Unlock 2x ROAS with the Best Facebook Ads Retargeting Tactics

In the fast-paced world of digital advertising, reaching the right audience is everything. When you're spending hard-earned marketing dollars, every click counts.

To make the most of your ad budget, targeting audiences who are already familiar with your brand is one of the best strategies.

That's where Facebook ads retargeting comes into play. In this article we will walk you through how to use retargeting audiences to double your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) or reduce lead costs.

From website visitors to meta sources like Instagram engagement, we'll cover all of the key audience types you should be using for powerful, bottom-funnel campaigns.

Understanding the Importance of Targeted Audiences

If someone's already interacted with your brand, they're more likely to take further action. This is why Facebook ads retargeting is so effective—you're not trying to convince a cold audience to care about your brand.

You’re targeting people who’ve already visited your site, interacted with a post, or watched one of your videos. They’re warm leads, and converting these users is easier and more cost-effective.

Using targeted retargeting audiences also drives down lead costs and increases your ROAS. It's a win-win for any digital marketer.

Accessing the Audience Tab in Ads Manager

First things first—let’s get to the right section in Facebook Ads Manager.

1. Log in to your Ads Manager.
2. In the "All Tools" section, click on “Audiences.”

This is your audience control or command section where you can create custom, lookalike or saved audiences. All your created audiences will live here, and this is where you’ll manage and refine them. Having all your retargeting audiences in one spot makes it easy to create campaigns quickly.

Creating a Custom Audience

A custom audience on Facebook lets you target users based on specific interactions they’ve had with your business. This is more personal and precise than broad audience targeting and makes it possible to serve ads to people based on their previous behaviors—those that signal they are more likely to convert.

Let’s break down the most effective custom audience types you can create for your next campaign.

1. Website Visitors Audience

One of the simplest but most powerful Facebook ads retargeting strategies is creating an audience of website visitors.

1. In the Audiences section, click “Create Audience” and select "Custom Audience."
2. Choose the "Website" option.
3. Make sure your Facebook Pixel is selected.

Next, you’ll choose between targeting all website visitors or specific page visitors. In most cases, a broader retargeting to all website visitors is more effective unless you're running highly segmented campaigns for specific pages.

Pick a retention period—180 days is a standard choice, ensuring you're targeting recent visitors while giving yourself a decent data pool.

Sending targeted ads back to people who visited your site within the last 180 days can dramatically increase conversion rates. These users are already familiar with your brand, meaning more of them will engage and convert with the right follow-up ad.

2. Uploading a Customer List

Already have a list of customer email addresses or phone numbers? Utilize that data for your retargeting campaign!

1. Click "Create Audience" and select "Custom Audience."
2. Choose the "Customer List" option.

From here, Facebook will prompt you to download a template. In that template, add your customer data, such as email addresses, phone numbers, or even ZIP codes. Upload the filled-form back to Facebook, and it will match those details with user profiles.

This is perfect for targeting people who’ve bought from you before or those on your newsletter list. Using a customer list provides a reliable method to reconnect with past customers, allowing you to promote new products or services directly to them via Facebook Ads.

Instagram Engaged Audience

If you’re running an Instagram page, you'd be missing out if you didn’t target those who’ve engaged with your posts or ads.

Creating this retargeting audience is simple:

1. Choose "Instagram Account" from the custom audience options.
2. Select your account.
3. Choose “Everyone Who Engaged” over the past 365 days.

This ensures that anyone who liked, commented, or shared your posts, whether organic or ads, sees your retargeted content for up to a year. Engaged Instagram followers are likely to trust your brand, making them highly profitable targets. Whether you're running sponsored ads or organic content, you’ve already had their attention once—why not get it again?

Facebook Page Engaged Audience

Similar to the Instagram engaged audience, you can do the same on Facebook.

1. Select “Facebook Page” in the custom audience creation flow.
2. Choose all users who’ve engaged with your page in the last 365 days.

