Custom Audience

Custom audiences let an advertiser define a group using data sources supported by a particular ad platform. Examples may include authorized customer contact records, tracked website events, app activity, or engagement with social content. Some platforms use secure matching to connect permitted identifiers with existing accounts. Actual capabilities, audience minimums, and targeting controls vary by platform and over time.

A business might create a group of people who began an online quote but did not complete it, then deliver a relevant reminder where advertising rules permit. Another group might exclude recent customers from an acquisition campaign. The advertiser must assess whether its collection notices, consent or other lawful basis, platform terms, retention, and opt-out practices support the use. Uploading an email list is not automatically permissible because the business possesses it.

A custom audience is different from a lookalike audience. The former defines people from the business’s specified source or interactions; the latter generally seeks additional people resembling a source group. Neither guarantees that every source person will match or see an advertisement.