Custom Audience
An audience segment created from an advertiser's own customer data (email lists, website visitors, app users) for targeted advertising.
What Custom Audience means
Custom audiences allow advertisers to target existing customers or prospects by uploading first-party data (email addresses, phone numbers, user IDs) or using platform pixel/SDK data from website visitors and app users. Each platform has its own implementation — Meta Custom Audiences, Google Customer Match, TikTok Custom Audiences, and LinkedIn Matched Audiences. Privacy compliance is critical for custom audiences: advertisers must have proper consent or legal basis to use customer data for advertising, data must be collected lawfully, and the platform's terms of service for data upload must be followed. Meta requires advertiser certification that proper consent was obtained, and GDPR/CCPA may require explicit opt-in for using customer data in advertising contexts.
Related terms
Lookalike Audience
A targeting audience created by platforms that matches characteristics of an advertiser's existing customers to find similar potential customers.
Retargeting
The practice of showing ads to users based on their previous interactions with a brand's digital properties.
First-Party Data
Data collected directly by an organization from its own customers and users through direct interactions.
Audience Targeting
The process of defining which users will see an ad based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and other criteria.