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Meta Business Help Centre
How to format a customer list when creating a custom audience
Before you begin
Before you add your list in the beginning of the audience creation process, you need to make sure that the column formatting matches the identifier type that Meta accepts. This helps Meta process your hashed columns to find matches later on. You'll also need to make sure that your customer information is entered using the correct format types.
For example, if you had a column header that's for first names, you would rename the column header to fn so it can be matched properly.
Avoid:
- Gaps in data.
- Irrelevant data points (e.g. remove internal-only customer codes).
- Lists of fewer than 100 people.
- Formatting errors caused by changing the file format (e.g. from .xls to .csv).
Formatting customer information
The following list shows the information types that Meta accepts:
Main identifiers
| Identifier type | Column header | Description and formatting guidelines | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email address | We accept email addresses in up to three separate columns. Only one email address can go in each cell. US and international formats are accepted. |
| |
| Phone number | phone | Phone numbers must include a country code to be used for matching. For example, the number 1 must precede a phone number in the United States. We accept up to three phone numbers as separate columns, with or without punctuation. Important: Make sure that you include the country code as part of your customers' phone numbers, even if all of your data is from the same country. |
|
| Mobile advertiser ID | madid | We accept two types of mobile advertiser IDs: Android's Advertising ID (AAID), which Google provides as part of Android advertising, and Apple's Advertising Identifier (IDFA), which Apple provides as part of iOS in its ads framework. |
|
| Facebook app user ID | uid | An ID corresponding to someone who uses an app that can be retrieved through the Facebook SDK. We accept numerical user IDs associated with your Facebook application. |
|
| Facebook Page user ID | pageuid | An ID corresponding to someone who has interacted with your Facebook Page. We accept numerical user IDs associated with your Facebook Page. |
|
| First name | fn | We accept first name and first name initial, with or without accents. Initials can be provided with or without a full stop. |
|
| Surname | ln | We accept full surnames with or without accents. |
|
Additional identifiers
| Identifier type | Column header | Description and formatting guidelines | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
City | ct | We accept full city names as they normally appear. |
|
State/Province | st | We accept full names of US and international states and provinces, as well as the abbreviated versions of US states. |
|
Country | country | Country must be provided as an ISO two-letter country code. Important: Make sure that you include your customers' countries in their own column in your list, even if all of your country codes are from the same country. As we match on a global scale, this simple step helps us match as many people as possible from your list. |
|
Date of birth | dob | We accept 18 different date formats to accommodate a range of month, day and year combinations, with or without punctuation. |
|
Year of birth | doby | We accept year of birth as a 4-digit number, YYYY. |
|
Age | age | We accept age as a numerical value. |
|
Zip/Postal code | zip | We accept US and international zip and postal codes. US zip codes may include a 4-digit extension as long as they are separated by a hyphen. The extension is not required and will not further improve match rate. |
|
Gender | gen | We accept gender in the form of an initial, such as F for female and M for male. |
|
Data processing options
Limited data use is a data processing option that gives you more control over how your data is used in Meta's systems and better supports you in your compliance efforts with various US state privacy regulations. To utilise this feature, you must proactively enable limited data use.
Limited data use is a data processing option that gives you more control over how your data is used in Meta's systems and better supports you in your compliance efforts with various US state privacy regulations. To utilise this feature, you must proactively enable limited data use.
You can use customer list custom audiences to send the limited data use flag, which tells Meta to process data in accordance with its role as a service provider with respect to flagged personal information of people in California. You can do this by adding data processing options to your customer lists. First, indicate that limited data use should apply in the data processing options. Then set the customer's country and state or opt for Meta to determine if the record is from California.
| Identifier type | Column header | Description and formatting guidelines | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data processing options | data_processing_options | Use "LDU" to enable limited data use for a customer. Use no value for customers who haven't asked you to limit their data use. |
|
| Data processing options – country | data_processing_options_country | Use "1" for customers living in the United States. Use no value for customers outside the US (or if you don't know where they live). Our system will check their location. |
|
| Data processing options – state | data_processing_options_state | Use "1,000" for customers living in California. Use '0' or no value for customers who don't live in California (or if you don't know where they live). Our system will check their location. Using any other integer, such as '1,001' for Colorado, or '1,002' for Connecticut, will result in the customer being processed as a non-California customer when creating a customer list custom audience, and Meta will not limit the data. |
|
Learn more
- Data processing options for US users (developer documentation)
