How To Create Facebook Lookalike Audiences From Amazon Customer Data

This post provides step-by-step instructions for creating a lookalike audience on Facebook using Amazon customer data. Doing so allows Amazon sellers to target ads to people who Facebook deems are similar to people who have bought their products on Amazon.

In campaigns we’ve run with LandingCube, using these lookalike audiences has resulted in capturing leads at 1/5 the cost of targeting ads to a custom audience manually created based on the (hypothetical) demographics and interests of a target customer.

The process of creating lookalike audiences in Facebook from Amazon customer lists involves 3 steps: 1) Downloading the Fulfillment Report in Amazon Seller Central, 2) Formatting the Spreadsheet and 3) Creating the Audience in Facebook.

1. Go to the Reports tab in Seller Central and click Fulfillment 

2. Then on the left-hand menu, under Sales, select Amazon Fulfilled Shipments  

3. Then, under Download change the Event Date to the Last 30 Days, and then click 'Request Download.' 

       
4. Once the report for the Last 30 Days is in progress, then choose Exact Dates for the Event Date. Choose the 30 Days prior. So 31-60 days back. You can only download 30 days at a time. The more months you download, the bigger your list will be…which will increase the reliability of your lookalike audience. We recommend you download 2-6 months of orders.

5. Wait until the Report Status changes from In Progress to Downloaded and download each of the 2-6 reports. 

1. Open a new spreadsheet in Google Sheets and import the first downloaded fulfillment report.
2. Import the other reports in subsequent tabs. When importing the files, choose the option to ‘Replace data at selected cell.’     

3. Delete all columns except recipient-name, shipping address, city, state, postal code & country. 

4. Go to Add-on > Get Add-ons. And get the Split Names add-on 

5. Highlight the recipient name column and run the Split Names add-on to separate the names into first and last.

6. Do this formatting for all reports, and then copy and paste all the data into one tab.

7. Then delete the other tabs except for the one and download the spreadsheet.

8. Finally, download the spreadsheet as a CSV or txt file.

1. Login to the Facebook Ad Manager
2. Navigate to the "Ad Sets" tab and click on the green "+ Create" button   

3. Scroll down to the "Audience" subsection of the "Ad Set" section.

4. Under "Create New Audience" look for "Custom Audiences", click "Create New" and choose "Custom Audience".

5. For "Create a Custom Audience" choose "Customer List".

6. Follow the onscreen guide to prepare your customer list and after click "Next". 

7. Click "Yes" or "No" depending on if your file contains a column for "Value", then click "Next".

8. Click "Upload File" to upload your chosen .CSV and then name your audience while making note that it is from your Amazon customers. After click "Next".

9. If prompted, select the column which represents the "Customer Value Column" from your .CSV file and click "Next".

10. Match each category of your spreadsheet with the appropriate identifier in Facebook and correct any errors before continuing. Then click "Upload & Create"  

11. Once the audience data has finished uploading, click "Create Lookalike".

12. On the next screen, you’ll use the Custom Audience from above as the "Source" (which will be chosen automatically if you follow the steps above). Then choose a location to target and the Audience Size (1% will choose the closest match to your Custom Audience).  Then finally click "Create Audience".  

If you followed these steps, you will have successfully created a lookalike audience from Amazon customer data. You’ll just have to finish with the other settings in the Ad Sets tab. You’ll also have to choose (or create a new) Campaign and create an actual ad.

As long as you use the lookalike audience you are totally within Amazon’s Terms.