Facebook Retargeting Ads: Audiences, Strategies and Setup

Q: How much of Facebook ads you should be retargeting?

There is no fixed share. Meta doesn’t publish a recommended retargeting budget, so start with a small budget next to your prospecting campaigns, cap frequency, and adjust based on cost per result for each audience.

Q: What is the minimum audience size for Facebook ads?

Meta doesn’t list a minimum for website custom audiences, but they need to populate before you can use them. For customer lists, Meta’s formatting guidelines ask for at least 1,000 customers in the file, and a lookalike audience needs a source of at least 100 people (1,000 to 5,000 recommended).

Q: When should I use retargeting ads?

Use retargeting once your audience has enough people to deliver and you have a clear next step to offer: a product someone viewed, a cart they left, or content that follows what they read. Meta shows an estimated audience size when you use the audience in an ad set.

Q: What is the best way to target Facebook Ads?

Here are some tips that can help you make the most of Facebook Ads: target audiences that meet your business needs (saved audiences, custom audiences and lookalike audiences); combine audiences; exclude recent buyers; repurpose your best-performing content for ads; and add your Meta pixel to the links you share with Replug so clicks build audiences too.

Q: What is the Facebook retargeting code?

It is the Meta Pixel base code (plus event code for actions such as AddToCart) that you add to your website. Meta uses it to fill your website custom audiences. You can also fire the same pixel from short links with a link retargeting tool.

Q: Does Facebook retargeting still work after iOS 14?

Yes, but audiences can be smaller: Meta notes that website custom audiences may not include events from some iOS 14 users, and privacy rules in Europe can affect campaigns there.

Q: What is the difference between a custom audience and a lookalike audience?

A custom audience is made of people who already interacted with you; it is what you retarget. A lookalike audience finds new people who are similar to a source audience.

Quick answer: Facebook retargeting ads are Meta ads shown on Facebook and Instagram to people who already interacted with your business. You build the audience as a custom audience (website visitors tracked by the Meta Pixel, product viewers from your catalog, video viewers, Page or Instagram engagers, or a customer list) and select it in your ad set. Meta describes custom audiences as audiences built from your own data or Meta engagement data “for retargeting campaigns, new customer campaigns and other ad targeting options” (Meta Business Help).

Most visitors leave a site without buying. Facebook retargeting gives you a second chance to reach the people who looked but didn’t act, with an ad that picks up where their visit ended.

This works with the Meta Pixel, a snippet of code on your website that records visits and events such as viewing a product or adding to cart. Meta uses those events to fill your website custom audiences. Read more in our Meta Pixel guide.

The audience only includes people who already know your product, so the ad can be specific: the item they viewed, the plan they compared, the guide they started reading.

Below: the audiences you can retarget, the strategies Meta recommends, and how to add your Meta pixel to the links you share with Replug.

Who you can retarget with Facebook ads

Who to retarget on Facebook: site visitors, product viewers, video viewers, Page and Instagram engagers, and customer lists

Website visitors: everyone who visited, people who visited specific pages, or people who triggered an event such as AddToCart, from your Meta Pixel. You choose a retention window in days, and a new website audience starts filling from the day you create it; it doesn’t backfill (Meta Business Help). You can also filter by event parameters, for example purchases of a premium plan (Meta Business Help).
Product viewers: a catalog custom audience of people who viewed or added products to the cart, used with Advantage+ catalog ads (Meta Business Help).
Engagers on Meta: people who watched your videos, opened your lead forms or Instant Experiences, or engaged with your Facebook Page or Instagram account.
App users and offline customers: app activity and offline activity audiences.
Customer lists: emails or phone numbers you upload, which Meta hashes and matches; the file should include at least 1,000 customers (Meta Business Help).

You can create up to 500 custom audiences per ad account (Meta Business Help). Step-by-step instructions for each audience type are in our guide to set up a Facebook custom audience; this post focuses on how to use them in retargeting ads.

Facebook retargeting strategies

1. Split audiences by how recent the visit was

Split Facebook retargeting by how recent: viewed 1 to 3 days ago, viewed 4 to 30 days ago, and recent buyers to exclude or cross-sell

Meta’s own best practices for retargeting with Advantage+ catalog ads suggest segmenting by time since the last action, because someone who viewed a product yesterday is more likely to convert than someone who viewed it 14 days ago. Create an ad set per segment so you can vary bids and messages and see results by audience (Meta Business Help).

