Mobile App Custom Audiences

Build audiences based on peoples' actions in your app that meet your criteria. This feature allows you to build an audience who, for example:

• "Passed Level 8 in the last 10 days"
• "Used app in the last 8 days but hasn't purchased anything"
• "Added to cart but not purchased"

This solution uses logged named events through our Facebook SDKs, App Events API, or via Mobile Measurement Partners. Examples of events to log include "Installed", "Added to Cart", "Purchased", or "Achieved a Level".

Limitations

• subtype for engagement custom audiences is only supported for video.
• Mobile App Custom Audiences for inclusion targeting is no longer supported for the POST /{ad-account-id}/adsets endpoint for iOS 14.5 SKAdNetwork campaigns.
• New iOS 14.5 app install campaigns will no longer be able to use app connections targeting.

Create an Audience

To create Custom Audiences from your mobile app, the ad account must accept the Terms of Service for Custom Audiences, in Ads Manager. To sign the terms:

• You need to be an Admin, Developer, or Insights User for the ad account.
• Your ad account should be listed as an Advertising account on your app settings.

To create your audience:

curl -X POST \
  -F 'name="My Test Website Custom Audience"' \
  -F 'rule={
       "inclusions": {
         "operator": "or",
         "rules": [
           {
             "event_sources": [
               {
                 "id": "<APP_ID>",
                 "type": "app"
               }
             ],
             "retention_seconds": 8400,
             "filter": {
               "operator": "and",
               "filters": [
                 {
                   "field": "event",
                   "operator": "eq",
                   "value": "fb_mobile_purchase"
                 }
               ]
             }
           }
         ]
       }
     }' \
  -F 'prefill=1' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences

'use strict';
const bizSdk = require('facebook-nodejs-business-sdk');
const AdAccount = bizSdk.AdAccount;
const CustomAudience = bizSdk.CustomAudience;

const access_token = '<ACCESS_TOKEN>';
const app_secret = '<APP_SECRET>';
const app_id = '<APP_ID>';
const id = '<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>';
const api = bizSdk.FacebookAdsApi.init(access_token);
const showDebugingInfo = true; // Setting this to true shows more debugging info.
if (showDebugingInfo) {
  api.setDebug(true);
}

const logApiCallResult = (apiCallName, data) => {
  console.log(apiCallName);
  if (showDebugingInfo) {
    console.log('Data:' + JSON.stringify(data));
  }
};

let fields, params;
fields = [
];
params = {
  'name' : 'My Test Website Custom Audience',
  'rule' : {'inclusions':{'operator':'or','rules':[{'event_sources':[{'id':'<appID>','type':'app'}],'retention_seconds':8400,'filter':{'operator':'and','filters':[{'field':'event','operator':'eq','value':'fb_mobile_purchase'}]}}]}},
  'prefill' : '1',
};
const customaudiences = (new AdAccount(id)).createCustomAudience(
  fields,
  params
);
logApiCallResult('customaudiences api call complete.', customaudiences);

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use FacebookAds\Object\AdAccount;
use FacebookAds\Object\CustomAudience;
use FacebookAds\Api;
use FacebookAds\Logger\CurlLogger;

$access_token = '<ACCESS_TOKEN>';
$app_secret = '<APP_SECRET>';
$app_id = '<APP_ID>';
$id = '<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>';

$api = Api::init($app_id, $app_secret, $access_token);
$api->setLogger(new CurlLogger());

