How to Use a Customer List for Meta Ads

Use a customer list when you hold customer emails or phone numbers you have the right to use and want to reach those people on Meta, leave them out, or find people like them. It does not fit when you have no list, or when the list would include information Meta forbids. A new or recently linked ad account may also have to wait a few weeks before it can create or share one.

What can you do with a customer list?

Meta describes a customer list custom audience as a way to find your existing audiences across its technologies. Three uses follow from its pages:

Use	What Meta says
Include in an ad set	Create an ad to reach the new audience
Exclude from an ad set	You can choose exclusion-only for people you always need to leave out, for example people who opted out of marketing
Seed a lookalike	Create a lookalike audience to find new people who share similar behaviors and interests with your existing customers

Should the list include people or only exclude them?

When you add the list, you choose whether it is used for inclusions or exclusions, or only exclusions. Meta says an exclusion-only list appears grayed out for anyone trying to include it in Ads Manager. It can’t be changed later, and it can’t be used to make a lookalike audience.

If a list might ever serve as a lookalike source or an include audience, do not choose exclusion-only. That is a reading of Meta’s rule, not a Meta recommendation.

How do you keep the list current?

Meta says you can edit a customer list audience at any time to add or remove customers, or upload a new list to replace the whole audience. Changes also update the ad sets and lookalike audiences that use it, and they don’t reset the campaign learning phase. The update may take a few hours, and your ads keep running meanwhile.

In Audiences you may see an “Outdated” label. Meta says it means the list hasn’t been updated in over 30 days, which may affect delivery.

What goes in the file?

Meta says a customer list is a CSV or TXT file whose identifiers are typically names, phone numbers or email addresses, and that more identifiers raise your chances of a better match rate. It adds that the identifiers are hashed on your own machine before the list is sent to Meta for matching, and that hashing can’t be reversed.

How do you tell whether the match worked?

Meta’s match score column shows a score out of ten for how well your list’s identifiers matched profiles in your last successful upload. It is the matched rows divided by the uploaded rows, shown in steps of 0.5. Meta says adding more emails, phone numbers and device IDs can improve the score. The score has limited retention, so a missing score may mean you need to update the list.

Meta’s two most important formatting tips: include the country code with phone numbers, and put any country in its own column, even when all your data is from one country.

What must you never upload?

Meta says a customer list audience can’t be named, include or be based on prohibited information. It names social security numbers, health information, financial information and consumer report information, and passwords and access tokens among identifiers it does not permit. It also lists information about anyone who opted out of having their information used to create targeting audiences. Meta adds that you need a lawful basis, and that under GDPR advertisers act as the data controller for uploaded lists.

How can you decide what to do with your list?

1. Decide the job: reach these people, leave them out, or find people like them.
2. Choose the list type before you upload, because exclusion-only can’t be changed.
3. Format the file with country codes and separate columns for each identifier.
4. Check the match score and status after the upload.
5. Put a refresh in your calendar, since Meta flags a list not updated in over 30 days.

FAQ

Does editing my customer list reset the learning phase?

No. Meta says changes to an existing customer list audience also update the ad sets and lookalike audiences that use it, but don’t reset the campaign learning phase. The update can take a few hours, and ads continue to run while it processes.

What does “Outdated” mean on my audience?

Meta says it means your customer list hasn’t been updated in over 30 days, which may affect ad delivery. You can choose to update the list from the audience, by adding, removing or replacing customers.

Can I change an exclusion-only list into a normal one?

No. Meta says that if you select exclusion-only, this can’t be changed later, and the audience can’t be used to make a lookalike audience. Upload a new list as a normal audience if you want to include those people.