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Use Custom Audiences for Meta Live Video Ads

Want to show your Live Video Ad to people who already know your brand — past customers, site visitors, Instagram followers? You can target your own Meta Custom Audiences. You schedule the campaign from LiveMeUp as usual, then swap in your Custom Audience from Meta Ads Manager. It takes about 2 minutes.


When to use Custom Audiences


By default, LiveMeUp campaigns use Advantage+ audience: Meta finds new shoppers for you. That's the best choice to reach new people.


Custom Audiences are better when you want to bring back people who already engaged with your brand, for example:


  • Customers — your Shopify customer list, uploaded to Meta
  • Website visitors — people who visited your store in the last 30, 60 or 180 days (requires an active Meta pixel)
  • Engagers — people who interacted with your Instagram account, Facebook Page or past videos and lives
  • Lookalikes — new people who look like your best customers


Your Custom Audience must already exist in the same Meta ad account you pick in LiveMeUp. Create it in Meta Ads Manager → Audiences before you start.


Before you start


  • Do this right after scheduling, and before your live starts. Changes to the audience can send the ad back to Meta's review, so leave yourself time.
  • Avoid very small audiences: they can make Meta under-spend your budget. If your list is small, combine several audiences or add a lookalike.
  • Follow the usual timing rules (schedule at least 2 hours ahead, go live within 20 minutes of the start time): see Scheduled Live Video Ads and Best Practices.


Step 1 — Schedule your campaign from LiveMeUp


  1. Open your live event → Facebook Campaign tab, and set your ad account, objective and budget as usual.
  2. In Audience, uncheck Use Advantage+ audience.
  3. Add at least one interest. LiveMeUp needs one to create the campaign — it's a placeholder you'll replace in Meta.
  4. Click Save, then Schedule campaign.



Step 2 — Find the campaign in Meta Ads Manager


  1. Open Meta Ads Manager with the same ad account.
  2. Find your campaign. It has the name you set in LiveMeUp and is tagged SLVA (Scheduled Live Video Ad).
  3. Open the ad set and click Edit.



Step 3 — Add your Custom Audience and publish


  1. In the Audience section, select your Custom Audiences.
  2. Remove the placeholder interest if you only want to reach your Custom Audience. (Keeping it narrows the audience further.)
  3. Optional: exclude people you don't want to reach, such as customers who bought in the last 30 days.
  4. Click Publish.



Only change the audience in Meta. Keep the schedule, budget and creative set by LiveMeUp, so the ad stays in sync with your live event.


You're all set! Your Live Video Ad will reach your Custom Audience when you go live.


Troubleshooting


I can't uncheck Advantage+ audience or add an interest.
Make sure you've picked an ad account and a country first. Then try again.


My Custom Audience doesn't appear in Ads Manager.
Check that you're in the same ad account you selected in LiveMeUp, and that the audience status is Ready in Audiences. New customer-list audiences can take a few hours to populate.


My ad is "In review" again after editing.
That's normal after a targeting change. Meta usually reviews it quickly — another reason to edit well before your live.


My ad spent less than the budget.
Your audience may be too small. Widen it (add audiences or a lookalike) and go live for at least 1 hour.


Still stuck? Chat with us using the bubble at the bottom of the screen.

Updated on: 10/11/2026

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