Marketing API

Website Custom Audiences

Create a custom audience of users who visited or took specific actions on your website using Meta Pixel, JavaScript Tag API, and audience rules.

Once you create a custom audience with website data, reference it in ad targeting as you do with standard custom audiences. Facebook automatically updates this audience based on the retention policy you set up.

See Custom Audience, Targeting, Facebook Tag API, and Meta Pixel Stats for more information.

Conversions API

If you share conversion events using Conversions API, you can create a Website Custom Audience and use it for ads. You can also create an Offline Custom Audience and a Mobile App Custom Audience. We recommend you share external_id as a customer information parameter to improve match rates and leverage matches across channels.

Please note that the external_id mapping made via Conversions API is different from the one used with extern_id to create a Customer File Custom Audience. The external_id mapping cannot be used for creating a Customer File Custom Audience. Likewise, extern_id made via Customer File Custom Audience mapping can't be used to create a Web Custom Audience, Offline Custom Audience or Mobile App Custom Audience.

Before You Begin

To create a Custom Audience from Websites, you must accept the Terms of Service for Custom Audiences, in Ads Manager.

Create Audiences

To create a website custom audience, make a POST request to:

https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences

Use the following parameters:

Name Description

name

type: String

Required.

Audience name.

rule

type: JSON Object

Required.

Audience rules applied to referring URL. See Audience Rules.

retention_days

type: Int

Optional.

Number of days to retain someone in audience. Between 1 and 180 days.


If not specified, we take the retention_days value from the retention_seconds field in the rule.

prefill

type: Boolean

Optional. Default is true. Available options are:

  • true: Include website activity recorded before audience creation.
  • false: Only include website traffic from the time of audience creation.

If not specified, we take the prefill value from the retention_seconds field in the rule. The maximum prefill is 180 days.

For example:

curl -X POST \
  -F 'name="My Test Website Custom Audience"' \
  -F 'rule={
       "inclusions": {
         "operator": "or",
         "rules": [
           {
             "event_sources": [
               {
                 "id": "<PIXEL_ID>",
                 "type": "pixel"
               }
             ],
             "retention_seconds": 8400,
             "filter": {
               "operator": "and",
               "filters": [
                 {
                   "field": "url",
                   "operator": "i_contains",
                   "value": "shoes"
                 }
               ]
             }
           }
         ]
       }
     }' \
  -F 'prefill=1' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences
Open In Graph API Explorer
'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':'<pixelID>','type':'pixel'}],'retention_seconds':8400,'filter':{'operator':'and','filters':[{'field':'url','operator':'i_contains','value':'shoes'}]}}]}},
  'prefill' : '1',
};
const customaudiences = (new AdAccount(id)).createCustomAudience(
  fields,
  params
);
logApiCallResult('customaudiences api call complete.', customaudiences);
Open In Graph API Explorer
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(
);
$params = array(
  'name' => 'My Test Website Custom Audience',
  'rule' => array('inclusions' => array('operator' => 'or','rules' => array(array('event_sources' => array(array('id' => '<pixelID>','type' => 'pixel')),'retention_seconds' => 8400,'filter' => array('operator' => 'and','filters' => array(array('field' => 'url','operator' => 'i_contains','value' => 'shoes'))))))),
  'prefill' => '1',
);
echo json_encode((new AdAccount($id))->createCustomAudience(
  $fields,
  $params
)->exportAllData(), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
Open In Graph API Explorer
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':'<pixelID>','type':'pixel'}],'retention_seconds':8400,'filter':{'operator':'and','filters':[{'field':'url','operator':'i_contains','value':'shoes'}]}}]}},
  'prefill': '1',
}
print AdAccount(id).create_custom_audience(
  fields=fields,
  params=params,
)
Open In Graph API Explorer
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\\":\\"<pixelID>\\",\\"type\\":\\"pixel\\"}],\\"retention_seconds\\":8400,\\"filter\\":{\\"operator\\":\\"and\\",\\"filters\\":[{\\"field\\":\\"url\\",\\"operator\\":\\"i_contains\\",\\"value\\":\\"shoes\\"}]}}]}}\")
      .setPrefill(true)
      .execute();

  }
}
Open In Graph API Explorer
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':'<pixelID>','type':'pixel'}],'retention_seconds':8400,'filter':{'operator':'and','filters':[{'field':'url','operator':'i_contains','value':'shoes'}]}}]}},
    prefill: '1',
})
Open In Graph API Explorer

Sample response:

{
  "id": "123567890"
}

Audience Rules

A custom audience for Website Custom Audiences must contain an audience rule. Each rule must be provided as a JSON-encoded string. See Audience Rules for more information.

