In this article
The five foundational audiences
Website visitors 30 days. Add-to-cart 14 days. Purchasers 180 days (excluded from prospecting, targeted for cross-sell). Instagram engagers 90 days. Video viewers 50 percent completion 60 days. Build these on day one. Every campaign gets at least one of these audiences in some layer.
Website Custom Audiences done right
Do not just target "everyone who visited". Split by page type. Product page viewers who did not add to cart is a warm audience. Blog readers who never bought is a cold-nurture audience. Collection page viewers of your best sellers is a mid-funnel audience. Segment then serve tailored creative to each.
Engagement audiences are underrated
People who watched 75 percent of your video ads. People who saved a Reel. People who messaged your page in the last 60 days. These signal intent Meta can act on even without a website visit. On brands with heavy content output, engagement audiences often outperform website audiences on ROAS.
Lookalikes: seed quality trumps seed size
A 1 percent lookalike of your top 500 highest-LTV customers beats a 1 percent lookalike of every buyer you have ever had. Feed Meta your best data, not your biggest data. Update the seed monthly. The days of building lookalikes off pixel-fired events with no purchase filter are over.
Retention tiers unlock the second half of your budget
Split past buyers into three tiers: bought once (target for repeat), bought twice or more (target for cross-sell of adjacent SKUs), bought in past 30 days (exclude from all prospecting so you do not annoy fresh buyers). This structure alone increases customer lifetime value 20 to 30 percent for most DTC accounts.
Want us to do this for your brand?
Book a 30-minute call and we will scope your project.