 15% welcome-back discount.”
Who Should Use Custom Audience in Meta Ads?
Website Visitors – People who browsed your site but didn’t convert.
Existing Customers – Perfect for repeat sales, loyalty, and upselling.
Social Media Engagers – Users who liked, commented, or shared your posts.
Email/Phone List Users – Upload your customer database to target known contacts.
App Users – People who downloaded or interacted with your app.
Lookalike Audience in Meta Ads: Expand Your Reach with Precision
A Lookalike Audience is a group of new people who share similar characteristics, behaviors, and interests with your Custom Audience.
Uses of Lookalike Audience
Finding New Customers
Reach people who are highly likely to be interested in your product/service because they “look like” your existing customers.
Scaling Campaigns
Once Custom Audience ads are successful, Lookalike helps expand to a broader, yet targeted, audience.
Improving ROI
Saves ad spend by targeting people similar to proven converters, rather than guessing.
Geographic Expansion
Helps businesses grow in new cities/countries by finding similar profiles to existing local customers.
To Whom is it Useful?
Businesses with an existing customer base (e-commerce, service providers, consultants, etc.)
Brands looking to scale beyond retargeting and want fresh, qualified leads
Marketers who want higher conversions at a lower cost per acquisition
Startups with limited data can also benefit by using even a small Custom Audience (like email subscribers or page fans)
Saved Audience in Meta Ads: A Smart Way to Simplify Targeting
When running campaigns, one of the most important steps is defining the right audience in Meta Ads. A Saved Audience is a predefined group of people that you create inside Meta Ads Manager based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and location. Once saved, you can use this audience across multiple campaigns without having to set the same targeting options again.
Uses of Saved Audience
Consistency in Targeting
Saved audiences ensure your campaigns target the same group of people consistently, improving ad relevance and performance.Time-Saving Setup
Instead of manually entering filters for every campaign, you can quickly select your saved audience in Meta Ads.Better Testing
By creating different saved audiences (e.g., by city, age group, or interest), you can test which audience in Meta Ads delivers the best ROI.Scalability
Saved audiences make it easier to scale campaigns because you can reuse proven targeting setups for new ad sets.
Who Should Use Saved Audience.
Small Businesses: Perfect for those running local ads targeting a specific location and age group (e.g., a café in Bangalore targeting young professionals).
E-commerce Stores: Ideal for segmenting audiences based on shopping interests like fashion, gadgets, or beauty products.
Service Providers: Consultants, freelancers, and agencies can create saved audiences in Meta Ads for niche markets like entrepreneurs, startups, or corporate clients.
Growing Brands: Any business that wants to run multiple campaigns while keeping a clear focus on the same target audience.