Meta Pixel Website Custom Audience

Use the following API call to create a Pixel Custom Audience:

curl -X POST \
  -F 'name="My WCA Pixel"' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adspixels
Open In Graph API Explorer
'use strict';
const bizSdk = require('facebook-nodejs-business-sdk');
const AdAccount = bizSdk.AdAccount;
const AdsPixel = bizSdk.AdsPixel;

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 WCA Pixel',
};
const adspixels = (new AdAccount(id)).createAdsPixel(
  fields,
  params
);
logApiCallResult('adspixels api call complete.', adspixels);
Open In Graph API Explorer
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use FacebookAds\Object\AdAccount;
use FacebookAds\Object\AdsPixel;
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(
);
$params = array(
  'name' => 'My WCA Pixel',
);
echo json_encode((new AdAccount($id))->createAdsPixel(
  $fields,
  $params
)->exportAllData(), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
Open In Graph API Explorer
from facebook_business.adobjects.adaccount import AdAccount
from facebook_business.adobjects.adspixel import AdsPixel
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 WCA Pixel',
}
print AdAccount(id).create_ads_pixel(
  fields=fields,
  params=params,
)
Open In Graph API Explorer
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).createAdsPixel()
      .setName(\"My WCA Pixel\")
      .execute();

  }
}
Open In Graph API Explorer
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)
adspixels = ad_account.adspixels.create({
    name: 'My WCA Pixel',
})
Open In Graph API Explorer

The call returns the pixel ID:

{
  "id": "11111"
}

Read Custom Audience Pixel Code

Retrieve the Custom Audience Pixel code:

curl -X GET \
  -d 'fields="code"' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/<PIXEL_ID>/
Open In Graph API Explorer
'use strict';
const bizSdk = require('facebook-nodejs-business-sdk');
const AdsPixel = bizSdk.AdsPixel;

const access_token = '<ACCESS_TOKEN>';
const app_secret = '<APP_SECRET>';
const app_id = '<APP_ID>';
const id = '<ADS_PIXEL_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 = [
  'code',
];
params = {
};
const sample_code = (new AdsPixel(id)).get(
  fields,
  params
);
logApiCallResult('sample_code api call complete.', sample_code);
Open In Graph API Explorer
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use FacebookAds\Object\AdsPixel;
use FacebookAds\Api;
use FacebookAds\Logger\CurlLogger;

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

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

$fields = array(
  'code',
);
$params = array(
);
echo json_encode((new AdsPixel($id))->getSelf(
  $fields,
  $params
)->exportAllData(), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
Open In Graph API Explorer
from facebook_business.adobjects.adspixel import AdsPixel
from facebook_business.api import FacebookAdsApi

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

fields = [
  'code',
]
params = {
}
print AdsPixel(id).get(
  fields=fields,
  params=params,
)
Open In Graph API Explorer
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 = \"<ADS_PIXEL_ID>\";
    APIContext context = new APIContext(access_token).enableDebug(true);

    new AdsPixel(id, context).get()
      .requestCodeField()
      .execute();

  }
}
Open In Graph API Explorer
require 'facebook_ads'

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

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

ads_pixel = FacebookAds::AdsPixel.get(id ,'code')
Open In Graph API Explorer

This returns the following, where code contains the relevant Custom Audience Pixel code:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "code": "<script>(function() {\n  var _fbq = window._fbq || (window._fbq = []);\n  if (!_fbq.loaded) {\n    var fbds = document.createElement('script');\n    fbds.async = true;\n    fbds.src = 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbds.js';\n    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];\n    s.parentNode.insertBefore(fbds, s);\n    _fbq.loaded = true;\n  }\n  _fbq.push(['addPixelId', '11111']);\n})();\nwindow._fbq = window._fbq || [];\nwindow._fbq.push(['track', 'PixelInitialized', {}]);\n</script>\n<noscript><img height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\" style=\"display:none\" src=\"https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=11111&amp;amp;ev=NoScript\" /></noscript>", 
      "id": "11111"
    }
  ], 
  "paging": {
    "cursors": {
      "before": "MjM4NzQ5Njk5NjI2Mzc2", 
      "after": "MjM4NzQ5Njk5NjI2Mzc2"
    }
  }
}

