.png)
Why targeting returning customers hurts your performance
When your acquisition campaigns also reach people who’ve already bought from you, three things happen:
- Your cost per acquisition goes up. You pay for impressions and clicks from people who won’t convert again.
- Your algorithm gets confused. Meta tries to optimize based on behaviour that doesn't reflect new customer intent.
- Your reporting becomes less useful. You can’t clearly see how many new customers your campaign is actually bringing in.
In short: you waste budget, dilute performance, and lose clarity.
Why most brands don’t fix this
Meta allows you to exclude custom audiences, but the setup isn't always straightforward. For many Shopify brands, there’s only one “official” way to sync their customer list to Meta automatically: by using Shopify Plus audiences.
The problem?
Shopify Plus is quite expensive and not every brand wants or needs it.
That leaves everyone else manually exporting CSVs and uploading audiences by hand. And let's be honest: no one actually keeps that updated every few days.
The fix: automatic customer audience syncing with TrackBee
TrackBee launched Meta Custom Audience Sync - a new feature that syncs all customers who made a purchase to Meta, every 15 minutes.
No manual uploads.
No external tools required.
No extra cost.
With this feature, you can:
- Automatically exclude returning customers from acquisition campaigns
- Build lookalike audiences based on real buyers
- See new vs. returning conversions in Meta Ads Manager
Setup takes less than one minute, Just toggle it on in your TrackBee dashboard and accept the terms & services in the newly created custom audience in Meta.
That’s it.
Keep in mind: It syncs one audience: everyone who ever purchased.
So what about Advantage+?
Advantage+ campaigns are Meta’s fully automated campaign type and they’re here to stay. But there’s a catch: Meta doesn't always respect exclusion lists in these campaigns. Even if you exclude past buyers, Meta might still include them if it believes they’ll convert.
Our advice:
If you’re running Advantage+ campaigns, use separate campaigns for retention and acquisition. For acquisition-focused Advantage+ campaigns, set your creative and copy clearly for first-time buyers, and monitor performance closely. You can still use TrackBee’s synced audience for better reporting and lookalike building, even if exclusions aren’t always enforced.
Available now for all TrackBee users
If you’re using TrackBee, Meta Custom Audience Sync is ready for you.
Enable the sync now → How-to guide
Got any questions? Get in touch with our support team:
Mail: contact@trackbee.io
WhatsApp: https://wa.me/31610237773
.png)
.png){kind=small}
