As of October 2018, Facebook now requires you to use Business Manager if you want to create what's called a "customer file custom audience," which is the kind of custom audience you would use to market to your database or sphere of influence. And since we at The Paperless Agent recommend running most -- if not all -- of your Facebook marketing to your database, this is a big deal!
Learn how to setup Facebook Business Manager here.
Once you have setup Business Manager, you can create as many customer file custom audiences as you want! Just follow the steps below.
Creating a Custom Audience from Your Database
1. Access Facebook Business Manager and click on the menu icon
2. Under "Assets," click on "Audiences"
3. When you are on your Audience page, you should see any past audiences you saved (Your page may not look exactly like ours if you do not have many saved audiences). You'll click the down arrow on 'Create Audience' and click 'Custom Audience'.
4. Choose 'Customer File'.
5. You will need to have a CSV list of contact information for your database. Once you have that, you'll click on 'Choose a file or copy and paste data'. OR if you have MailChimp you can click on 'Import from MailChimp'.
6. Next to "Original Data Source," select "Directly from customers"
7. Drag and drop your CSV file of contact information into the upload box, or find it on your computer with the "Upload File" button
8. Name your audience, then click "Next"
9. Once you upload your database, you will then see it on the page. Next, you'll need to click on the Identifiers to use.
10. Chris recommends Email, Phone Number, First Name, and Last Name for identifiers, if you have them. Map as many email addresses (you can map up to three emails) and phone numbers as you have data for. You don't need to map all of the fields.
11. Click 'Upload and Create'.
Your database will begin uploading. When it is finished, click 'Done'.
You'll then need to wait for your new audience to become 'Ready'. This can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour depending on how large of a database you uploaded. Once it says 'Ready' and has the green dot, it is ready to be put to use!