Manage Audiences

Read

To read audiences for an ad account make an HTTP GET request:

https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences

Example:

curl -X GET \
  -d 'fields="id"' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences
Open In Graph API Explorer
'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 = [
  'id',
];
params = {
};
const customaudiencess = (new AdAccount(id)).getCustomAudiences(
  fields,
  params
);
logApiCallResult('customaudiencess api call complete.', customaudiencess);
Open In Graph API Explorer
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(
  'id',
);
$params = array(
);
echo json_encode((new AdAccount($id))->getCustomAudiences(
  $fields,
  $params
)->getResponse()->getContent(), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
Open In Graph API Explorer
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 = [
  'id',
]
params = {
}
print AdAccount(id).get_custom_audiences(
  fields=fields,
  params=params,
)
Open In Graph API Explorer
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).getCustomAudiences()
      .requestField(\"id\")
      .execute();

  }
}
Open In Graph API Explorer
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)
customaudiencess = ad_account.customaudiences({
    fields: { 'id' },
})
Open In Graph API Explorer

Sample response:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "name": "My Test CA", 
      "id": "1234567890"
    }, 
    {
      "name": "WCA", 
      "id": "0987654321"
    },
  ],
}

To read a specific custom audience:

curl -X GET \
  -d 'fields="name,rule"' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_ID>/
Open In Graph API Explorer
'use strict';
const bizSdk = require('facebook-nodejs-business-sdk');
const CustomAudience = bizSdk.CustomAudience;

const access_token = '<ACCESS_TOKEN>';
const app_secret = '<APP_SECRET>';
const app_id = '<APP_ID>';
const id = '<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_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 = [
  'name',
  'rule',
];
params = {
};
const sample_code = (new CustomAudience(id)).get(
  fields,
  params
);
logApiCallResult('sample_code api call complete.', sample_code);
Open In Graph API Explorer
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

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

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

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

$fields = array(
  'name',
  'rule',
);
$params = array(
);
echo json_encode((new CustomAudience($id))->getSelf(
  $fields,
  $params
)->exportAllData(), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
Open In Graph API Explorer
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 = '<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_ID>'
FacebookAdsApi.init(access_token=access_token)

fields = [
  'name',
  'rule',
]
params = {
}
print CustomAudience(id).get(
  fields=fields,
  params=params,
)
Open In Graph API Explorer
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 = \"<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_ID>\";
    APIContext context = new APIContext(access_token).enableDebug(true);

    new CustomAudience(id, context).get()
      .requestNameField()
      .requestRuleField()
      .execute();

  }
}
Open In Graph API Explorer
require 'facebook_ads'

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

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

custom_audience = FacebookAds::CustomAudience.get(id ,'name,rule')
Open In Graph API Explorer

Sample response:

{
  "name": "My WCA", 
  "rule": "{\"and\": [\n\t\t{\"url\": {\"i_contains\": \"shoes\"}},\n\t\t{\"url\": {\"i_contains\": \"red\"}}]}", 
  "id": "1234567890"
}

Update

To update a custom audience name:

curl -X POST \
  -F 'name="Updated Name for CA"' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_ID>/
Open In Graph API Explorer
'use strict';
const bizSdk = require('facebook-nodejs-business-sdk');
const CustomAudience = bizSdk.CustomAudience;

const access_token = '<ACCESS_TOKEN>';
const app_secret = '<APP_SECRET>';
const app_id = '<APP_ID>';
const id = '<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_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' : 'Updated Name for CA',
};
const sample_code = (new CustomAudience(id)).update(
  fields,
  params
);
logApiCallResult('sample_code api call complete.', sample_code);
Open In Graph API Explorer
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

