Facebook custom audiences are a powerful tool for businesses and marketers to target specific groups of people on Facebook. One common question is whether custom audiences update automatically as people’s actions and information change, or if advertisers need to manually update the audiences.
The Short Answer
In short, Facebook custom audiences do automatically update to a certain extent based on users’ changing information and actions on Facebook. However, there are some limitations, and advertisers will likely still need to update and adjust audiences manually for optimal targeting.
What are Facebook Custom Audiences?
Facebook custom audiences allow advertisers to create targeted lists of users to serve ads to based on criteria like email addresses, phone numbers, page engagement, and more. Some key things to know:
- Create audiences from customer data like emails and phone numbers uploaded via the Ads Manager or offline event sets.
- Build lookalike audiences that find new users who share qualities with an existing custom audience.
- Segment audiences like website visitors based on actions people take on a business’s website.
- Target existing audiences like page engagers or video viewers.
Custom audiences give advertisers a way to precisely target ads to specific groups likely to be interested in their business. And Facebook provides the ability to combine audiences, create exclusions, and continuously update and adjust them over time.
Do Custom Audiences Automatically Update?
The short answer is yes, Facebook custom audiences do automatically update to an extent based on users’ changing information and actions. However, there are some limitations.
Updating Based on User Actions
Custom audiences built based on user actions on Facebook properties (like video views, page likes, etc.) will automatically update to add new qualifying users as they take those actions over time. For example:
- A custom audience targeting people who viewed a specific video will add new viewers of that video to the audience list automatically.
- An audience targeting website visitors will update to include new visitors to that site.
So audiences based on user behaviors do dynamically update to capture new matching users over time.
Updating User Information
Audiences created from imported customer information like emails and phone numbers will also automatically update to some extent based on changes to users’ data on Facebook. For example:
- If an email address is added to someone’s Facebook profile, they may get added to a custom audience originally created by uploading emails.
- Changes to other profile data like names, phone numbers, locations, etc. can also update custom audience membership.
However, there are limitations to how much audiences built from uploaded data will update:
- Only information added directly to Facebook profiles will trigger updates. Changes to external customer data will not automatically flow through.
- Facebook’s matching algorithms aren’t perfect, so matches may be missed as data changes.
- Users changing privacy settings can affect visibility of attribute data needed for matching.
Lookalike Audiences
Lookalike audiences built off of existing custom audiences will also automatically update to an extent:
- As the source audience changes, the algorithm will seek new potential lookalikes.
- Over time, the lookalike audience membership will evolve based on the source.
However, advertisers don’t have full visibility into how the lookalike modeling works. Significant shifts in source audience data would likely require rebuilding new lookalikes.
Limitations to Automatic Updates
While Facebook audiences do automatically update based on user data changes to an extent, there are some limitations to rely solely on this:
- Incomplete data: Relying purely on data visibility from Facebook limits audience reach, since many users share only partial data publicly.
- Weak matches: Facebook’s matching processes aren’t foolproof, so relevant users can be missed for custom audiences.
- Missed qualifiers: Audiences based on behaviors inherently require those actions to occur again to track new matches.
- Lookalike uncertainty: Evolving lookalike models might lose targeting precision over time.
- No external data visibility: Changes to first-party data outside Facebook aren’t automatically reflected in audiences.
Due to these factors, regular maintenance and updating is still required for optimal ongoing custom audience performance.
Best Practices for Updating
Here are some recommended best practices for advertisers to incorporate custom audience updates:
Frequently Add New Sources
Continuously expand the sources used to build custom audiences, rather than relying on a fixed historical list. Options include:
- Regularly upload new customer data like recent email and phone acquisitions.
- Add newly acquired first-party online identifiers like cookies.
- Build audiences from recent conversions and high-value actions.
Expanding data sources will improve reach and help account for changes in existing user data.
Rebuild Lookalikes
Periodically rebuild lookalike audiences using updated source data for better targeting. Start with a 1% lookalike, then expand to larger pools if needed.
Monitor Membership
Check audience size and membership over time to spot any major drops that may indicate issues with automated updates. Watch for shrinking audiences that may need a refreshed data source.
Adjust Targeting
Actively experiment with audience targeting adjustments like broadening location, age, and gender targeting to improve coverage.
Supplement with Engagement Targeting
Layer in additional engagement-based targeting to find new relevant users. Target broad interest and behaviors to supplement custom audiences.
Test New Match Keys
Try matching imported data on different profile attributes like names or phone numbers if targeting seems ineffective.
Combining continuous manual monitoring, adjustment, and expansion of audiences with Facebook’s automated updates provides the most robust custom audience targeting.
Conclusion
In summary:
- Facebook custom audiences do automatically update to an extent based on users’ changing profile data and actions.
- However, there are limitations relying solely on Facebook’s automated systems.
- For optimal results, advertisers should still actively maintain, expand, and update custom audiences continuously.
- Regularly adding new data sources, rebuilding lookalikes, monitoring membership, adjusting targeting, and testing match keys improves targeting amidst evolving user data.
Automated updates provide a baseline of maintenance for Facebook audiences. But active management is still required for the best ongoing performance. With the right combination of Facebook’s systems and hands-on updating, advertisers can keep custom audiences focused on the right users over time.