How to create a value-based lookalike audience in Meta Ads

You will learn

Learn how to create a value-based lookalike audience in Meta Ads using CLV (customer lifetime value) data from Klaviyo. Essentially, when you export a list or segment from Klaviyo, you can upload it as a Facebook custom audience and use it as a source to create a similar, lookalike audience. In this case, because you're using CLV data, your lookalike audience will be value-based, giving you a better idea of how much to spend advertising to this group of customers.

Before you begin

Please note that CLV data will only be available to export when you meet the following requirements:

• At least 500 customers have placed an order. This does not refer to active profiles, but the number of people who have actually made a purchase with your business. If the CLV section is on a profile but is blank, this means we don't have enough data on that individual to make a prediction.
• You have an ecommerce integration (e.g., Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, etc) or use our API to send placed orders.
• You have at least 180 days of order history with the current integration and have orders within the last 30 days.
• You have at least some customers who have placed three or more orders.

You can read more about predictive analytics in Klaviyo as well as our guide to segmenting by CLV.

Export your CLV segment

1. Select a segment you want to export depending on your business and advertising goals; for example, a VIP segment.
2. Follow the steps outlined in our article, How to export a list or segment to a CSV file.
3. On the Export Review screen, include the Email and Total Customer Lifetime Value properties. You can include more properties as well if you'd like. Check the details in Meta's documentation.
   
4. Your segment will save to your computer as a CSV file. Use this CSV in the next section when creating a source custom audience in Meta.

Create a source custom audience

1. Log in to your Meta ad account and create a new custom audience.
2. Select Customer File > Use a file that includes customer lifetime value (LTV) in the workflow.
   
3. If you haven't already, you'll be prompted to accept the terms of service for working with value-based audiences. To do so, click I Accept.
   
4. Next, add your CSV file for upload by selecting the Original Data Source and Name Your Audience from the dropdown menus.
5. On the next screen, choose your customer value column. From the dropdown, select Total Customer Lifetime Value to map your Klaviyo Total CLV to Facebook's LTV.
   
6. Next, preview and map your data; then, finish creating your audience. You'll now have the option to create a lookalike audience, which we'll cover in the next section.

Create a value-based lookalike audience

1. After creating your CLV custom audience, pick up where you left off and click Create a lookalike audience.
   
   
2. Next, for Select Your Lookalike Source, choose the custom CLV audience you created in the previous section.
3. Enter your audience location and size, and click Create Audience.
   
4. Your value-based lookalike audience is now available for you in Meta for ad targeting. Read more about creating a value-based lookalike audience in Meta's documentation.

Connecting a source custom audience through Klaviyo

When you integrate a Klaviyo list or segment to a source custom audience, new profiles added to the list or segment are synced to the Meta custom audience. You can sync a Klaviyo list or segment to a source custom audience.

If you connect a list or segment to a custom audience through Klaviyo, CLV information is not automatically passed over to Meta. New customers added to your list or segment in Klaviyo will be synced over to Meta, but because we do not natively support passing over CLV data, these customers will be added to your source customer audience with a default CLV value. This could potentially skew the customers added to any value-based lookalike audiences connected to your source audience.

Outcome

You've now learned how to create a value-based lookalike audience in Meta Ads using Klaviyo CLV.

Additional resources

• Grow your business with Klaviyo's Meta Ads integration (Klaviyo Academy course)
• How to enable advanced targeting on Facebook and Instagram