You have outlined your Facebook campaign. You know how long you want to run the ad for and what the objective will be. One question still remains: who are you reaching? Facebook grants you the opportunity to target individuals so it will benefit your objectives.
Facebook offers three types of audiences: Broad, Custom, and Lookalike. Based on which campaign you’re running, some audiences will be more advantageous towards your business goals.
Broad audience: Broad audience refers to targeting people with ads based on interests, demographics, and/or behaviors. This is a great option for those trying to reach new potential customers, as well as build your brand. Each of those categories provides a plethora of options, which will allow you to customize the ad to the proper audiences.
Custom audience: This is an audience who has had specific interactions with your business. If you are beginning your Facebook ad journey, one custom ad you can build right away is a customer list. This customer list should include information such as name, address, email, and phone number at a minimum; Facebook will use these details to “match” people and serve them those ads! The importance of custom audiences cannot be understated, as they allow you to specifically target people who are/have been influenced by your business. Custom audiences are not something to pass up on when it comes to advertising!
Other custom audiences take time before you can use them. You’ll want to make sure your Pixel is properly installed so you can utilize them. Some examples of custom audiences are:
- Website Traffic
- Video Views
- Facebook Engagement
- App Activity
- Instagram Business Engagement
- Much More!
Lookalike audience: After building custom audiences, you have the option to build lookalike audiences. These audiences include people who have similar features to that of the custom audience. Facebook will find those who share the most in common with your custom audience and serve them that ad to them.
Your lookalike audience sizes can vary in terms of size based on your preference. If you want your audiences to be closely related to your custom audience, then you can select an audience size with a small percentage (1-2%). However, if you want to reach a larger group of people, and how similar they are to that custom audience does not matter, then you can select a higher percentage. This can all be decided when you create your lookalike audience.
How Will I Know Which Audience I Should Choose?
Facebook continues to provide advertisers the opportunity to test. If you’re unsure which audience will perform best, create ad sets for all three of them. At the campaign level, you should be turning on campaign budget optimization. That will allow Facebook to wisely put money towards the ad set for the audience that appreciates the ad more.
Other Features Of Audience Building
Besides these three audiences, you can edit who you are serving the ad too. Is your ad gender-specific? You can select either male or female. Are you creating an ad to be served to a certain age group? You can manipulate the age range of who sees this ad. Finally, maybe the demographic you’re going after speaks a different language than English: you can alter your ad so it can reach those who speak a particular language!
Utilizing the proper audiences will help create successful campaigns, long-lasting customers, and make you an efficient marketer!