$fields = array(
);
$params = array(
  'name' => 'My Test Website Custom Audience',
  'rule' => array('inclusions' => array('operator' => 'or','rules' => array(array('event_sources' => array(array('id' => '<appID>','type' => 'app')),'retention_seconds' => 8400,'filter' => array('operator' => 'and','filters' => array(array('field' => 'event','operator' => 'eq','value' => 'fb_mobile_purchase'))))))),
  'prefill' => '1',
);
echo json_encode((new AdAccount($id))->createCustomAudience(
  $fields,
  $params
)->exportAllData(), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

from facebook_business.adobjects.adaccount import AdAccount
from facebook_business.adobjects.customaudience import CustomAudience
from facebook_business.api import FacebookAdsApi

access_token = '<ACCESS_TOKEN>'
app_secret = '<APP_SECRET>'
app_id = '<APP_ID>'
id = '<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>'
FacebookAdsApi.init(access_token=access_token)

fields = [
]
params = {
  'name': 'My Test Website Custom Audience',
  'rule': {'inclusions':{'operator':'or','rules':[{'event_sources':[{'id':'<appID>','type':'app'}],'retention_seconds':8400,'filter':{'operator':'and','filters':[{'field':'event','operator':'eq','value':'fb_mobile_purchase'}]}}]}},
  'prefill': '1',
}
print AdAccount(id).create_custom_audience(
  fields=fields,
  params=params,
)

import com.facebook.ads.sdk.*;
import java.io.File;
import java.util.Arrays;

public class SAMPLE_CODE_EXAMPLE {
  public static void main (String args[]) throws APIException {

    String access_token = \"<ACCESS_TOKEN>\";
    String app_secret = \"<APP_SECRET>\";
    String app_id = \"<APP_ID>\";
    String id = \"<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>\";
    APIContext context = new APIContext(access_token).enableDebug(true);

    new AdAccount(id, context).createCustomAudience()
      .setName(\"My Test Website Custom Audience\")
      .setRule(\"{\\"inclusions\\":{\\"operator\\":\\"or\\",\\"rules\\":[{\\"event_sources\\":[{\\"id\\":\\"<appID>\\",\\"type\\":\\"app\\"}],\\"retention_seconds\\":8400,\\"filter\\":{\\"operator\\":\\"and\\",\\"filters\\":[{\\"field\\":\\"event\\",\\"operator\\":\\"eq\\",\\"value\\":\\"fb_mobile_purchase\\"}]}}]}}\")
      .setPrefill(true)
      .execute();

  }
}

require 'facebook_ads'

access_token = '<ACCESS_TOKEN>'
app_secret = '<APP_SECRET>'
app_id = '<APP_ID>'
id = '<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>'

FacebookAds.configure do |config|
  config.access_token = access_token
  config.app_secret = app_secret
end

ad_account = FacebookAds::AdAccount.get(id)
customaudiences = ad_account.customaudiences.create({
    name: 'My Test Website Custom Audience',
    rule: {'inclusions':{'operator':'or','rules':[{'event_sources':[{'id':'<appID>','type':'app'}],'retention_seconds':8400,'filter':{'operator':'and','filters':[{'field':'event','operator':'eq','value':'fb_mobile_purchase'}]}}]}},
    prefill: '1',
})

This returns the id of the audience upon success. These parameters are most relevant:

Each ad account can create a maximum of 200 custom audiences via Custom Audiences from Your Mobile App. Make a POST request to:

https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences

Use these fields:

Audience Rules

To determine who gets added to the Custom Audience, define a rule based on events in your app. A rule is a JSON object with key-value pairs and can reference multiple app events. You can define the rule based on specific events and their parameters and also the aggregation. See Audience Rules for more information. See also:

• Audience Rule Syntax
• Rule Set Syntax
• Inclusion And Exclusion Rule Syntax: Under event_sources, set id to your app's ID and type to app.
• Filters
• Filter Rules:
  • Use 'event' as field, if the filter is to specify an event. Parameters that match App events sent by app; for example, "_appVersion", "_value", and so on.
  • If the field attribute is set to "event", the value must be set to an event name. Use the App Event API to see app events and parameters reported by the pixel.
• Aggregation Functions: The following aggregation functions are available for Mobile App Custom Audiences: "count","sum", "avg", "min", and "max".

