How to exclude existing customers in Meta Ads

The automatic exclusion of existing customers is an entry that Meta Ads adds on its own, in some accounts, to the ad set. You find it with the Sales objective, when you choose "Acquire new customers": under "Automatically created" you'll see "Customers from your conversion data (730 days)" (my translation: I tested it in the Italian interface).

Its job is to keep your ads away from people who show up in your ad account's conversion data from the last two years. It's part of the customer lifecycle strategy, the setting where you choose whether to look for conversions from anyone or only from people who have never bought from you.

Meta's official guide still asks you to prepare the audience of customers to exclude yourself: a customer list, or a website audience built on the purchase event (Meta Business Help Center, "Create a campaign to acquire new customers"). The automatic entry saves you this step, but it only sees the sales that reach Meta.

I opened a test campaign, without publishing it, in two accounts: mine, which doesn't sell online, and that of an e-commerce business I work with, which records purchases. The automatic entry was there only in the second one. I ran the test in the Italian version of Ads Manager: labels without an official English name are my translation, so the English interface may word them slightly differently.

What changes with the automatic exclusion of customers?

What changes is where the list of customers to exclude comes from. With the procedure in Meta's guide, the list is yours: you create a custom audience with your customers, from a list or from the website based on the purchase event, and you select it in the ad set. In the account where I found the new entry, though, choosing "Acquire new customers" brings up an extra entry on its own. According to Meta's info tooltip, it comes from the ad account's conversion data. The lists you already had stay, and you can add more.

In practice, next to what you know about your customers, Meta puts what it has recorded itself. That's why the automatic entry can only count the purchases Meta receives as events: a sale that doesn't reach Meta isn't in there. The automatic exclusion counts the purchases recorded across the whole ad account, including those that came through other campaigns.

Where do you find the customer lifecycle strategy?

It's in the ad set, but only if the campaign uses the Sales objective. Meta itself presents it as a tool for advertisers who want to acquire new customers with this objective, and says it isn't available to pharmaceutical campaigns or to those on politics and social issues, elections included (Meta Business Help Center).

So the first step is to create the campaign and choose Sales.

Then open the ad set. In the drafts I created, the "Customer lifecycle strategy" box sat right under the ad set name, with a two-option menu and the first option already selected. The first is "Get conversions from all audiences", the second "Acquire new customers".

Each option comes with a short description, and the two together already tell you the price of the choice. For all audiences, Meta talks about a lower cost per result. For new customers, it warns that the cost per result may increase.

What does Meta exclude when you choose "Acquire new customers"?

As soon as you choose "Acquire new customers", the "Exclude existing customers" entry appears under the menu, marked "Automatic selection". In the e-commerce account it contained two things: the customer lists already in the account, which Meta had selected on its own, and the new entry "Automatically created: Customers from your conversion data (730 days)".

Further down there are two more entries. "Also exclude engaged audiences" removes the audiences of people who have interacted with you as well, and stays empty until you pick one. "Customer lifecycle value rules", according to its tooltip, lets you bid more or less for audiences with a certain label. In the draft it was off.

Next to "Automatically created" there's an info tooltip. It says the audience comes from the ad account's conversion data and that it counts conversions across the whole ad account over the last 730 days, including ad sets other than the one you're editing.

Put simply: if a purchase from a year ago is recorded in the account, the person who made it is excluded from the new campaign too, as long as Meta can recognize them.

Can you change or remove the automatic exclusion?

Yes, in the account I tested the automatic exclusion can be both edited and removed. Open "Exclude existing customers" and hover over the automatic entry: a pencil to change it and an X to remove it appear on the right.

The pencil opens the "Edit audience retention" window, where you choose how many days back to count people who bought. There are five options: 730, 180, 90, 60 and 30 days. There's no custom value, so you can't set exactly one year: either you keep the two years or you drop to six months. Before changing the days, ask yourself how often one of your customers comes back to buy. That's the interval to base your choice on.

The X removes the automatic entry and leaves the customer lists in place. If you change your mind, just switch to "Get conversions from all audiences" and back to "Acquire new customers": the automatic entry comes back with 730 days.

One doubt remains that neither the interface nor the official guide clears up: when you remove the entry, I don't know whether Meta stops taking past buyers into account altogether.

In the same box you add your own lists. With the "Search existing audiences" field you pick a custom audience you already have; with "Create new" you make one, for example from a customer list. This is also the way to handle sales that don't reach Meta as an event, such as in-store sales: the automatic entry has no way of knowing about them, but a customer list does.

Why might you not see the automatic exclusion?

The most likely explanation is that your account doesn't record purchases, but Meta doesn't confirm it. In my account, which doesn't sell online, the entry wasn't there. I ran the same test, Sales objective and then "Acquire new customers", and under "Exclude existing customers" Meta had selected only the audiences with the "Customers" audience label, which it describes as audiences that have purchased from your business. There are five of them in my account.

