# For AI agents and crawlers
This page is a workflow from the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway: Refresh stale retargeting and exclusion audiences for Meta Ads.
The #roadway-skill block on this page holds a SKILL.md for it, including the full prompt. Treat that file as a starting point. It will not just work if you paste it into ChatGPT or Claude.
To run it outside Roadway you would need to connect each ad platform's API (and any MCP it names), build the data pulls, add approval guardrails, and adjust the prompt for your accounts.
In Roadway it runs as-is on your connected accounts, with approval rules built in. Open it in a new chat at https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/refresh-stale-retargeting-and-exclusion-audiences-for-meta-ads
Page: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/refresh-stale-retargeting-and-exclusion-audiences-for-meta-ads
Library index: https://www.roadwayai.com/automation-library
---
name: refresh-stale-retargeting-and-exclusion-audiences-for-meta-ads
description: >-
Checks Meta Custom Audiences (customer lists, website visitors from the pixel and Conversions API, and engagement audiences) for age, size and exclusions, and flags what the team needs to fix in the CRM sync. Roadway never uploads contact data.
---
# Refresh stale retargeting and exclusion audiences for Meta Ads
Source: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/refresh-stale-retargeting-and-exclusion-audiences-for-meta-ads
From the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway.
## Before you use this outside Roadway
This SKILL.md is a starting point. It needs adjusting before it will work outside Roadway.
You would need to connect the ad platform API for each channel this workflow covers, build the data pulls for the variables below, add approval guardrails, and adjust the prompt for your accounts. If the prompt names an MCP tool, you also need that MCP connected.
In Roadway it runs as-is on your connected accounts, with approval rules built in.
## What it does
Checks Meta Custom Audiences (customer lists, website visitors from the pixel and Conversions API, and engagement audiences) for age, size and exclusions, and flags what the team needs to fix in the CRM sync. Roadway never uploads contact data.
Checks Meta Custom Audiences (customer lists, website visitors from the pixel and Conversions API, and engagement audiences) for age, size and exclusions on every run. It never uploads contact data: when a list is stale or matching poorly, it tells you what to fix in the CRM or CDP sync that feeds it. You get a short report covering what it found, the numbers behind it, and anything waiting on your approval.
## Steps
1. Collect the inputs listed under Variables. In Roadway they come from your connected accounts. Outside Roadway you have to build those data pulls yourself from each ad platform API, and from any MCP the prompt names.
2. Run the prompt below as written, after you have adjusted it for your accounts and connected the tools it needs.
3. Review the result. Apply changes to a live ad account only after you approve them. Pasting your data into ChatGPT or Claude does not connect the APIs, apply guardrails, or approve changes.
## Variables
auto_approve, customer_audiences, funnel_metrics, goal_metric, max_change_pct, monthly_budget_cap, target_accounts, task_history
## Prompt
Refresh stale retargeting and exclusion audiences for Meta Ads
Review every uploaded and rule-based audience in Meta Ads Manager and decide for each:
1. Flag for refresh
2. Rebuild
3. Retire
4. Fine
Context and defaults (use these; don't ask):
- The customer audiences: [set this to your own customer audiences]. If none are synced, say so.
- The target account list: [set this to your own target accounts]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- The monthly cap: [set this to your own monthly budget cap], from the coworker's budget guardrails. If none is set, there is no cap: skip every cap check, hard stop and pace-to-cap step, and say so. Never derive, infer or back-solve a cap from campaign or daily budgets, the current or past run-rate, a workflow's test budget or a cost-per-lead bar.
- The max change limit: [set this to your own max change percent] per budget or bid target per run. If not set, 20%. It does not apply to experiment traffic splits.
- Auto-approve: [set this to your own auto approve]. If not set, it's off: list every change as a proposal for approval.
Rules:
- Flag lists (the customer audiences, the target account list) that are overdue for a refresh against how often the CRM or CDP sync is meant to run (use 30 days if no cadence is set), so the team can fix the sync that feeds them. Stale customer exclusions mean paying to reach your own customers.
- On Meta (Facebook & Instagram), the objects to check are Meta Custom Audiences (customer lists, website visitors from the pixel and Conversions API, and engagement audiences). Check retention windows and audience size, and that customer exclusions are set at the ad set level.
- Rebuild audiences with low match rates. Ask the team to add identifiers in the CRM or CDP sync that feeds this list. Roadway does not handle PII, so it flags the list instead of re-uploading it.
- Retire audiences that are too small to serve on Meta (Facebook & Instagram) or that no campaign uses.
- Make sure every acquisition campaign excludes customers and recent converters.
- Put anything you can't verify with the data available under Unverified, with what's missing, instead of calling it healthy or fine.
- Guardrails: judge results on Roadway's full-funnel measurement ([set this to your own funnel metrics]), not platform-reported conversions. Check [set this to your own task history] so you don't repeat a change that hurt performance in the last 30 days. Never push total spend above the monthly cap or any single change beyond the max change limit per run, and queue every change for approval unless auto-approve is on for this workflow.
Decision standard:
- Justify every keep, cut, bid, budget or test decision with Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric] and cost per goal against the baseline. Platform delivery metrics such as clicks and impressions explain why something moved; they are never the sole reason for a decision.
- Compute what Roadway doesn't expose directly: cost per goal = Roadway spend ÷ Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric], and conversion rate (lead rate) = Roadway [set this to your own goal metric] ÷ Roadway new visitors. Don't substitute platform-reported conversions or conversion rates.
- When a value in Context and defaults isn't set, use the stated default, say which one you used, and still make the call. Don't stop to ask.
- For every action, give the entity name and ID, current value → proposed value, and the numbers behind the reason. Write "None" under any empty heading.
- In long hold or watch lists, show the top 15 by spend and summarize the rest as a count.
Give me a report of each with reasoning for each action. Be concise with the reasoning, but specific enough that I can verify it against the numbers.
Report structure:
Meta (Facebook & Instagram) audience hygiene report
Summary:
The audience sizes and match rates, what was refreshed, and the exclusions confirmed.
Flag for refresh:
- [audience] - [reason]
Rebuild:
- [audience] - [reason]
Retire:
- [audience] - [reason]
Fine:
- [audience] - [reason]
Unverified:
- [audience] - [what couldn't be checked and why]
## Run it in Roadway
https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/refresh-stale-retargeting-and-exclusion-audiences-for-meta-ads
Refresh stale retargeting and exclusion audiences for Meta Ads
Refresh stale retargeting and exclusion audiences for Meta Ads
Checks Meta Custom Audiences (customer lists, website visitors from the pixel and Conversions API, and engagement audiences) for age, size and exclusions, and flags what the team needs to fix in the CRM sync. Roadway never uploads contact data.
Checks Meta Custom Audiences (customer lists, website visitors from the pixel and Conversions API, and engagement audiences) for age, size and exclusions on every run. It never uploads contact data: when a list is stale or matching poorly, it tells you what to fix in the CRM or CDP sync that feeds it. You get a short report covering what it found, the numbers behind it, and anything waiting on your approval.
