Meta Ads Custom Audiences: The 3 Lists That Drive 80% of Profits (2024)

The Data Hierarchy.

1. First Party Data (Owned): Email Lists, Purchaser CSVs. (Highest Quality).
2. Engagement Data (platform): Video Viewers, IG Engagers. (High Volume).
3. Website Data (Pixel): Page Visitors. (Degraded by iOS14).

If you are only using "Website Visitors," you are using the weakest data source.

List 1: The "LTV" Seed (Customer Match)

This is your most valuable asset.

• Source: Export your top 20% of customers (High LTV) from Shopify/CRM.
• Usage 1 (Exclusion): Exclude them from Prospecting. Stop paying to show ads to people who already love you.
• Usage 2 (Seed): Create a 1% Lookalike. This tells Meta: "Find me 2 million people who spend exactly like my whales."

List 2: The "Cheap Retargeting" Pool (Video Viewers)

Pixel data expires. Video views last 365 days.

• Strategy: Run a "Brand Story" video on Broad targeting.
• Audience: Create a Custom Audience of people who watched 50% of the video.
• Usage: Retarget them with a "Hard Offer."
• Why: They watched 15 seconds of your content. They know who you are. They are warm.

List 3: The "Social Proof" Engine (IG Engagers)

People who liked, commented, or saved your posts.

• Usage: Launch a new product. Target this list first.
• Effect: They will like/comment immediately (because they are fans). This gives the ad "Social Proof" (Likes/Comments).
• Then: Switch to Broad targeting. The ad now has 100 likes, making it perform better for strangers.

Summary

Don't let your data sit in a silo. Sync your Klaviyo/HubSpot list to Meta automatically. Refresh your Seed Audiences every 30 days. Data freshness = Algorithm accuracy.