Build or edit an audience: Customer Match and Lookalike

Build an audience when you want to target or exclude a group of customers in your ads. You choose filters, check the size in a live preview, and save. Then you sync the audience to Meta and Google.

Problem and intended user

A retention marketer (the person who runs email and repeat-purchase campaigns) knows which customers matter, such as recent buyers of one category. A media buyer (the person who runs your paid ads) needs that group inside Meta or Google. A group that is too small can fail to activate. A group that ignores consent can include customers who did not agree to marketing.

Current workflow

You filter customers in Shopify admin or a spreadsheet by order date, product, country and consent, and save the result as a file. You upload the file to Meta Ads Manager as a custom audience or to Google Ads as a customer list. For a lookalike, you pick a source audience in Meta and create it by hand. Each change means a new export and a new upload.

Prerequisites

• For a Customer Match audience, your order history has finished its first import. Nexus builds the audience from that data.
• To sync, connect Meta Ads, Google Ads or both. See Meta Ads and Google Ads.
• For a Lookalike, you need a seed audience that is already on Meta.
• For the RFM groups filter, your RFM groups must exist. See RFM groups and score mapping.

How Nexus works

Nexus builds a Customer Match audience from your own customer data with fixed filters. No AI picks the members. Meta builds a Lookalike on its side from the seed you choose.

Saving uploads nothing. You approve the build with Build audience and name it in the Save audience dialog. You approve each upload with a sync button in the detail drawer. One exception: if you tick the auto-refresh box, Nexus rebuilds the audience and syncs it every day.

Choose a type

Go to Performance > Audiences and select New Audience. A drawer opens with two types.

Type	What it does
Customer Match	Builds the audience from your own customers. It uploads to Meta and Google.
Lookalike (Meta only)	Meta finds people similar to a seed audience you have already synced.

Build a Customer Match audience

1. Set the Time period. It starts at Last 365 days. Choose a preset, or choose Custom range and enter two dates.
2. Choose Filter by: Last order, First order or Any order. It starts at Last order. This picks which order must fall inside the time period. A customer needs an order in the time period to match.
3. Add the filters you need. Most filter rows open a list. Search it, use Select all or Deselect all, and select Apply. Select Remove filter in the list to clear that row.
4. Watch the preview update as you change filters.
5. Select Build audience.
6. In the Save audience dialog, enter a Name of at least two characters. Add a Description if you want.
7. Optional: tick Auto-refresh daily at 08:00 UTC and re-sync to connected platforms.
8. Select Create audience.

The new audience opens in its detail drawer. Select a sync button to send it to Meta or Google. See Audiences.

Leave a filter empty to leave it out. Filters combine with AND: a customer must match every filter you set. Inside one filter, a customer matches any value you pick.

Filter	What it matches
RFM groups	Customers in the RFM groups you pick.
NPS Pre scores, NPS Post scores	Customers whose survey score is one of the scores you pick, before or after delivery. If you set both, a customer must match both.
Categories, Brands, Products	Customers who bought in these during the time period. With Last order or First order, only that order counts. Categories has a Level list when your catalog has levels.
Billing country, Billing city	The address on the customer record.
Shipping country, Shipping city	The shipping address on their orders in the time period.
Marketing consent, SMS consent	Any, Opted in or Opted out. They use the consent status in your Shopify customer data. Any adds no consent condition. Opted out also includes customers with no consent status.
Verified email, Tax exempt	Any, Yes or No. No also includes customers where the value is unknown.
Customer tags, Locale, Account state, Currency, Address country	Customers by these Shopify customer details. A list is empty until your Shopify data has values for it.
Wishlist	Products, Brands and Collections that customers saved. It is not tied to orders or the time period. It shows only when your store has wishlist data.

Build a Lookalike audience

1. Select Lookalike (Meta only).
2. Next to Seed audience, select Browse and pick an audience. A seed can be a Customer Match or Lookalike you built in Nexus, or an imported Meta audience of type Custom, Pixel or Engagement.
3. Choose a Country. It starts as United States. Choose Other… to type a two-letter country code.
4. Move the Audience size slider. The low end gives the closest match and the narrowest reach. The high end gives the broadest reach. The form shows the chosen percentage beside the slider and a hint line that changes as you move it.
5. Choose Similarity or Reach under Optimisation. It starts as Similarity.
6. Select Build lookalike, name it, and select Create audience.

WARNING

Creating a lookalike fails while its seed is not on Meta. If the form says the seed has not synced yet, sync the seed first.

Edit an audience

1. Open the audience from Performance > Audiences.
2. Select Edit filters. The Edit Audience drawer opens.
3. Change the filters and check the preview.
4. Select Save changes.

Saving rebuilds the member list from your customer data. You cannot change the type.

Exact output

The result is an audience in the Built tab of Performance > Audiences. It opens in its detail drawer.

The preview

The Preview has four cards: Customers, Revenue, Margin and Revenue / Customer. The Customers card turns amber when the audience may be too small for Meta to activate it.

Build audience stays disabled until the preview matches at least one customer. The footer reads Add filters to preview the audience size. until then.

The lookalike

Nexus shows no preview for a lookalike. Meta builds the audience on its side, and this takes time. The detail drawer says that Meta refreshes the population on its own schedule.

What to do with it

What you see	Decision or action	Owner
Preview cards	Decide whether the group is worth targeting. Change filters until size and value fit.	retention marketer
An amber Customers card	Widen the filters, or expect that Meta may not activate the audience.	retention marketer
Build audience	Save the group as an audience in Nexus.	retention marketer
The new audience in its detail drawer	Select a sync button to send it to Meta or Google.	media buyer
Marketing consent and SMS consent filters	Choose Any, Opted in or Opted out. Set them before you sync.	ecommerce manager (the person who runs the store)
A saved audience with outdated filters	Select Edit filters, then Save changes.	retention marketer
Lookalike (Meta only)	Select the lookalike in the Audience setting when you deploy a Meta ad. See Review and deploy ads.	media buyer

Expected value and measurement

Building in Nexus can keep one filter definition for your ads and let you rebuild it as customers change. It can help you reach a defined group, or leave one out.

To check a build, read the four Preview cards before you save. After you save, find the audience in the Built tab of Performance > Audiences and compare its Customers, Revenue, Margin and Rev / Customer after each rebuild. The Customers card shows whether the group is large enough for Meta. These numbers describe the group, not ad results. Ad results for an audience live in Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads. You cannot isolate the effect of the audience when you change budgets, creatives or offers at the same time.

Limitations and exceptions

• A lookalike or an imported audience has no editable filters. You cannot change the type of an existing audience.
• A seed must be a Customer Match or Lookalike you built, or an imported Meta audience of type Custom, Pixel or Engagement. Other imported audiences appear disabled in the picker.
• The Customers card shows Below 150 — may not activate on Meta (100-match minimum). when the audience is small. The warning does not show at zero customers. Meta decides whether to activate it.
• Meta builds a lookalike on its side, so Nexus holds no member list for it.
• Save changes is disabled until you change a filter and the preview still matches a customer.
• A failed preview reads Preview failed and the reason. Change a filter or reload the page.
• A failed save reads Failed to create audience. or Failed to update audience. Try again.
• The footer reads Pick a seed audience to continue. until you choose a seed.
• In Demo Mode, New Audience is disabled, so you cannot open the builder.

Related

• Audiences
• RFM groups and score mapping
• Customers overview
• Campaigns
• Review and deploy ads