Pushing an audience to digital advertising platforms (Facebook or Google Ads)

Step 1: Connect your organization's advertising accounts

Before pushing your audience to an advertising platform, you will need to set up the integration via the Connections page. Select "Connections & Data" on the left-hand navigation bar and select "Connections". The connections page will show all the available connections for your organization and their status.

Connecting with Google Ads

Select the connect or re-authenticate button on the Google Ads tile and accept Dataro's T&Cs. Then select "Continue with Google" to login to the Google account associated with your Google Ads.

Connecting with Facebook

Select the connect or re-authenticate button on the Facebook tile and accept Dataro's T&Cs. Then select "Connect to Facebook" to login to your Facebook account.

Step 2: Create your audience

Using Audience Builder, create your desired audience.

Important! Please review the below for best practices in audience creation

Facebook Audiences

💡Pro Tip: Avoid using "all active donors" as your seed — it dilutes the signal Meta uses to find lookalikes.

Ensure the following Columns are displayed in your final Audience View

Email address ✅ (most important)
First name
Last name
Phone number (with country code, e.g. +1)
Address, City, State, Postcode / ZIP
Country

💡 Facebook: The more fields you include, the higher your Meta match rate. Email-only uploads typically match at 20–30%; adding phone and name can push this to 40–60%.

Review Your Audience Size

Aim for at least 2,000–5,000 donors in the segment. More is better, up to around 50,000. You need Meta to match a minimum of 1,000 profiles after upload, so a larger list gives you more buffer.

Google Audiences

💡Pro Tip: Avoid using "all active donors" as your seed — A Dataro propensity-seeded audience gives you the most complete coverage of your potential donor pool.

Ensure the following Columns are displayed in your final Audience View

Email address ✅ (most important)
First name
Last name
Phone number (with country code, e.g. +1)
Address, City, State, Postcode / ZIP
Country

💡 Google: Google's Customer Match relies heavily on Gmail addresses. If your donors tend to use Gmail, match rates will be strong. Work or university emails match less reliably.

Google's match rates typically run 5–15 percentage points lower than Meta for the same list, because Meta has more comprehensive identity data and a more mature matching system. Don't be alarmed if your Google match rate is lower than what you saw in Meta for the same audience!

Step 3: Send to Facebook Ads or Google Ads

Once the audience is ready, select the "Take action" menu on the top right corner. Here you can select "Send to Google Ads" or "Send to Facebook Ads". You can also download/export the audience and upload in either platform.

Audiences sent to Google Ads are published as a Customer Match list.

Audiences sent to Facebook Ads are published as a customer list custom audience.

Once you have sent the list to your chosen advertising platform, you can target that audience directly, or use it as the seed list for a lookalike donor acquisition audience. Learn more about setting up lookalike audiences for Facebook and Google here.

Troubleshooting Match Rates for Lookalike Audience Generation in Facebook

Meta needs to actually match your uploaded contacts to real Facebook/Instagram accounts. If your match rate is low, you could upload 7,000 people but Meta might only recognize a few hundred — which isn't enough to build a lookalike from.

Problem	Likely Cause	Fix
Overall match rate too low	Only email addresses uploaded — missing phone numbers, names, and location data	Export from Dataro with all available fields: email, phone (with country code), first name, last name, and postcode
Old or outdated contact info	Donors have changed emails since they were added to your CRM	Run your list through an email validation tool (ZeroBounce or NeverBounce) before exporting from Dataro
Work emails dominating the list	Corporate or organisational emails rarely tied to personal Facebook accounts	Filter out known non-personal email domains before uploading; prioritise personal email fields from your CRM
Phone number formatting errors	Numbers uploaded without country codes or in wrong format	Meta requires country code prefix — e.g. +1 for US, +61 for AU. Format before upload or let Meta's upload tool reformat
"Not enough matched users" error	Fewer than 1,000 matched profiles — Meta's minimum for a quality lookalike	Widen your Dataro segment (e.g. top 30% give propensity instead of top 20%) to give Meta more records to match against
List is international but spread thin	No single country has enough matched users to meet the minimum threshold	Filter your Dataro export to one primary country before uploading, or create separate uploads per country
Audience location mismatch	Target country selected for the lookalike doesn't match where most seed users are located	Check which country your matched users are in (visible in Audience Manager) and create the lookalike for that country first
Lookalike generates but performs poorly	Seed audience is too broad — "all donors" dilutes the signal Meta uses to find similar people	Re-export from Dataro using top-quintile give propensity only, not all active donors

Troubleshooting Match Rates for Lookalike Audiences Generation in Google

Problem	Likely Cause	Fix
Overall match rate under 20%	Email addresses aren't Gmail or aren't tied to active Google accounts	Add phone numbers to your export — Google matches on phone too, not just email
"Too few users" shown instead of a number	Fewer than 1,000 contacts matched	Expand your Dataro segment — lower the propensity threshold slightly to increase list size, or combine two segments
List stuck on "Processing"	File formatting issue	Check that your CSV has no extra columns, special characters in headers, or blank rows. Re-download from Dataro and re-upload
Match rate dropped on a refreshed upload	Donor database has aged — old or inactive emails	Run your CRM email list through a validation tool (ZeroBounce or NeverBounce) before exporting from Dataro
Work or organisational emails dominating the list	Staff, volunteers, or corporate donors in the segment	Filter your Dataro export to exclude known non-personal email domains before uploading
Phone numbers not matching	Missing country code or wrong format	Google requires E.164 format — e.g. +16175551234 for US, +61412345678 for AU. Export phone numbers with country code from your CRM before uploading
Low match despite good data	Google Account coverage gap in your donor demographic	Older donors (65+) are less likely to have active Google accounts tied to their primary email. This is a structural limitation — supplement with phone number matching
Similar Segment not appearing	Matched list is too small or too new	Wait 24–48 hours after the list hits 1,000+ matched users. Similar Segments are auto-generated — they don't appear instantly

Summary: Meta vs Google for Dataro Audiences

Feature	Meta	Google
Custom Audience upload	✅	✅
Match rate (typical)	40–60%	30–50%
Lookalike / Similar	✅ Strong, controllable	✅ Auto-generated, less control
Search targeting	❌	✅
YouTube targeting	✅ Instagram	✅ YouTube
AI-powered expansion	✅ Advantage+	✅ Performance Max
Free nonprofit grant	❌	✅ $10K/month
Best for	Social acquisition, reactivation	Search intent, YouTube, cross-surface

The two platforms work best together — Meta for social acquisition and warm retargeting, Google for capturing search intent and reaching donors across the wider web. A Dataro propensity-seeded audience deployed across both gives you the most complete coverage of your potential donor pool.