Lead generation

How to turn people engaging with LinkedIn posts into a Facebook or Instagram ad audience

Yes, as a Meta customer list. Meta matches emails and phone numbers, not LinkedIn URLs. What to upload, match limits, Meta terms and the steps in traxy.

By the traxy teamPublished Nov 10, 2026Updated Nov 11, 202614 min read

Can you turn the people engaging with your competitors' LinkedIn posts into a Facebook or Instagram ad audience? Not with a native Meta option, but yes through a customer list. Meta builds custom audiences from your own data or from engagement on Meta's apps, and it matches people on contact details such as emails and phone numbers, not LinkedIn profiles, so the route is a customer list you upload (steps for a competitor's posts).

TL;DR: Yes. Upload the people who engaged with the LinkedIn posts to Meta as a customer list custom audience, and you can show them ads on Facebook and Instagram. Meta matches the emails, phone numbers and other contact details in your file to Meta profiles. LinkedIn profile URLs aren't among the identifiers Meta accepts, so the size of your audience depends on the contact data you have for each person. traxy, which publishes this guide, covers the steps before Meta: it finds the people who engage with the LinkedIn posts you choose, keeps only those with a 50%+ match to your ideal customer profile (ICP), and builds a value-based audience CSV from those qualified leads for you to upload to Meta.

Last checked: November 10, 2026, against Meta's Business Help Center and Customer List Custom Audiences Terms, LinkedIn's Marketing Solutions Help, the PhantomBuster, TexAu and Vayne pages linked below, and traxy's Meta Ads docs.

Can you retarget LinkedIn post engagers on Facebook and Instagram?

Yes, through a customer list. Meta builds custom audiences from your own data sources or from engagement on Meta's apps (Meta: about custom audiences), so people who engaged on LinkedIn reach Meta only through a file you upload. Meta describes a customer list custom audience as one made of identifiers you've collected, such as email, phone number and address. Meta hashes them and matches them to profiles so you can advertise to those people on Facebook, Instagram and Meta Audience Network (Meta: about customer list custom audiences).

That gives you three jobs:

Pick the people. Find who engaged with the posts that matter to you and keep the ones who fit your ICP.
Get contact details. Meta matches on contact data, so each person needs an email address, a phone number or both.
Upload the list to Meta. Create a customer list custom audience in Meta Ads Manager and use it in your ad sets.

Meta can't use a file of LinkedIn profile URLs on its own. A customer list needs at least one main identifier, and Meta's main identifiers are email, phone number, mobile advertiser ID, Facebook app user ID and Facebook Page user ID (Meta: customer list formatting guidelines).

From a competitor's LinkedIn posts

Yes, you can turn the people engaging with a competitor's LinkedIn posts into a Facebook or Instagram ad audience, as long as you go through a customer list. LinkedIn's own retargeting doesn't cover organic posts you don't own (see below), so a file you upload to Meta is how you reach those people there. The steps in traxy:

Pick the source. Track the competitor's profile under Targeting > Tracking > People and set the relationship to Competitor, or paste a single post URL under Targeting > Posts > New > Track post and confirm Find leads (Tracking docs).
Keep only the people who fit. traxy checks every engager against your lead criteria and keeps only those with a 50%+ ICP match, so the competitor's staff, job seekers and peers who also engage stay out of the audience you pay to reach.
Look up work emails and phones. Meta matches on contact details, so each person needs an email address, a phone number or both. Use saved contact data or an available enrichment option. Lookups follow your workspace's contact entitlements (contact details docs).
Build the audience CSV. Open Integrations > Meta Ads > New export, choose the contact options and download the CSV when the export is ready (traxy Meta Ads docs).
Upload it in Meta. In Meta Ads Manager, create a Custom audience from a Customer list and upload the file (Meta's steps below).

Three limits to plan for:

Profile URLs aren't match keys. Meta's main identifiers are email, phone number, mobile advertiser ID, Facebook app user ID and Facebook Page user ID (formatting guidelines). Meta's developer guide lists emails, phone numbers, names, dates of birth, gender, locations and app, page-scoped and advertising IDs as matching data, and asks for it hashed with SHA256 (Meta for Developers: customer file custom audiences). A LinkedIn profile URL isn't on either list.
Only part of the list will match. A person joins the audience only when a detail in your file matches one Meta has for them, and a traxy lookup doesn't guarantee a contact result or a match in Meta.
A lookalike needs a seed of at least 100 people. Meta needs a source of at least 100 people for a lookalike audience and generally recommends 1,000 to 5,000 (Meta: create a lookalike audience). If one competitor's posts don't give you that many qualified leads, combine several tracked profiles and posts in one export.

Meta's Customer List Custom Audiences Terms apply to every upload; we cover them below.

