• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Social Media Examiner

Your Guide to the Marketing Jungle

  • 🔥 Free Newsletter
  • 🎙️ Podcasts
    • Social Media Marketing Podcast
    • AI Explored Podcast
    • Social Media Marketing Talk Show
    • Our YouTube Channel
  • 🌟 AI Society
  • 🗓️ Marketing Conference
  • đź‘‹ About Us
    • Marketing Events
  • Search
  • Embrace AI & MarketingGet Ongoing Training & SupportBEGIN YOUR JOURNEY NOW

    How to Create Facebook Ads With Emails: 5 Creative Ideas

    by JD Prater / November 4, 2015

    social media how toDo you have an email list?

    Are you looking for creative ways to use Facebook ads?

    With Facebook custom audiences, you can reach your email subscribers with relevant Facebook ads.

    In this article I'll share five ways to target your email subscribers with Facebook ads.

    create facebook ads with email addresses
    Discover how to create Facebook ads with emails.

    Listen to this article:

    Where to subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube Music | YouTube | Amazon Music | RSS

    #1: Serve Ads to All Email Subscribers

    Since it requires no email list segmentation, the best way to get started is to target all your email subscribers. Simply upload your entire email list right into Facebook as a custom audience.

    The key is to create a unified message across different channels: email to Facebook to website.

    Target this audience if you're looking to reach your entire list to get the news out about a big event or a storewide sale, where the message is the same for everyone. Make sure your Facebook ad has a similar look and message or offer as your emails.

    Amazon uses this tactic to remind customers about their Deal of the Day.

    amazon facebook ad
    Amazon Deal of the Day Facebook ads look similar to the emails they send.

    The idea is to share engaging content, so your email audience will help spread your message by interacting with your ads, acting as brand ambassadors.

    Since this audience is already familiar with your brand, analyze engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments) to measure the effectiveness of these ads. Their interaction validates how well the ad resonates with them, which results in a higher relevancy score, more social proof and free organic reach.

    #2: Target Ad Delivery by Opens and Unopens

    To employ these next few tactics, it's important you are able to segment your email subscriber list into audiences for remarketing.

    First, divide your email list into people who have opened your email and those who have not. Then, further segment the open list into those who did and did not take action.

    Target Subscribers Who Opened Your Email

    AI Business Society

    Ready to Unlock AI Marketing Breakthroughs?

    If you’re like most of us, you are trying to figure out how to use AI in your marketing. Here's the solution: The AI Business Society—a new AI marketing community from your friends at Social Media Examiner.

    The AI Business Society is the place to discover how to apply AI in your work. When you join, you'll boost your productivity, unlock your creativity, and make connections with other marketers on a similar journey.

    I'M READY TO BECOME AN AI-POWERED MARKETER

    Create a Facebook ad that looks similar to the email you sent for those who only read your email. You want to get this audience to take action, so change up the messages with the ad. For instance, if the goal of the email was to get white paper downloads, then offer the same white paper in your Facebook ad, but write a message or ad copy that differs from your email.

    If you're an ecommerce store trying to get your customers to take advantage of a weekly 20%-off deal, show subscribers an ad that highlights the promotion and encourages them to take action.

    Sierra Trading Post created a Facebook offer with the same deal as their email.

    sierra trading post facebook ad
    Sierra Trading Post made the same offer in a Facebook ad as they did via email.

    With this custom audience, exclude people who have already purchased or downloaded an offer.

    Target Subscribers Who Didn't Open Your Email

    For the subscribers who didn't even open your email, wait a few days and then target them with a Facebook ad. Since they haven't read the email, show them the same message. This helps your company stay in front of your audience.

    #3: Segment Subscribers by Purchase

    If you have an ecommerce website, a great way to increase the lifetime value of a customer is to cross-promote and/or upsell related products.

    Amazon does this brilliantly. The website is always showing their shoppers similar products, bundled products or other products previous customers bought. Their goal is to get people to buy more products that are relevant to what they are viewing.

    Discover Proven Marketing Strategies and Tips

    Want to go even deeper with your marketing? Check out the Social Media Marketing Podcast! Publishing weekly since 2012, the Social Media Marketing Podcast helps you navigate the constantly changing marketing jungle, with expert interviews from marketing pros.

    But don’t let the name fool you. This show is about a lot more than just social media marketing. With over 600 episodes and millions of downloads each year, this show has been a trusted source for marketers for well over a decade.

    CHECK OUT THE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PODCAST NOW
    amazon suggested products
    Amazon is constantly promoting multiple products to their customers.