2. Show the products people looked at

For stores, Advantage+ catalog ads (formerly dynamic ads) show each person the products they viewed or added to the cart, and can suggest similar products. If audiences are small, Meta suggests extending the retention window to 30 or 90 days (Meta Business Help).

3. Exclude people who already bought

Exclude a recent purchasers audience from your retargeting ad sets, or run a separate cross-sell ad for them (Meta Business Help). Exclusions work for any custom audience, for example existing customers in a new-customer campaign (Meta Business Help).

4. Choose your audience yourself

Advantage+ audience lets Meta’s AI find people for you, and Meta recommends testing it for almost all campaign types, but not for retargeting: “If you’re running a retargeting campaign, then Advantage+ audience isn’t recommended” (Meta Business Help). Select your custom audiences directly in the ad set.

5. Retarget engagers when site traffic is low

If your website doesn’t get much traffic yet, retarget people who watched your videos or engaged with your Instagram account, then build a lookalike audience from your best audience to reach new people. A lookalike source needs at least 100 people, and Meta generally recommends 1,000 to 5,000 (Meta Business Help).

6. Match the message to the step

A product viewer needs a reminder of the product; a cart abandoner may need an answer about shipping or returns; a blog reader needs the next useful piece of content. Write one ad per audience instead of one ad for everyone, and cap frequency so people aren’t shown the same ad too often.

How to add your Facebook pixel to the links you share with Replug

The Meta Pixel only runs on your own website. When you share links to pages you don’t control on Facebook, Instagram or anywhere else (a marketplace listing, a YouTube video, a partner’s article), Replug’s link retargeting tool fires your Meta pixel when someone clicks the short link, then sends them on. Those clicks can fill a website custom audience built on that pixel. Steps in the current Replug app:

Step 1: Copy your pixel ID from Meta Events Manager (how to find your Facebook pixel ID). In Replug, click Settings at the bottom of the left menu, open Retargeting Pixels and click Add Pixel.

Replug workspace settings with Retargeting Pixels selected and the Add Pixel button highlighted

Step 2: Give the pixel a name, choose Meta (Facebook) Pixel as the network, paste the ID and click Create.

Replug Create retargeting pixel dialog with a name, the Meta (Facebook) Pixel network and a pixel ID filled in

Step 3: Click Campaigns in the left menu, then Create new (see how to create a campaign).

Replug Campaigns page with Campaigns selected in the menu and the Create new button highlighted

Step 4: Name the campaign, choose a custom domain if you use one, select the Retargeting pixel add-on and click Next.

Replug New campaign form with a campaign name and the Retargeting pixel add-on selected

Step 5: Select your Meta pixel (and any other pixels you want to fire) and click Save campaign.

Replug campaign Retargeting Pixels step with a Meta pixel selected and the Save campaign button highlighted

Step 6: Shorten the link you want to share and pick the campaign in the Campaign field. Every click on that link now fires your Meta pixel before the visitor lands on the page.

Replug Your link window with the retargeting campaign selected in the Campaign field

Retargeting pixels are included on Essentials (1 pixel) and on Scale and Agency (unlimited), per Replug’s pricing.

You may also like: Google Ads Retargeting: The ultimate guide for 2026

Maximize on Your Facebook Retargeting Ads using Replug

Replug makes it quick to add Facebook and other pixels to every link in a campaign, and you can add custom pixel code for platforms that aren’t in the list.

Replug’s analytics show clicks and unique clicks for each link and campaign; conversions from your ads are reported in Meta Ads Manager. Once the pixel collects visitors, build a website custom audience from it and select it in your ad set.

To further enhance tracking and branding, check out this custom URL shortener to create branded links that help you monitor engagement and improve campaign performance seamlessly.

Here are some quick faqs that can help boost your retargeting efforts.

FAQs

How much of Facebook ads you should be retargeting?

What is the minimum audience size for Facebook ads?

When should I use retargeting ads?

What is the best way to target Facebook Ads?

What is the Facebook retargeting code?

Does Facebook retargeting still work after iOS 14?

What is the difference between a custom audience and a lookalike audience?

Written by

Wasiq Naeem

Wasiq Naeem is a content and digital marketing veteran with 10+ years of experience across affiliate marketing, email marketing, paid advertising, content strategy, and brand building. At Replug, he covers a wide range of digital marketing topics, drawing on extensive research and deep industry knowledge to deliver high-quality, authoritative content that helps marketers and businesses grow smarter and faster.

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Facebook retargeting ads: Audiences, strategies and how to set them up