One example: a traxy user, in a post shared by Ben Buaron of traxy, loaded a traxy-built audience into Meta ads and logged a conversion at a cost per acquisition below their baseline on the first day, while noting it was still very early (Ben Buaron on X).

The same qualified leads can get outreach too. traxy runs your entire LinkedIn GTM end to end, from finding high intent leads from social intent to enriching and researching each one, to running relevant, personalized LinkedIn and email outreach to them on autopilot: you test the campaign on sample leads and approve it once before it runs, or you approve every message (LinkedIn outbound in traxy).

What does Meta need in the upload?

Meta's formatting guidelines say a customer list should be a CSV or TXT file, include at least 1,000 customers, include at least one main identifier and use the right column format for each identifier type (formatting guidelines). These are the columns that matter most for a list of LinkedIn engagers:

Identifier	Column header	What Meta asks for
Email	email	Up to 3 email columns, one address per cell
Phone number	phone	Include the country code, even when every number is from one country. Up to 3 columns
First and last name	fn, ln	Two separate columns, not one full-name column
Country	country	ISO two-letter code, such as US or GB, in its own column
City	ct	Full town or city name
Customer value	value	Optional. Numbers only, no currency signs

Meta's data preparation guide calls out two tips above the rest: always include the country code on phone numbers, and always put the country in its own column, because Meta matches on a global scale (Meta: prepare your data for a customer list custom audience). Meta also recommends adding more main identifiers for a better chance of a match, and using names, city and country alongside at least one main identifier (formatting guidelines).

The customer value column. Customer value is a number you assign to each customer for the qualities you consider most desirable, and Meta says you choose what you value. A list with a value column lets you create a customer value custom audience, show ads to or exclude those people, and use them as the source for a value-based lookalike audience (Meta: about the customer value column). traxy describes its Meta Ads export as a value-based audience CSV, so check the columns in the file you download and answer Meta's customer value question to match it (Meta: create a customer value custom audience).

Two more conditions apply before the upload:

Account access. You need to own the ad account connected to a business portfolio, or have admin or advertiser permissions on it. Meta notes that a new or newly linked account can take a few weeks before it can create a customer list custom audience (Meta: create a customer list custom audience).
No prohibited information. The audience's name, contents and criteria can't include or be based on sensitive information, such as health or financial information (Meta: prepare your data).

How does Meta match the list, and what limits it?

Meta hashes the customer information in your file, a cryptographic method that turns it into randomized code and can't be reversed, then compares it with Meta's own hashed information to build the audience. Meta says the hashed information, matched or not, is deleted promptly after matching (Meta: about hashing customer information).

A person joins the audience only when a detail in your file matches a detail Meta has for them. If the only email you have for someone isn't one Meta has on their profile, that row can't match on email. Meta says the more information you provide, the better the match rate (about customer list custom audiences). Phone numbers and the extra identifiers are worth including when you have them.

What to expect after the upload:

No fixed match rate. We don't quote a typical match rate, because it depends on your list. In Meta's Audiences tab you can add a Match score column. It shows a score out of ten, in steps of 0.5, calculated by dividing matched rows by uploaded rows (create a customer list custom audience).
Size. Meta's guidelines ask for at least 1,000 customers in a list. If one post doesn't give you that many qualified people, combine engagers from several posts and tracked profiles in one export, or use the list as a lookalike source. A lookalike needs a source of at least 100 people, Meta generally recommends 1,000 to 5,000, and people in the source are left out of the lookalike (Meta: create a lookalike audience).
Status. The audience shows Populating while Meta builds it and Ready when you can use it. A list that hasn't been updated in over 30 days shows Outdated, which Meta says may affect delivery (create a customer list custom audience).
You won't see who matched. Meta's terms say Meta doesn't disclose which individual users make up an audience created from your customer list (Meta: Customer List Custom Audiences Terms).

What do Meta's customer list terms ask of you?

Read Meta's Customer List Custom Audiences Terms before you upload. By accepting them, uploading a list or using the audience, you confirm, among other things, that:

you have all necessary rights and permissions and a lawful basis to disclose and use the data, in line with applicable laws, regulations and industry guidelines;
the list doesn't include people who opted out of having their data used to create such audiences, and you remove anyone who opts out later;
the audience's name and criteria aren't based on sensitive information, identifiers Meta doesn't permit, or data about children under 13.

Where the GDPR applies, the terms make you the controller of the uploaded personal information and Meta your processor. Meta's help page says the same: advertisers act as the data controller for lists they upload (create a customer list custom audience).

People who liked a LinkedIn post didn't give you their contact details for ads, so check the rules that apply to you and to the people on your list before you upload. traxy's docs say to use only contacts you have permission to use for that purpose (traxy Meta Ads docs). For people who asked not to hear from you, Meta offers an Only exclusions setting. Such a list can only exclude people, and it can't be used for targeting or for a lookalike (create a customer list custom audience). Our guide to keeping customers, competitors and opt-outs out of your prospect list covers the traxy side.