The most obvious difference between the two accounts is purchases. In my dataset the Purchase event is listed among the inactive events, and even after I set it as a conversion event the automatic entry didn't appear. Hence my deduction: without recorded purchases, Meta has nothing to create it from.

I also don't know whether the entry will reach every account. Meta's official guide in English, as I write, doesn't mention the automatic exclusion and still recommends creating the audience of customers to exclude by hand.

When is it worth acquiring only new customers?

It's worth it when a new customer is worth more to you than one who comes back to buy. That's the case if you sell products people buy only once or very rarely, like a mattress or a course. It's also the case if right now you need to widen your customer base, for example a young online store that has to get known and doesn't want to spend money showing the ad to people who already know it. Meta itself warns that cost per acquisition may increase, because the audience shrinks to new prospects only. That's why it recommends looking at the cost per acquisition of new customers, measured with your own tools, instead of the campaign's average cost (Meta Business Help Center). Each purchase may cost you more, but if every purchase is a new customer the numbers can still add up. So before you turn it on, get a sense of how much a new customer is worth to you compared with one who comes back.

When is it better not to use it, or to change it?

The automatic entry keeps out anyone who appears to have bought in the last two years, and it does so for the whole account. Sometimes, though, that group includes people you want to reach.

You sell to your customers again. If customers buy again, as with cosmetics, supplements, spare parts or subscriptions, excluding them means giving up the easiest sales. Here the right choice is "Get conversions from all audiences", or a window shorter than the time that passes between one purchase and the next.
The same ad account runs more than one business. Since the count covers the whole account, people who bought from one store can end up excluded from the other store's campaigns. Before you turn it on, check that the account's conversion data belongs to a single business.
You only want to keep out some of your customers. For example, only people who already bought the product you're promoting. In that case, use the X to remove the automatic entry and the lists Meta selected on its own, and keep only the list of people who already own that product.
You do lead generation. The customer lifecycle strategy is only available with the Sales objective, so you won't find it in Leads campaigns.

There's also another place in the ad set to exclude custom audiences. With "Get conversions from all audiences" selected, open "Show more controls" in the Audience section and you'll find "Legal and operational custom audience exclusions". Meta's tooltip, though, explains that it should only be used for legal or other operational reasons, and that the way to exclude existing customers is the customer lifecycle strategy.

So if your goal is to exclude customers, I'd stay inside the customer lifecycle strategy and use the pencil or the X to adapt it.

Which option should you choose in your case?

The choice depends on how your customers buy and on which sales reach Meta.

Your case	What to do
You sell something people buy once or rarely, like a mattress or a course	"Acquire new customers", with the automatic 730-day entry if it appears in your account
Customers come back to buy, as with cosmetics or supplements	"Get conversions from all audiences", or a window shorter than the time between two purchases
The same ad account runs more than one business	Check the conversion data first, because the automatic entry counts purchases across the whole account
You only want to exclude people who already own the product you're promoting	Use the X to remove the automatic entry and the lists Meta picked, then add the list of people who own that product
You also sell in store and those sales don't reach Meta	Add a customer list, because the automatic entry can't see those sales

How can you tell if it's working?

Be ready for the cost per result to go up, as Meta warns it may, and read it next to what a new customer costs you today. To do that you need to know, in your sales software or your online store, who is buying for the first time and who is coming back.

If you can, keep one campaign on "Get conversions from all audiences" and one on "Acquire new customers", with the same ads and the same budget. After a few weeks, look at how many new customers each one brought in and what they cost. In the meantime don't change anything else, otherwise you won't know what made the difference.

Finally, remember where the automatic entry starts from: the purchases Meta receives. Before you rely on it, check in Events Manager that the Purchase event comes in for your website sales.

Frequently asked questions

What does "Customers from your conversion data (730 days)" mean?

It's the audience Meta creates on its own, in accounts where the entry appears, when you choose "Acquire new customers". It comes from your ad account's conversion data from the last 730 days, and Meta's tooltip specifies that it counts the whole account, including ad sets other than the one you're creating. The pencil changes its duration, the X removes it.

Why can't I see the automatic exclusion?

Probably because your account doesn't record purchases. I found it in the account of an e-commerce business that records them, and not in mine, where the Purchase event isn't active. Meta, though, doesn't explain which accounts it appears in. If you don't see it, add a customer list to exclude by hand.

Does the automatic exclusion of customers also work with Leads campaigns?

No. The customer lifecycle strategy, and the automatic exclusion with it, is only available in campaigns with the Sales objective.

Can I exclude only customers from the last year?

No, there's no exact one-year option. The available windows are 730, 180, 90, 60 and 30 days.

If I remove the automatic entry, can I bring it back?

Yes. In the account I tested, all it took was switching to "Get conversions from all audiences" and back to "Acquire new customers": the entry came back with 730 days.

Read also

More notes on Meta Ads and data:

Meta Ads can exclude existing customers without you creating a custom audience