How to Exclude Customers From Your Ads

Why It Matters

By accurately excluding existing customers, marketers reduce refund expenses and allocate ad spend toward genuine new acquisition, boosting overall campaign efficiency.

Key Takeaways

• Exclude prior buyers using multiple custom audiences for accuracy.
• Build website and email custom audiences based on purchase events.
• Update email audience daily via third‑party tools for freshness.
• Combine exclusions; algorithmic targeting still may miss some customers.
• Consider e‑commerce platform controls to block repeat purchases.

Summary

The video addresses a common problem for authors and e‑commerce sellers: preventing Facebook ads from targeting customers who have already bought a product, specifically an audiobook bundle.

John recommends building multiple custom audiences to capture prior purchasers. First, create a website custom audience tied to the purchase event or confirmation page. Second, generate an email‑based audience using all available identifiers—name, email, phone—to boost match rates. Both audiences should be refreshed daily with a third‑party tool so the latest buyers are excluded.

He notes that “no individual custom audience is likely to be complete,” so combining them provides tighter constraints. Even with algorithmic targeting, exclusions improve odds, though they won’t guarantee 100 % removal. He also suggests checking whether the e‑commerce platform can block repeat sales by email.

Implementing these steps can slash refund costs, improve ad ROI, and ensure marketing budgets focus on acquiring new readers rather than re‑selling to the same audience.

Original Description

Today's question is about preventing customers from purchasing the same audiobook bundle twice through ads. Excluding customers is a balance of risks versus benefits, and no single custom audience catches everyone. Jon explains why you should exclude multiple custom audiences including website purchasers and email lists, how to improve match rates, and why keeping audiences dynamically updated limits repeat purchases.

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