How do you turn LinkedIn engagers into a Meta audience with traxy?

1. Choose the posts and profiles to learn from

traxy finds people from their LinkedIn activity. For an ad audience, the useful sources are the ones where engagement says something about your offer:

Your own posts. Track your own profile under Targeting > People to turn engagement on your posts into qualified leads.
Competitors and influencers. Track their profiles and tag the relationship (competitor, influencer, investor, teammate or custom). traxy qualifies the people who engage with their posts (Tracking docs).
One post. Open Targeting > Posts > New > Track post, paste the URL and confirm Find leads. You can also paste the post URL into trax, the traxy agent, and ask for its audience.
Company pages. Track a company by domain or LinkedIn page, and traxy reads the page's posts for engagers who fit your ICP (leads from LinkedIn company page engagers).

Signals and social intent search add people who post or comment about the problem you solve, beyond the posts you track (LinkedIn social listening in traxy).

2. Keep only the people who fit

traxy checks every engager against your lead criteria. Only people with a 50%+ ICP match become qualified leads (qualification). Each lead shows the post, comment or like that put them on your list, with a Warm, Related, Activity or ICP match label for how strong the evidence is (signals docs). This filter matters for ads as much as for outreach, because a competitor's post can also draw its employees, job seekers and peers, and you don't want to pay to reach them.

3. Build the Meta Ads export

Open Integrations > Meta Ads. traxy builds a value-based audience CSV from your qualified leads to upload to Meta. The steps in traxy's Meta Ads docs:

Review the audience size and the ICP match threshold.
Select New export and inspect the audience snapshot.
Choose the contact options: the contact data you've already saved, or an available enrichment option.
Review contact eligibility and start the export.
When the export is ready, download the CSV.

Email and phone lookups follow your workspace's contact entitlements, and a lookup doesn't guarantee a contact result or a match in Meta. More identifiers per person can help matching. To look up contact details as leads come in, turn on Auto-Enrich for newly qualified leads. It doesn't go back over older leads (contact details docs).

4. Upload the CSV in Meta Ads Manager

Meta's steps (create a customer list custom audience):

Open Audiences, select Create audience, then Custom audience.
Select Customer list, then Next.
Choose Inclusions or exclusions or Only exclusions, then upload the file.
Answer the customer value question, name the audience and accept the custom audience terms.
Map the identifiers. A check icon means a column is mapped and ready to be hashed. An exclamation point means you left an identifier out or it needs a manual fix.
Select Import and create, then wait for the status to change from Populating to Ready.

A completed traxy export means the file is ready. Meta processes and matches it separately, so review the result in Meta before you use the audience in ads (traxy Meta Ads docs).

5. Use the audience and keep it current

Add the audience to an ad set, use it to exclude people from a broader campaign, or use it as a lookalike source. When your qualified leads change, export again from traxy. Then, in Meta, open the audience, select Edit and choose Replace customers, Add customers or Remove customers. Meta says the changes also update the ad sets and lookalikes that use the audience, and they don't reset the campaign learning phase (Meta: edit a customer list custom audience).

How does this compare with PhantomBuster, TexAu or Vayne plus an email finder?

Another route to the same audience uses three tools: export a post's likers and commenters with a scraper, add emails with an enrichment tool, then upload the file to Meta. Here is what each tool's own pages say, checked November 2026.

PhantomBuster. Its LinkedIn Post Likers Export and LinkedIn Post Commenters Export take post URLs and a connected LinkedIn account (your session cookie, through PhantomBuster's browser extension). The likers export returns profile URL, name, occupation, connection degree, reaction type and company URL, and PhantomBuster notes that LinkedIn shows at most 3,000 likers of a post (likers export). The commenters export adds the comment text, date and URL (commenters export). Neither output lists an email or phone number, so an email finder comes next.
TexAu. Its Export LinkedIn Post Likers and Export LinkedIn Post Comments actions take a post URL, and TexAu says they run without a LinkedIn account connection. They return names, headlines and LinkedIn profile IDs or URLs (TexAu LinkedIn native actions). TexAu's Find Work Email actions then look up work emails from a LinkedIn URL through a provider such as Apollo, or through TexAu's built-in waterfall across several providers (TexAu find work email actions).
Vayne. Its LinkedIn post scraper exports everyone who liked or commented on a post, or on up to 20 recent posts of a profile per run, with name, profile URL, headline, reaction type and comment text. Vayne says no LinkedIn account is needed, and runs can repeat on a schedule with a webhook (Vayne LinkedIn post scraper). Vayne's enrichment queries several vendors in parallel for emails and phone numbers (vayne.io).

