You’ve installed your Meta Pixel, and it’s humming along, collecting data on your website visitors. But what do you do with that data? You create the single most valuable audience for any business running paid social media ads: The Website Visitor Retargeting Audience.

These people are already familiar with your brand; they’ve spent time on your site, browsed products, or read your content. They are much warmer leads than cold traffic, which is why retargeting campaigns often deliver the highest Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

In this step-by-step guide, you will learn exactly how to transform your website traffic into a powerful, custom retargeting audience using Meta Ads Manager.

What is a Custom Audience?

A Custom Audience is a targeted group of people who have previously engaged with your business, either online or offline. The website traffic audience is a type of Custom Audience built directly from the data gathered by your Meta Pixel.

Step 1: Navigate to the Audiences Section

1. Log into your Meta Business Suite and open the Ads Manager.
2. Click the All Tools icon (the three-line or “waffle” menu) in the top-left corner.
3. Under Advertise, click on Audiences.

Step 2: Create a Custom Audience

1. In the Audiences dashboard, click the blue “Create Audience” dropdown menu.
2. Select “Custom Audience”.

Step 3: Select Your Data Source

A new window will appear asking you to choose your data source. Since we are targeting people who have visited your website, you will choose:

1. Select “Website” under the “Your Sources” section.
2. Click “Next”.

Step 4: Define Your Audience Parameters

This is where you specify exactly who you want to target.

1. Choose Your Pixel

• Under “Source,” use the dropdown menu to select the Meta Pixel you installed on your WordPress site (e.g., [Your Business Name] Website Pixel).

2. Define the Event (Include)

This is the core of the audience definition. You have several options here, but for a general retargeting audience, the best starting point is:

• Select “All website visitors”.
• Alternatively, if you want a warmer audience, you can choose “People who visited specific web pages” (e.g., people who hit a product page but not the checkout page).

3. Set the Retention Period

This setting defines how far back Meta should look to include visitors.

• Enter a number of days next to “in the past”. The maximum is 180 days.
• Recommended Starting Points:
  • 30 days: High-intent, warmer audience (use for promotions).
  • 90 days: Balance of size and relevance (a good general retargeting pool).
  • 180 days: Largest possible audience (best for branding or very broad offers).

4. Name Your Audience

Use a clear, descriptive naming convention so you know exactly what this audience is for.

• Recommended Format: CA - Visitors - [Number of Days] - [Specific Page or Action]
• Example Name: CA - Visitors - 90 Days - All Website Traffic

Step 5: Create and Wait

1. Once all fields are filled, click the blue “Create Audience” button.
2. Meta will instantly create your audience, but the status will initially show “Populating”.
3. Depending on your website traffic, it may take up to 24-48 hours for Meta to backfill the audience with existing data and populate it fully.

Important Note: Meta requires a minimum size of 100 visitors from a single country to use a Custom Audience in an ad set. If your audience is too small, the status will remain “Audience Too Small.”

Conclusion: Time to Launch Your Retargeting Ads!

Your retargeting audience is now created and ready to use in your ad campaigns! This audience is dynamic, meaning it automatically updates as new people visit your website and old visitors drop out after the retention period (e.g., after 90 days).

The next step is to create an ad set and choose this custom audience to start showing hyper-relevant ads to the people who already know you!