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

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

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

$fields = array(
);
$params = array(
  'name' => 'Updated Name for CA',
);
echo json_encode((new CustomAudience($id))->updateSelf(
  $fields,
  $params
)->exportAllData(), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
Open In Graph API Explorer
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 = '<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_ID>'
FacebookAdsApi.init(access_token=access_token)

fields = [
]
params = {
  'name': 'Updated Name for CA',
}
print CustomAudience(id).update(
  fields=fields,
  params=params,
)
Open In Graph API Explorer
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 = \"<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_ID>\";
    APIContext context = new APIContext(access_token).enableDebug(true);

    new CustomAudience(id, context).update()
      .setName(\"Updated Name for CA\")
      .execute();

  }
}
Open In Graph API Explorer
require 'facebook_ads'

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

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

custom_audience = FacebookAds::CustomAudience.get(id)
custom_audience.name = 'Updated Name for CA'
custom_audience.save
Open In Graph API Explorer

Sample Response:

{
  "success": true
}

Delete

Delete an audience by id:

curl -X DELETE \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_ID>/
Open In Graph API Explorer
'use strict';
const bizSdk = require('facebook-nodejs-business-sdk');
const CustomAudience = bizSdk.CustomAudience;
const AbstractObject = bizSdk.AbstractObject;

const access_token = '<ACCESS_TOKEN>';
const app_secret = '<APP_SECRET>';
const app_id = '<APP_ID>';
const id = '<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_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 = {
};
const sample_code = (new CustomAudience(id)).delete(
  fields,
  params
);
logApiCallResult('sample_code api call complete.', sample_code);
Open In Graph API Explorer
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

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

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

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

$fields = array(
);
$params = array(
);
echo json_encode((new CustomAudience($id))->deleteSelf(
  $fields,
  $params
)->exportAllData(), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
Open In Graph API Explorer
from facebook_business.adobjects.customaudience import CustomAudience
from facebook_business.adobjects.abstractobject import AbstractObject
from facebook_business.api import FacebookAdsApi

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

fields = [
]
params = {
}
print CustomAudience(id).delete(
  fields=fields,
  params=params,
)
Open In Graph API Explorer
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 = \"<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_ID>\";
    APIContext context = new APIContext(access_token).enableDebug(true);

    new CustomAudience(id, context).delete()
      .execute();

  }
}
Open In Graph API Explorer
require 'facebook_ads'

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

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

custom_audience = FacebookAds::CustomAudience.get(id)
custom_audience.destroy({

})
Open In Graph API Explorer

Sample Response:

{
  "success": true
}

Enhanced Website Custom Audiences

This product has been deprecated. See Enhanced Website Custom Audiences.

Dynamic Date (beta)

This enables travel advertisers to target users who searched for hotels and flights based upon the users check-in date. For instance an advertiser can create an audience that only targets users with a check-in dates in the future.

Travel advertisers should provide the intended check-in date in the checkin_date field for pixel fires:

fbq('track', 'Search', {'checkin_date': '2015-09-15', 'num_of_travelers':2});

Supported Time formats

Currently only the ISO-8601 time format is supported. For example:

  • YYYYMMDD (eg 20080921)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (eg 1997-07-16)
  • YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmTZD (eg 1997-07-16T19:20+0100)
  • YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD (eg 1997-07-16T19:20:30+0100)

Where:

  • YYYY is the four-digit year
  • MM is the two-digit month (01=January, etc.)
  • DD is the two-digit day of month (01 through 31)
  • hh is the two digits of hour (00 through 23) (am/pm NOT allowed)
  • mm is the two digits of minute (00 through 59)
  • ss is the two digits of second (00 through 59)
  • TZD is the time zone designator (+hhmm or -hhmm)

Examples

Users who searched for a hotel with start_date later than today in the last 30 days:

curl 
-F "name=search_hotel_later_than_today" 
-F "pixel_id=PIXEL_ID"  
-F "retention_days=30" 
-F 'rule={"event": {"i_contains": "search"}}' 
-F 'rule_aggregation={"type":"last_event_time_field", "config":{"field":"checkin_date", "time_format":"YYYY-MM-DD"}, "operator":"@&amp;lt;", "value": "0"}' 
-F "access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN" 
"https://graph.facebook.com/API_VERSION/act_AD_ACCOUNT_ID/customaudiences"

Best Practices

  • Experiment with different potential measures of value, for example, people who visit the site frequently but have not purchased or people who visit the site with multiple devices.
  • Create Lookalike Audiences based on the best performing custom audiences.

