Last October 2013, social networking giant Facebook announced that it will be globally releasing a new feature that will allow online marketers to reach consumers who have visited their websites, whether on a desktop computer or on a mobile device.
After three months, a few days before the social media site's 10th anniversary, Facebook’s Website Custom Audience was launched.
This new feature builds up on the capabilities of Custom Audiences. If you have not tried Custom Audiences before, it is a feature that allows marketers to zero in on a specific consumer bracket through the use of a Sponsored Story or a Facebook ad.
With this feature, advertisers can use email addresses, Facebook user IDs, phone numbers, app user IDs and even Apple's IDFA to define who their target audience are.
But what makes Website Custom Audience or WCA different from Custom Audience?
Apart from being able to target past visitors of your website, you do not need to use an approved third party in creating an ad with the Power Editor.
In turn, this means that you can better track your ad's performance. Second, with WCA, you are not restricted to a specific ad format that you have to follow. If you have created advertisements for other formats, you do not need to tweak your collaterals drastically.
WCA allows advertisers to promote events, pages or even unpublished posts with greater ease. And because WCA virtually eliminates the need for using an approved third party in creating ads, WCA is seen to be more affordable for smaller business.
While WCA has not yet been released for use with a self-serve ad tool, you can now use it with the Power Editor. From the Power Editor, click Audiences, which can be found on the left side. Afterwards, click Create Audience and select Website Custom Audience.
A Create Remarketing Audience dialog box will then appear. It is advisable that you select a name for WCA that you'll easily remember. The name you choose should also be descriptive enough for your target audience.
You are not required to put anything on the Description box. The Contains field allows advertisers to select which consumers are to be targeted by an ad. Duration is the part where advertisers can choose which website visitors to target.
By default, the Duration is set at 30 days and the maximum is 180 days.
After filling out the fields, click on View Code. The Tracking Tag box will appear containing Javascript code to inset. Copy that code and paste it on the closing or BODY tag of your website template. You only have to do this once.
After you have copy-pasted the code, close the dialog box and click on Create Remarketing Audience. From there, Facebook will create an audience list for you, the duration of which can vary depending on your website's traffic.
Advertisers can create up to WCAs. Additionally, you can create a WCA that is entirely different from the others. This means you do not have to target similar consumers repeatedly.
