# Inventory Meta audiences and where they serve

> Tier: recipe. Operating recipe: real tool sequence, core rules, known traps.

The audience estate mapped: custom, lookalike, saved, with usage, before any targeting decision.

**Intent.** Every audience, its definition, size band and the ad sets using it.

## When to use

- Quarterly hygiene.
- Before consolidation or new lookalike builds.

## When not to use

- No specific contraindication beyond the preconditions below.

## Sources

Required: Meta Ads

## Preconditions

- The account is ticked in the dashboard, confirmed via list_accounts.

## Inputs

- `window`: Analysis window. Default: last 30 days.

## Procedure

1. List audiences with types and sizes. — tools: `meta_get_audiences`
2. Read definitions and sources for the ones in use. — tools: `meta_get_audience_details`
3. Map usage across ad sets. — tools: `meta_get_adsets`

## Decision rules

- **When** Custom audiences built on sources that stopped updating → **conclude** Stale by construction: date the source and flag every ad set still using it.

## Evidence requirements

- Every figure carries its account, metric and window.
- Anything below a readable sample size is reported as unjudged, not as zero.

## Human approval boundary

- The readout changes nothing. Any change it motivates goes through Safe Writes: preview, human confirmation, then apply.

## Failure modes

- Size bands are estimates: never subtract two bands and present a number.

## Output

- **Readout**: The figures, with windows and accounts named.
- **Flags**: What deserves a deeper skill or a human decision.

## Related

- Skill: [audience-overlap](https://www.getmcpads.com/skills/audience-overlap.md)