    Utilize Facebook carousel ads to highlight multiple products that provide additional value for previous customers. Show products that fit with items they've already purchased. So if they bought dog treats, then show them dog food or dog toys.

    facebook carousel ads example
    Use Facebook carousel ads to promote additional products to your customers.

    Look for creative ways to divide your audience for the purpose of upselling or cross-promoting other products they would find useful.

    Depending on your business goals, consider segmenting your customers by type of products, purchase amount, purchase date and frequency of purchases. Then target a carousel ad to each audience.

    #4: Reach Out to Disengaged Audiences

    Do you have a list of people who haven't opened your emails in quite a while? Re-engage your audience with a good Facebook ad.

    These people are disengaged for a reason. Perhaps they're not receiving enough value from your emails, and choose not to open them.

    Southwest Airlines used an ad to remind their Denver customers to book a flight.

    southwest airlines facebook ad
    Southwest used an ad to remind disengaged customers in Denver to book a flight.

    Not everyone is going to stay a subscriber forever. However, you can still make an effort to reactivate subscribers and bring them back into your funnel.

    Craft an ad with an exclusive deal, promo code, extended trial or free piece of content. Target this email segment every two to three months, depending on your list size. Remember, it's more efficient and less expensive to keep your customers than it is to find new ones.

    #5: Take Advantage of Lookalike Audiences

    Maximize the potential of your previous customers by creating lookalike audiences to scale your advertising efforts by finding an audience that's similar to previous purchasers.

    Upload your previous purchasers‘ emails into Facebook to create lists of people who are similar to that audience.

    Think of ways to segment your audience, depending on what you want to advertise. It may make sense to segment by age, gender or product type. Then upload your email segments into Facebook as a custom audience.

    facebook custom audiences size
    Examples of custom audiences.

    Based on your new custom audience, make a lookalike audience to target potential new customers. The custom audiences of around 80,000 email subscribers turned into lookalike audiences of more than 2 million.

    facebook lookalike audiences size
    These lookalike audiences are much larger than the custom audiences they're created from.

    While it is more expensive to find new customers than keep the ones you have, lookalike audiences can help lower that cost. In essence, Facebook helps you qualify potential customers with this functionality.

    Final Thoughts

    There are a variety of ways to use Facebook custom audiences. Target Facebook ads to people who are already familiar with your brand, segment email lists to show highly relevant ads, cross-promote and upsell products to past purchasers, re-engage with audiences and use lookalike audiences to find new customers.

    When you reach out to your email segments via Facebook ads, you increase visibility, engagement and the value you bring to your current and potential customers.

    What do you think? Have you used Facebook ads in tandem with your email marketing? What tactics have worked best for you? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

    how to create facebook ads with emails
    Tips for creating Facebook ads with emails.
    AI EXPLORED

    Curious About How to Use AI?

    Our newest show, AI Explored, might be just what you're looking for. It's for marketers, creators, and entrepreneurs who want to understand how to use AI in their business.

    It's hosted by Michael Stelzner and explores this exciting new frontier in easy-to-understand terms.

    Pull up your favorite podcast app and search for AI Explored. Or click the button below for more information.

    I WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT AI

    Tags: Facebook, Facebook Ads

    About the authorJD Prater

    JD Prater is Head of User Acquisition at AdStage, a powerful cross-channel advertising management platform helping marketers and digital agencies easily report, automate, and manage paid search and social campaigns.
    Other posts by JD Prater »

    Get Social Media Examiner’s Future Articles in Your Inbox!

    Get our latest articles delivered to your email inbox and get the FREE Social Media Marketing Industry Report (43 pages, 50+ charts)!

    Industry Report Cover

    Worth Exploring:

    Facebook

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Instagram

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    YouTube

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Linkedin

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    AI

    Next Frontier Explore More →

    Social Media Marketing Industry Report

    Get Free Report →

    Social Marketing Trends

    The data you've been missing!

    Need a new plan? Discover how marketers plan to change their social activities in the 17th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. It reveals what marketers have planned for their social activities, content marketing, and more! Get this free report now and never miss another great article from us. Join more than 385,000 marketers!

    Simply click the button below to get the free report:

    Footer

    Your Guide to the Marketing Jungle
    Copyright © 2025 Social Media Examiner®
    All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy.

    Helpful Links

    • About us
    • Our content via email
    • Our podcasts
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Our live show
    • Our social media marketing industry report
    • Our generative AI marketing industry report
    • Sponsorship opportunities
    • RSS