FAQ

With Custom Audiences, you can reach people who recently visited your website and deliver them highly relevant ads based on interest they express in your products.

Other benefits include:

  • Remarket to people using your website
  • Make your existing ads more efficient by excluding audiences of people who have already converted on your message
  • Create lookalike audiences of people who look like the people browsing your website

By tracking how each customer progresses in a process, you can more effectively influence customers who expressed interest in your products. For example, using Meta Pixel, capture intent based on activity of people who are viewing pages about a loyalty program, browsing a particular product page, or filling out a preferences form. Later, you can serve relevant ads to these people to help them complete the conversion.

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See Advertiser Help Center, Custom Audience from your Website

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See Advertiser Help Center, Custom Audience from your Website. When you add or remove people, updates can take a few hours. But your ads continue to run.

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At this time, there's a maximum of 10000 Custom Audiences from your website that can be created in a single account.

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Yes. Exclusion targeting prevents a particular audience from seeing your ad to help deliver your advertising more precisely. For example, exclude an audience of your current customers if you run a campaign to acquire new customers.

In Ads Manager, in the audience section of creating an ad, click Exclude and add the custom audience to the list.

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The longest duration can be set for 365 days. After 365 days, audience members are removed, unless they revisit the website again and match the same audience rule.

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Yes. Open Ad Manager. Under the Audiences tab, click the New Audience drop-down menu and select Lookalikes.

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Dating can use Custom Audiences from your website. However, gambling websites must be approved through the sales team on a managed list, and you must provide demographic restrictions, such as 21 years+.

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We recommend CPM bidding for Website Custom Audience until your audience has reached a sufficiently large size. Start with CPM, then migrate to oCPM or CPC once you reach sufficient scale.

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Yes, Custom Audiences from your website works with all native ad formats and serves across desktop, mobile, and tablet.

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FBX and Website Custom Audiences are complementary products. FBX is best when advertisers require product-level dynamic ads, which are as current as possible and are not yet easily facilitated by Custom Audiences from your website. However, FBX is limited to desktop inventory. Custom Audiences from your website allows targeting across browsers, overlaying of Meta data, access to mobile inventory, and usage of all Meta ad units—all of which are not available on FBX.

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Custom Audiences from Your Website requests a duration where customers will be retained within the audience created. The duration is based on when customers visited a website and fired the Meta Pixel. For example, with a retention window of 30 days, if someone visits a website and matches an Audience rule on June 1st, Facebook automatically removes them from the Website Custom Audience on June 30.

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You can create rules based on URLs visited or on custom events from Meta Pixel. Using custom data, create audiences based upon SKUs, Pricing, Color, or any other attribute you send to Facebook. See Meta Pixel.

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No personal information is reported to the advertiser about any individual person on a website. You can only target an audience once it reaches a certain size; it's impossible to learn the individual identity an any person visiting a website.

Meta also provides an AdChoices link where people can learn more and opt out of targeted ads they receive. Click the “x” in the top-right corner of ads to show more options:

  • Hide this ad — Don't see this ad again (Facebook native). This is specific to the ad ID in the campaign only.
  • Hide all ads — Don't see any other ads from that advertiser (Facebook native). Hide any ads from either that subdomain, such as savings.att.com or att.com, or the page facebook.com/ATT if we have it. Block the sub-domain or page across ad accounts.
  • Why Am I seeing this Ad?
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View Tags are not yet permitted for Custom Audiences from your website clients. Only Atlas view tag are accepted at this time.

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Yes, it's possible to share Website Custom Audiences.

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If an Active campaign targets a Website Custom Audience and that audience is deleted, the campaign is put on Pause.

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We update an audience as soon as technically possible. Once customers go to webpages with a Meta Pixel and match an Audience rule, they're added to that Website Custom Audience. If this Website Custom Audience is being targeted with an ad, the customer is eligible to be served an ad in a matter of minutes.

