Custom Audience CSV Template & Customer List Formatter for Facebook (Meta)

How to fill the Facebook custom audience CSV template

Instead of copying cells into a blank Facebook custom audience CSV template, load your export and get the finished file. The columns follow Meta's customer list formatting guidelines and the order of Meta's own example file.

1. Load the export. Shopify, WooCommerce, HubSpot, Klaviyo or any spreadsheet. Pasting rows works too.
2. Confirm the identifiers. Check that each identifier points to the right column. Second and third email or phone columns are picked up too.
3. Set the default country and date order. They decide how phone numbers without a country code, and birthdays like 07/04/1985, are read.
4. Pick plain or hashed. Plain is the simplest: Ads Manager hashes it for you. Hashed follows the normalization rules in Meta's Marketing API guide.
5. Fix what the report flags, then download. Each warning names the row and the fix. Unused rows go in a separate file.

What changes in your data (Meta customer list template columns)

• email — one address per cell, trimmed and lowercased, up to three columns. Addresses with letters like é stay in, as Meta accepts all email formats.
• phone — the country code is added from the row's country or your default, so (650) 555-0161 becomes +16505550161.
• fn and ln — a full name is split in two, as Meta asks; titles and emoji are removed. Values that are already hashed are never hashed twice.
• country — "United States", "USA" and "us" all become US.
• dob and gen — dates become YYYY-MM-DD, one of the 18 formats Meta accepts; gender becomes F or M.
• madid — advertising IDs are checked and lowercased; all-zero IDs are dropped.

How to upload the list in Meta Ads Manager

1. Start a customer list audience. Go to Audiences, click Create audience › Custom audience, choose Customer list and click Next.
2. Choose how it can be used. Inclusions or exclusions keeps every option open. Only exclusions cannot be changed later, and that audience cannot become a lookalike.
3. Add the file. Upload the CSV you downloaded here. When asked about customer value, answer no unless you added a value column. Name the audience and accept the custom audience terms.
4. Map identifiers. Check that each column shows the right type. If a second email or phone column has no type, set it to Email or Phone. Then click Import and create.
5. Check the match score. When the audience is ready, Meta's formatting guidelines say you can add the Match score column in Audiences (Columns, top right). It is a score out of ten: matched rows divided by uploaded rows.

Common Meta customer list errors and fixes

Phone numbers without a country code

Meta's guidelines say phones must include a country code "to be used for matching". Store exports are full of local numbers like (650) 555-0161. The formatter adds the code — check the default country first if you sell abroad.

A low match score after upload

The score compares matched rows with uploaded rows. More main identifiers per person help most: a second email, a mobile number or a mobile advertiser ID. Typos and test rows pull the score down.

Columns that are not mapped

With your own headers, Meta asks you to map each column by hand, and E-mail Address or Mobile are easy to miss. This file uses Meta's exact names.

Names in one column

Meta does not accept a single full-name column. Its data preparation page asks for one column for first names and one for last names.

You can't create a customer list audience yet

New or recently linked ad accounts may need a few weeks before they can create customer list audiences. That is an account limit, not a file problem.

Data Meta does not allow

Never add health, financial or other sensitive details, passwords, card numbers or information about children under 13. Remove such columns from the export first.