How To Create Facebook Lookalike Audiences From Amazon Customer Data

Read on for a walkthrough, or view the video from our Facebook Ads for Amazon video course:

This post provides step-by-step instructions for creating a lookalike audience on Facebook using Amazon customer data.

Doing so allows Amazon sellers to target Facebook ads to people who Facebook deems are similar to people who have bought their products on Amazon.

In campaigns we’ve run with LandingCube, using these lookalike audiences have resulted in capturing leads at 1/5 the cost of targeting ads to a custom audience manually created based on the (hypothetical) demographics and interests of a target customer.

In this case 1/10 the cost:

How to Create Facebook Lookalike Audiences From Amazon Customer Data

The process of creating lookalike audiences in Facebook from Amazon customer lists involves 3 steps: 1) Downloading the Fulfillment Report in Amazon Seller Central, 2) Formatting the Spreadsheet and 3) Creating the Audience in Facebook.

Downloading Fulfillment Report in Seller Central

1. Go to the Reports tab in Seller Central and click Fulfillment
2. Then on the left-hand menu, under Sales, select Amazon Fulfilled Shipments 
3. Then, under Download change the Event Date to the Last 30 Days, and then click        Request Download.       
4. Once the report for the Last 30 Days is in progress, then choose Exact Dates for the Event Date. Choose the 30 Days prior. So 31-60 days back. You can only download 30 days at a time. The more months you download, the bigger your list will be…which will increase the reliability of your lookalike audience. We recommend you download 2-6 months of orders.
5. Wait until the Report Status changes from In Progress to Downloaded and download each of the 2-6 reports.                                                                                                                   

Formatting the Spreadsheet- Option 1 (Split Names)

1. Open a new spreadsheet in Google Sheets and import the first downloaded fulfillment report.
2. Import the other reports in subsequent tabs. When importing the files, choose the option to ‘Replace data at selected cell.’                                   
3. Delete all columns except recipient-name, shipping address, city, state, postal code & country. 
4. Go to Add-on > Get Add-ons. And get the Split Names add-on
5. Highlight the recipient name column and run the Split Names add-on to separate the names into first and last.
6. Do this formatting for all reports, and then copy and paste all the data into one tab.
7. Then delete the other tabs except for the one and download the spreadsheet.
8. Finally, download the spreadsheet as a csv or txt file.

Formatting the Spreadsheet- Option 2 (Amazon Audience Spreadsheet)

Download our free Amazon Audience Script template Google Sheet via the form below:

1. Import your report into the Original tab. When importing the files, choose the option to ‘Replace data at selected cell.’
2. Make sure the filter is turned off to start. If there is a filter on the page, turn it off (Data > Turn off filter).
3. To format the spreadsheet, go to Add-ons > Amazon Audience > Format Sheet. This will delete unnecessary columns, separate first & last names, and create a filter.
4. You can filter by SKU or Product name, if you wish to create an audience that is tailored to a particular product (or products).
5. Copy this data & paste it into Facebook (at Step 5 below, choose copy & paste).

Creating Lookalike Audience in Facebook from Amazon Customer Data

1. Log in to the Facebook Ad Manager
2. Navigate to the Ad Sets tab and click on the green Create button  
3. Scroll down to the Audience section of the ‘Creating Ad Set’ pop-up.
4. Under Custom Audiences, click Create New and choose Custom Audience 
5. For ‘How do you want to create this audience?’ choose ‘Customer File’ and choose ‘Add customers from your own file or copy and paste’
6. Choose to Upload File and choose the csv/txt file you created from the Amazon customers.    
7. Name the Audience. Make note that it is from your Amazon customers.
8. Match each category of your spreadsheet with the appropriate identifier in Facebook. Then click Upload & Create  
9. Once the audience data is uploaded, click ‘Create a lookalike audience’, as shown below. And then click Done   
10. You’ll use the Custom Audience from above as the source (which will be chosen automatically if you follow the steps above). Then choose a location to target and the Audience Size (1% will choose the closest match to your Custom Audience).  Click Create Audience. 

Summary: Creating a Facebook Lookalike Audience From Amazon Customers

If you followed these steps, you will have successfully created a lookalike audience from Amazon customer data. You’ll just have to finish with the other settings in the Ad Sets tab. You’ll also have to choose (or create a new) Campaign and create an actual ad.

As long as you use the lookalike audience you are totally within Amazon’s Terms.