Every comment, like, share, or message counts as engagement here. Setting the retention period to a full year ensures that you capture anyone with even the slightest interaction with your brand, maximizing your audience reach without stepping outside of your niche.

These are users more likely to click again, engage more deeply, or even purchase after retargeting.

Video Viewers Audience

Did you know that Facebook lets you retarget based on how much of your video someone has watched? This is another great option for Facebook ads retargeting that can improve both lead generation and brand awareness.

1. Choose "Video" from the custom audience list.
2. Select the videos you've uploaded or run ads for.
3. Choose “25% video watchers” as your target group.

This is where engaged users really stand out. If a user has already watched at least 25% of your video, they’ve shown interest in what you’re selling. This makes them ideal for serving follow-up ads. You can create audiences based on multiple videos and continue nurturing these users through subsequent promotions.

Utilizing Custom Audiences in Campaigns

Now that you’ve built the audiences, it’s time to use them in an actual campaign.

1. Go to Ads Manager and create a new campaign.
2. When setting up the "Ad Set," scroll down to the custom audience section.
3. Select your newly created audiences—whether that’s video viewers, website visitors, or Instagram engagement.

This step ensures your Facebook ads are only being shown to the people most likely to convert. Reaching people who are familiar with your brand is significantly more effective than putting out ads to a bunch of random users who don’t know you.

Creating Effective Campaigns with Custom Audiences

To make the most out of a Facebook ads retargeting campaign, use ads that have already performed well. You’re working with warm leads, so take your top-performing ads—the ones that got the most engagement or conversions—and use them to retarget these users.

Consistently freshen up your ads to see what works better. Don't be afraid to test new formats, images, or headlines based on your audience type.

Best Practices for Running Remarketing Campaigns

1. High-Quality Creative: Since you’re targeting people who already know your brand, don’t waste their time with poorly designed ads or irrelevant messaging.
2. Audience Pools Are Updated: Facebook automatically updates your audience data, meaning you have a constantly fresh pool of users to retarget.

Avoiding Broad Audience Targeting

When setting up your campaign, Facebook will prompt you to use an "Advantage Custom Audience." Uncheck this option.

Although Facebook suggests using it to broaden your reach, this dilutes the effectiveness of your retargeting campaign. You want to focus on the users who are engaged, not waste budget on users outside your parameters.

Leveraging Small Budgets Efficiently

Even with a small budget, retargeting remains a crucial element of your campaign strategy. Focus on bottom-funnel approaches and only retarget warmed-up audiences. The key condition for success? Data.

Your website should have significant traffic; your Instagram should have interactions from the past year. Without this data foundation, your campaign won't be effective.

For those lacking engagement, start by building your upper funnel—first generate awareness, and then circle back with retargeting once the data is available.

Building a Strong Bottom Funnel Strategy

Bottom-funnel strategies focus on customers close to making a purchase. It’s crucial to ensure you have this data-rich pool to draw from. This audience is your strongest asset for reducing costs and increasing your conversion rates.

Advantages of Targeting Engaged Users

Engaged users are your biggest opportunity to drive sales and leads. Whether they visited your site, engaged with your Instagram, or watched 25% of a video, these people have already built a connection with your brand. Targeting them again increases the probability they’ll take action, and often at a much lower cost per conversion.

Conclusion

Facebook ads retargeting is one of the smartest moves you can make for scaling your digital marketing efforts.

When you target custom audiences, you’re not just blindly spending your ad budget on uninterested users—you’re investing in those who are already halfway through the sales funnel.

Whether it’s website visitors, Instagram engagers, or video viewers, each audience allows you to fine-tune your campaigns for optimal results.

So, what's next? Start building these retargeting audiences today. Run your ads, track the results, and don’t forget to constantly optimize.

The data will speak for itself, and before long, you could be doubling that ROAS or cutting your lead costs in half.

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