Excluding specific audiences in Facebook ads is a crucial strategy to ensure your ads reach the right people and avoid wasting your budget. By targeting the most relevant users, you can improve ad performance and increase ROI. In this guide, we’ll show you how to exclude audiences in Facebook ads effectively. Learn how to refine your audience targeting by excluding people who aren’t likely to engage with your content, whether it’s based on demographics, interests, behaviors, or previous interactions with your brand.
Learn about the audience exclusion feature in Facebook Ads
The audience exclusion feature on Facebook allows you to refine your target audience by excluding those who are not relevant, ensuring your ads reach the right potential customers. This helps optimize spending, improve conversion rates, and increase sales effectively.
Categorizing excluded audiences in ads
Exclude audiences by device
In Facebook ads, you can exclude audiences based on the device they use to access the platform. This is particularly useful when you want to target a group of users with compatible devices. For example, if you’re advertising a mobile app, you can exclude users with older phones or devices that are not compatible with your app.
Exclude ad audiences based on demographics
You can exclude audiences that don’t match your criteria, such as age, gender, language, and location. For example, if you sell children’s toys, you can exclude people over 35 years old. If your milk product is only for older adults, you can exclude those under 20. Similarly, you can exclude audiences who don’t speak the same language or are in areas where delivery services are not available.
Exclude audiences based on user interests and behaviors
Specifically, excluding interests allows you to remove people whose interests are unrelated to your product or service. For example, if you sell men’s office clothing, you can exclude people interested in women’s fashion, makeup, or cooking.
On the other hand, excluding behaviors is based on users’ activities both on Facebook and externally, helping you remove those whose behaviors do not align with your ad goals. For example, if you want to reach people who frequently shop online, you can exclude those with low engagement with ads or who shop online infrequently.
Exclude audiences based on customer lists
Facebook allows you to exclude audiences based on an existing customer list. You just need to upload a list of current customers’ email addresses or phone numbers into Ads Manager, and Facebook will automatically exclude these individuals from your ad campaign.
Exclude custom audiences
The custom audiences feature on Facebook allows you to create a list of existing customers to find and target similar users. However, if you already have a campaign targeting your current customers, you may want to exclude these individuals to avoid unnecessary spending.
Benefits of excluding audiences in ads
Excluding audiences in ads provides several key benefits that help optimize campaigns and improve effectiveness. Specifically, this feature will allow you to:
- Avoid wasting budget on audiences with a low likelihood of converting.
- Display ads only to people who are more likely to be interested, increasing CTR and CR.
- Control the target audience, ensuring ads reach the right potential customers.
- Eliminate bots and fake users, allowing for more efficient use of your budget.
The most detailed way to exclude audiences in Facebook ads
How to exclude audiences using Facebook pixel
Step 1: Install the Pixel code on your website or set up events to track user actions.
Step 2: Go to Ads Manager, select Tools -> Audiences -> Create Custom Audience -> Website.
Step 3: Change the option from “All website visitors” to “People who visited specific web pages.”
Then, paste the URL of the “Thank you” page (order confirmation page). This is the group of users you don’t want to show ads to, as they have already completed a purchase transaction.
Next, name this audience group and click “Create audience.” When creating a new ad campaign, simply exclude this audience group from the campaign.
How to exclude audiences using an email list
To exclude audiences using an email list, follow these steps:
Step 1: Access Ads Manager and create a custom audience as previously instructed.
Step 2: Select “Customer list” to upload your email list.
Step 3: Upload the prepared email list to Facebook (in CSV or TXT format). Once completed, save the created audience to use in your ad campaign.
How to automate audience exclusion management?
Today, there are many automation solutions that help you manage and exclude audiences effectively. Here are 3 common methods you can apply:
Use a Customer Data Platform (CDP): Bitrix24, Bizfly, or Getfly, which helps integrate data from various sources (CRM, website, mobile app). This data is used to create audience segments and automatically exclude irrelevant audiences from the ad campaign.
Use automation tools: Tools help connect applications and services to create automated workflows. You can automatically exclude audiences from your CRM system or email marketing.
Apply ad optimization tools: Tools like Google Ads Optimize and Bing Ads Conversion Tracking help automatically exclude users with a low likelihood of converting from your ad campaign.
Some tips when excluding audiences from Facebook ads
When using the “Exclude Audience” feature in Facebook ads, keep the following points in mind to ensure an effective campaign and avoid complications:
- Do not use the feature to exclude audiences based on factors such as race, gender, or religion.
- Only exclude audiences who are unlikely to be interested (such as those who have already made a purchase). Avoid excluding too many groups to prevent reducing the campaign’s effectiveness.
- Check campaign results to ensure goals are met and adjust the audience list if needed.
- Avoid excluding too quickly before determining if an audience is likely to convert well.
- Combine with strategies like adjusting the budget or running A/B tests to optimize campaign performance.
The article above summarizes useful knowledge and shares tips on how to exclude audiences when running ads on Facebook. KTM Ads hope this information will help you optimize your ad campaigns more effectively.
> See more related articles about Facebook Ads written by KTM:
How to appeal a disabled Facebook ad account
How to run retargeting ads on Facebook
Guide to setting up Facebook ad automation rules
