With the recent announcement that Facebook will be utilizing BlueKai’s data management platform alongside partnerships with data-gathering firms Acxiom, Datalogix, and Epsilon, the Custom Audience options for Facebook ads have just gotten that much more advanced. As a marketer, it’s important to know what these changes mean and how to effectively use these advancements to better your Facebook advertising.

Here are five ways the new Facebook Custom Audience options change the game, and how to use those changes to your advantage:

Going Beyond Facebook’s “Interests”

As a Facebook user myself, I can tell you that the last time I updated any of my “Interests” on Facebook, the world wasn’t supposed to end for another couple of years. And it’s not just me. Many Facebook users are not consistently updating those “Interests” categories. On top of that, the movies, music, and other categories available on Facebook’s native “Interests” limit greater identification of possible target audiences. With the new ability to use third-party data to target consumers, you can access offline purchases and shopping habits to find out about that one time, five weeks ago, when I googled the best type of conditioner for my hair type.

Reaching A Greater Pool of People

In the past, Custom Audience services didn’t allow for you to target customers beyond your client or brand’s own lists and databases. With the new update, you’re granted this access through the data-gathering platform and firms, making the overall pool of people you’re reaching that much greater. So as mentioned earlier, you can now reach out to customers who are searching within a particular category, regardless of whether or not they are on your email lists or other databases.

Keeping In Touch with the Old and New

While providing a greater prospective customer audience for advertisers, Facebook Custom Audience options also allow for brands to remain engaged with people who have already made purchases in the past. Continuing engagement with past customers helps to keep them coming back and increases their appreciation of your brand for valuing them as a customer by keeping communication ongoing.

Monitoring Content Promotion tied to Search

The positive effects of Custom Audience lie not only within Facebook but can also help increase natural search rankings. Because Google factors social signals into their ranking system, the new audience targeting features can help advertisers generate Likes for the page and Sharing of SEO-relevant content (i.e., a picture). It’s important to continuously test and monitor your content promotion (Sponsored Stories, Page Posts, and Facebook Exchange) that can be tied to searchable keywords.

The new capabilities of using purchasing behaviors and consumption for Facebook Custom Audience advertising means you as an advertiser are no longer limited to a brand’s lists and databases or those never-updated “Interests” on a user’s Facebook page. Utilizing these new solutions in an efficient way can help create the most successfully targeted social media advertising for your brand.

Have you tried out these Custom Audience Options on Facebook? Got some more suggestions? Let us know in the comments below!