Step	traxy	Scraper plus email finder
Who ends up in the file	Engagers with a 50%+ ICP match, each with the post or comment behind them	Everyone the export can see who liked or commented. Filtering for fit is a separate step; Vayne's page mentions refining the list with AI against your ICP
Contact details	Saved contact data or an enrichment option, chosen inside the export	A separate lookup, such as TexAu's email actions or Vayne's enrichment
File for Meta	A value-based audience CSV built for upload to Meta	Your own spreadsheet, mapped to Meta's column headers
Sources	Tracked people, posts and company pages, signals and social intent search	Post URLs, or a profile's recent posts in Vayne

Where the scraper route fits better. Pick it when you want everyone who engaged with a post, including people outside your ICP, for a broad awareness audience or a larger lookalike source. It also suits teams that already run PhantomBuster, TexAu or Vayne and need a one-off list from one post, or that want the full comment text in a spreadsheet for other work. Vayne's scheduled runs with a webhook suit teams that feed raw engager files into their own tools.

Where traxy fits better. Pick traxy when you want to pay to reach only people who fit your ICP, want the post or comment behind each person, and want the contact step and the Meta-ready file in the same place as the leads you also contact on LinkedIn and by email. For more on the export tools, see our PhantomBuster alternatives for LinkedIn post engagers.

When is LinkedIn's own retargeting the better choice?

LinkedIn's own retargeting fits better when people engaged with something you own on LinkedIn. LinkedIn's Matched Audiences can retarget member accounts that visited your website, engaged with your single image, document, video or conversation ads, opened or submitted your Lead Gen Form, engaged with your Company Page, responded to your LinkedIn Event or connected through the Conversions API. LinkedIn builds these audiences from its own member accounts, so you need no emails or phone numbers, and an audience needs at least 300 member accounts before you can target it (LinkedIn: retargeting with Matched Audiences). LinkedIn also accepts uploaded contact and company lists (LinkedIn: get started with Matched Audiences).

The Meta route fits better in two cases. The first is engagement on posts you don't own, such as a competitor's or an influencer's organic posts, which aren't among LinkedIn's retargeting sources. The second is reaching the same people on Facebook and Instagram as well as LinkedIn. You can run both. Our LinkedIn retargeting playbook covers the LinkedIn side.

Can the same leads get LinkedIn and email outreach?

Yes. The qualified leads behind your Meta audience can go into a LinkedIn and email campaign sent from your own connected sender accounts. traxy can research each lead for the facts you ask for, groups leads by signal and prepares a personalized message variant for each group, and tests the campaign on sample leads with nothing sent. Before launch you review who joins, who is skipped, the sender, the steps and the delivery mode, then choose to approve each message in a review queue or let the approved campaign send. Replies, unsubscribes and hard bounces stop the sequence (review and launch, sequences). See LinkedIn outbound in traxy.

FAQ

Can Meta match a LinkedIn profile URL?

No. Meta's main identifiers are email, phone number, mobile advertiser ID, Facebook app user ID and Facebook Page user ID, with optional extras such as name, city and country (formatting guidelines). A LinkedIn profile URL isn't one of them, so each person needs an email address or phone number.

Can I turn the people engaging with my competitors' LinkedIn posts into a Facebook or Instagram ad audience?

Not with a native Meta option, but yes through a customer list. Track the competitor's profile or one of its posts in traxy, keep the engagers with a 50%+ ICP match, look up their emails and phones, then build the audience CSV under Integrations > Meta Ads > New export and upload it in Meta (from a competitor's LinkedIn posts).

How many people does a Meta customer list need?

Meta's formatting guidelines say a customer list should include at least 1,000 customers. A lookalike audience needs a source of at least 100 people, and Meta generally recommends 1,000 to 5,000 (create a lookalike audience).

What match rate should I expect from LinkedIn engagers?

It depends on your list, so we don't quote a number. Meta says more identifiers give a better match rate. After the upload, Meta shows a Match score out of ten, calculated by dividing matched rows by uploaded rows (create a customer list custom audience).

Can I see which people matched in Meta?

No. Meta's terms say Meta doesn't disclose which individual users make up an audience created from your customer list (Customer List Custom Audiences Terms).

Am I allowed to upload LinkedIn engagers to Meta?

Meta's terms require that you have the necessary rights, permissions and a lawful basis to use the data, and that you leave out people who opted out of this use. Check the rules that apply to you and to the people on your list, and only use contacts you have permission to use for that purpose (traxy Meta Ads docs).

Does traxy find leads on Facebook or Instagram?

No. traxy finds leads from LinkedIn activity. The Meta Ads export takes those LinkedIn-sourced leads to Meta as a customer list. It doesn't find people on Facebook or Instagram.

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