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No. There's one Meta Pixel generated per account. Add this Meta Pixel to all pages of your website one at a time, and use Audience rules to create different Website Custom Audiences.

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Yes. You can use data from third-party tags, Tag Managers, or a DFA Floodlight tag. This depends on the sophistication of the third-party client. Simple rules are easy to implement, but if you pass dynamic variables through the JavaScript event, your third-party tag should receive them and pass them to the Meta Pixel via Custom Data fields.

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The full JavaScript version has the following advantages over the IMG-only pixel:

  • It's cross-browser and cross-platform.
  • It's fast and loads asynchronously so it doesn't block the page load.
  • Built-in cache buster increases effectiveness.
  • You can send custom data with large payloads using HTTP POST.
  • It captures the original page URL when the pixel is placed in a tag container.
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A pixel ID is an identifier of the piece of code placed on an advertiser's website. There's one pixel ID per Meta Ad account.

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See Meta Pixel.

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See Meta Pixel.

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See Meta Pixel, with Website Custom Audiences.

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In your rules, refer to event names under the parameter 'event'. For rules based on custom data, refer to it the same way you do for referring URLs, under the parameter 'url'. For example, to matches all visitors:

  • to URLs containing 'signup', or
  • associated with event 'SignUp' by fbq.push(['track', 'SignUp']);
"filter": {
    "operator": "or",
    "filters": [
        {
            "field": "url",
            "operator": "i_contains",
            "value": "signup"
        }
        {
            "field": "event",
            "operator": "i_contains",
            "value": "SignUp"
        }
    ]
}

The following rule matches all visitors who have viewed any product in the TV category by fbq.push(['track', 'ViewProduct', {category: 'TV'}]);.

"filter": {
    "operator": "or",
    "filters": [
        {
            "field": "event",
            "operator": "i_contains",
            "value": "ViewProduct"
        }
        {
            "field": "category",
            "operator": "i_contains",
            "value": "TV"
        }
    ]
},
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The above examples shows how to track remarketing events. Use the same way to track conversion events by replacing eventName with conversion ID. This ID is created during the regular conversion creation flow (https://www.facebook.com/ads/manage/convtrack.php).

window.fbq = window.fbq || [];
fbq.push(['track', 123456, {currency: 'USD', value: 30.00}]);

Ideally, you don't need to know whether a fired event is a conversion event or a remarketing event. You only need the conversion ID to fire a conversion event. For example, if the old conversion pixel is:

var fb_param = {};
fb_param.pixel_id = '1234567890';
fb_param.value = '5.00';
fb_param.currency = 'USD';
(elided other code)

Then, using the new pixel, it is the following:

window.fbq = window.fbq || [];
fbq.push(['track', 1234567890, {currency: 'USD', value: 5.00}]);

The old conversion pixel allowed either a conversion pixel or a remarketing pixel on a page. Meta Pixel allows multiple pixel firings, including multiple conversion events, multiple remarketing events, or both per page.

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Manually insert an IMG tag:

<img height="1" width="1" border="0" alt="" style="display:none"
  src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=pixel_ID/ad_account_id&amp;ev=event name&amp;cd[p1]=v1&amp;cd[p2]=v2..." />

Custom data is represented as key-value pairs. Each parameter is inside 'cd[...]'. For example:

<img height="1" width="1" border="0" alt="" style="display:none"
  src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=1234&amp;ev=ViewProduct
       &amp;cd[category]=TV" />

Is equivalent to the following JS call:

window.fbq = window.fbq || [];
fbq.push(['track', 'ViewProduct', {category: 'TV'}]);
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Use parameter 'ev' to specify conversion ID, parameter 'cd[value]' to specify value, and parameter 'cd[currency]' to specify currency:

<img height="1" width="1" border="0" alt="" style="display:none"
  src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=1234&amp;ev=1234567890
       &amp;cd[value]=5.00&amp;cd[currency]=USD" />
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Meta Pixel code tries to fire events using JavaScript first. If JavaScript isn't available, Meta Pixel code tries to use image pixel. However it's recommended to always use the JavaScript pixel:

  • Can be fired multiple times on each page load.
  • Can control when an event should be fired such as on a button click.
  • Not subject to HTTP GET limit in sending custom data.
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