Example Mobile App Custom Audience Rules

Standard event example

All mobile app purchasers in the last 30 days for app id 55064006:

{
    "inclusions: {
        "operator": "or",
        "rules": [    
            {
                "event_sources": [
                    {
                        "id": 55064006, 
                        "type": "app"
                    }
                ],
                "retention_seconds: 2592000,
                "filter": {
                    "operator": "and",
                    "filters": [
                        {
                            "field": "event",
                            "operator": "=",
                            "value": "fb_mobile_purchase"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

Custom event with parameters example

All users who passed back custom “timeOnPanel” events in the last 30 days for app id 55064006:

{
    "inclusions: {
        "operator": "or",
        "rules": [    
            {
                "event_sources": [
                    {
                        "id": 55064006, 
                        "type": "app"
                    }
                ],
                "retention_seconds: 2592000,
                "filter": {
                    "operator": "and",
                    "filters": [
                        {
                            "field": "event",
                            "operator": "=",
                            "value": "timeOnPanel"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

All users who passed back custom “timeOnPanel” events where event value is greater than 30, color is “red” or “blue”, and favorite dessert contains “banana”:

{
    "inclusions: {
        "operator": "or",
        "rules": [    
            {
                "event_sources": [
                    {
                        "id": 55064006, 
                        "type": "app",
                    }
                ],
                "retention_seconds: 2592000,
                "filter": {
                    "operator": "and",
                    "filters": [
                        {
                            "field": "event",
                            "operator": "=",
                            "value": "timeOnPanel",
                        },
                        {
                            "field": "_value",
                            "operator": ">",
                            "value": 30,
                        },
                        {
                            "field": "color",
                            "operator": "is_any",
                            "value": ["red", "blue"],
                        },
                        {
                            "field": "favoriteDessert",
                            "operator": "contains",
                            "value": "banana",
                        }
                    ]
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

Aggregation example

Top 20% purchasers based on the purchases in the last 30 days:

{
    "inclusions: {
        "operator": "or",
        "rules": [    
            {
                "event_sources": [
                    {
                        "id": 55064006, 
                        "type": "app"
                    }
                ],
                "retention_seconds: 2592000,
                "filter": {
                    "operator": "and",
                    "filters": [
                        {
                            "field": "event",
                            "operator": "=",
                            "value": "fb_mobile_purchase"
                        }
                    ]
                }
                "aggregation": {
                    "type": "count",
                    "method": "percentile",
                    "operator": "in_range",
                    "from": 75,  
                    "to": 100,
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

Exclusions example

The following example includes people who added to cart, but not purchased:

{
    "inclusions: {
        "operator": "or",
        "rules": [    
            {
                "event_sources": [
                    {
                        "id": 55064006, 
                        "type": "app"
                    }
                ],
                "retention_seconds: 2592000,
                "filter": {
                    "operator": "and",
                    "filters": [
                        {
                            "field": "event",
                            "operator": "=",
                            "value": "add_to_cart"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            }
        ]
    },
    "exclusions": {
        "operator": "or",
        "rules": [    
            {
                "event_sources": [
                    {
                        "id": 55064006, 
                        "type": "app"
                    }
                ],
                "retention_seconds: 2592000,
                "filter": {
                    "operator": "and",
                    "filters": [
                        {
                            "field": "event",
                            "operator": "=",
                            "value": "fb_mobile_purchase"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

App Events API

Query which app events and parameters an app reported to Facebook. You can use these events and parameters directly for creating Custom Audiences. You need an access token associated with the app_id with a admin, developer, or advertiser role.

Make a GET request:

https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/<APP_ID>/app_event_types

The response is JSON containing a data array of JSON dictionaries having these fields:

Managing Audiences

• To get information about your audience, see Custom Audience, Read.
• To update, see Custom Audience, Update.
• To delete, see Custom Audience, Delete.

Resources

• iOS Apps, Retargeting with App Events - Reengaging users on your iOS app.
• Android Apps, Retargeting with App Events - Retarget ads on your Android app.
• Custom Audience Targeting
• Lookalike Targeting
• Reference, Targeting Spec
• Reference, Mobile App Ads for Engagement