Retarget Website Visitors on Facebook and Instagram With AI

Most people don't buy on their first visit. They look, get distracted, and leave. Retargeting shows ads to those people again on Facebook and Instagram, which is why it's often one of the most cost-effective things a small business can run.

This guide shows how to build a website visitor audience from your Meta Pixel with AdChat, then create an ad set that targets it.

Who this is for

Anyone with a website and a Meta Pixel installed who wants to reach visitors, cart abandoners or past buyers.

What you need

• A Meta Pixel on your website that's been recording visits for a while. The Pixel is a small piece of code from Meta that notes when someone views a page, adds to cart or buys. You set it up once in Meta's Events Manager.
• Your Pixel ID, a long number shown in Events Manager. AdChat can't look it up for you, so have it ready to paste.
• Write access turned on in your AdChat dashboard. Creating an audience is a change, so it's blocked until you turn it on.
• AdChat connected to your AI app or the built-in chat.

How website audiences work

A website custom audience is a list Meta builds of people who did something on your site. You choose:

• What they did: visited any page, visited a page whose address contains a word (like "pricing" or "checkout"), or triggered a Pixel event like AddToCart or Purchase.
• How far back: from 1 to 180 days. People drop out after that window.
• Who to leave out: for example, people who already purchased.

AdChat creates these with the create_website_audience tool. By default it fills the audience with past Pixel data, so it doesn't start empty.

Step 1: Pick your audience

Good starting audiences for most small businesses:

• All visitors, last 30 days: broad and simple.
• Cart abandoners, last 14 days: added to cart but didn't buy. Usually the warmest group.
• Pricing or product page visitors, last 30 days: interested but undecided.
• Past buyers, last 180 days: for repeat purchases, or to exclude from other campaigns.

Step 2: Create the audience (write access on)

Create a website custom audience called "Cart Abandoners 14d" from Pixel ID 123456789012345: people who triggered AddToCart in the last 14 days but did not trigger Purchase. Show me the settings before you create it.

Or by page address:

Create a website audience called "Pricing Visitors 30d" from Pixel 123456789012345 of people who visited any URL containing "/pricing" in the last 30 days.

AdChat shows the details and asks before creating anything.

What a good answer looks like: confirmation of the name, the Pixel, the rules ("included: AddToCart, excluded: Purchase, 14 days") and the new audience's ID. Keep that ID handy for the next step.

Step 3: Check it's filling up

New audiences can take a little while to populate.

Show me my custom audiences and the details of "Cart Abandoners 14d", including its approximate size and status.

If it stays tiny, check in Events Manager that your Pixel is actually recording the event you used, and that you spelled the event name correctly.

Step 4: Create an ad set that targets it

In my "Retargeting" campaign, create a paused ad set called "Cart Abandoners" that targets the custom audience "Cart Abandoners 14d", United States, all ages 18+, with a $10 daily budget. Show me the full setup first.

If you don't have a retargeting campaign yet:

Create a paused campaign called "Retargeting" with the Sales objective, then the ad set above inside it.

New campaigns and ad sets start paused, so nothing spends until you turn them on.

Step 5: Add an ad and go live

Retargeting ads work best when they speak to people who already know you: a reminder, a review, a small incentive or an answer to a common objection. To build the ad, follow creating a new ad from a winning ad. When everything looks right:

Turn on the "Cart Abandoners" ad set and its ad.

Step 6: Keep it fresh

Retargeting audiences are small, so the same people see your ads often. Watch frequency, the average number of times each person has seen your ad. If it climbs high and results drop, refresh the ad or add a frequency cap:

Set a frequency cap on the "Cart Abandoners" ad set of 3 impressions per person every 7 days.

What to do next

• Find new people who resemble your visitors or buyers: lookalike audiences.
• Exclude past buyers from cold campaigns: ask the AI to add your buyers audience as an exclusion on those ad sets.
• Track how retargeting performs in the weekly check-up.

Common mistakes

• Retargeting with no Pixel data. If the Pixel isn't installed or isn't firing, the audience stays empty.
• Forgetting to exclude buyers. Showing "come back and buy" ads to people who just bought wastes money and annoys customers.
• Using a window that's too short for low traffic. If you get few visitors, 7 days may hold too few people. Try 30 or longer.
• Running the same ad for months. Small audiences tire quickly. Refresh creative often.
• Mistyping event names. Use Meta's standard names like AddToCart, InitiateCheckout and Purchase.

FAQ

How big does a retargeting audience need to be? There's no strict minimum to run ads, but very small audiences deliver slowly and cost more per person. More traffic means healthier audiences.

Can I delete an audience I don't need? Yes. AdChat has a delete_custom_audience tool, and it needs write access turned on. Deleting an audience can't be undone, so the AI confirms first.

Can AdChat create a Pixel for me? No. Set up the Pixel in Meta's Events Manager, then use its ID here.

Can I retarget Instagram profile visitors too? Yes, with an engagement audience. See lookalike audiences, which covers engagement audiences as well.

Try it free for 7 days. Sign up and build your first retargeting audience in a few minutes. Questions? Email [email protected].