Catalog Ads Retargeting vs Broad Audience Explained

Advantage+ catalog ads pick products per person, but you still decide who the ad set is for. Meta frames that decision as a campaign strategy, and the strategy decides which catalog custom audiences you include or exclude. You can run more than one: Meta suggests adding cross-sell and upsell campaigns alongside your existing catalog ads to raise the chance of reaching people with relevant ads.

Which strategy fits which goal?

Strategy	Who you reach	Include	Exclude
Retargeting	People who showed interest on your site or app but didn’t buy	People who viewed or added products to cart	People who purchased
Broad audience (prospecting)	People who haven’t bought or visited, but may be interested	Nothing listed by Meta	People who purchased
Cross-selling	Recent buyers, shown related products	People who purchased, from a different product set	Nothing listed by Meta
Upselling	People considering a product, shown higher-margin options	People who viewed or added to cart, from a different product set	People who purchased, from a different product set

Meta’s examples: cross-sell ski boots to people who bought skis, or upsell a pricier handbag to someone who viewed a similar one.

How do you run catalog ads to a broad audience?

Meta’s best practices for prospecting with catalog ads:

• Use targeting options like location and demographics, and avoid adding many behavior and interest criteria, which may limit reach.
• Exclude a catalog custom audience of people who purchased in the last 10 days.
• Don’t exclude all website visitors; including some helps your ads reach people likely to find them relevant.
• Use creative that suits new customers. With carousel, you can add an intro card to introduce your brand.
• Optimize for conversions on standard events such as purchase, add to cart and complete registration.

How do you build a catalog custom audience?

You need a catalog with your products and a Meta Pixel or app SDK on your website or app.

1. In Ads Manager, open your ad set’s Audience section and click Show settings below Suggest an audience.
2. Click Include these custom audiences, then Create new, and select Custom audience.
3. Select Catalog, then Next, and choose your catalog and a product set.
4. Under Events, choose who to include: people who searched, viewed, added to cart, initiated checkout or purchased products from that set.
5. Enter the minimum number of interactions, or how many days people stay in the audience.
6. Name the audience and click Create audience.

You can also create it under Audiences by clicking Create audience and selecting Custom audience.

Why do cross-sell and upsell need two product sets?

Meta says one product set is the products you show in the ad, and the other builds the catalog custom audience of people you show it to. That is how you show complementary products to people who bought something else.

FAQ

Can I use a catalog custom audience for lookalikes?

Yes. Once you’ve created a catalog custom audience, Meta says you can include or exclude it in an ad set, or use it to create a lookalike audience of people similar to your existing customers.

Should broad catalog ads exclude every past visitor?

No. Meta advises against excluding all your website visitors. Even when your aim is new customers, including some people who visited your website helps the ads reach people likely to find them relevant. Exclude recent purchasers instead.

Which event should broad catalog ads optimize for?

Meta suggests optimizing for conversions on your standard events, naming purchase, add to cart and complete registration. For product recommendations generally, it says you may see better results optimizing for lower-funnel events such as purchase rather than view content or add to cart.