Working With FB Custom And Lookalike Audiences

Have you gotten the hang of Facebook Advertising yet?

The past few articles have dropped the topic of Custom Audience one way or another. You should have started building your own by now. This guide cannot overemphasise the importance of this element. Accurate and efficient, it will help you serve the right ads to the right audience.

Here are some additional pointers to get those audiences right!

1. Facebook’s matching of your customers’ details on file is so advanced it can get up to 80%.

The task can be boring and tedious—what with the organisation and uploading of existing customer data. But the payback can be rewarding, especially for your ad return on investment (ROI).

Leverage the data available to you, albeit anonymously, on Facebook by providing as many details as you can: first names, last names, cities, states, zip codes, phone numbers, email addresses, and even birthdays. The match rate ranges from 50% to 80% depending on the pieces of information you include in your Customer File.

2. Facebook Page Engagement

Like how Facebook Pixel keeps track of your website traffic, the social media giant also has insights into your Page engagement. Since 2017, it has also offered the option to build a Custom Audience out of the engagement users make on your page. This includes those who have reacted or commented to your posts or ads on the newsfeed, shared them, and sent you a DM on Messenger, among others.

Hold on to that Custom Audience as you will be able to use it to do even more precise targeting later.

3. Instagram Engagement

The same thing goes for Instagram. You can create a Custom Audience from the people who engage with your profile, Stories, Live, or IGTV Channel.

Next, you can build Lookalike Audiences based on the Custom Audiences you already have.

Introduction to Lookalike Audiences

Now, it’s possible to reach even more people with Facebook’s Lookalike Audience feature. If Custom Audience comprises those whom you have an existing relationship with, Lookalike Audience refers to users who share similar attributes with your current buyers/prospects.

For instance, if you have uploaded a list of buyers, you can target individuals who fall under the same buyer’s persona. To avoid overlap, you can develop a strategy in which you create different Lookalike Audiences, according to Rick Mulready. If your email does tagging, you can build a list out of those who frequent your website and another out of those who don’t.

The Benefits

Think about the possibilities. There are people who may be looking for the kind of product or service you provide. They have behaviours, interests, and preferences that coincide with those of your current customers. However, you haven’t reached out to them. And they’ve never heard of your business before.

With Lookalike Audience, Facebook automates the search for these parallel audience across its network. It helps you scale up while tapping into its wide reach. You can now grow your selling potential and client base just by creating an ever more specialised list.

Aside from custom audiences, you can base your Lookalike Audience off of the following:

• Your customer data;

• Page likes;

• Facebook users who watched your video; and

• Users that performed a specific action on Facebook.

The Lowdown on Lookalike Audience Creation

Facebook actually explained its methodology (summarised, of course) on how it arrives with a Lookalike Audience for you. First, you need to identify a source audience, which is a Custom Audience created with your Pixel data, mobile app data, or Page likers/followers. Then, Facebook pins down the patterns in it, such as demographic information or interests. Next comes the search for people who “look like” the current ones.

Once you’re ready, you can choose your desired audience size during the creation process. Facebook notes that “smaller audiences more closely match your source audience”. While a larger audience increases your potential reach, it also reduces the level of similarity between your Lookalike Audience and source audience.

In its recommendation, Facebook says that a source audience with between 1,000 and 50,000 people is ideal. The quality of your source also matters. It adds that “for example, if a source audience is made up of your best customers rather than all your customers, that could lead to better results”.

The Steps

1.Go to Audiences. From the Ads Manager, you can tap the three-horizontal-line icon, look for Assets, and click Audiences.

2.Choose Lookalike Audiences.

3.Pick a source.*

4.Select the country/countries or region/regions where you’d like to find a Lookalike Audience.

5.Use the slider to determine your audience size.

6.Click Create Audience.

You can also create a Lookalike Audience during ad creation in Ads Manager.

From there, you need to wait for six to 24 hours for your Lookalike Audience to be created. Afterward, it will refresh every three to seven days as long as you’re using it for ad targeting. You can continue targeting ads to it even as you wait for it to update. To check if it has been updated, go to your Audience Manager page here and look at the date under the Availability column.

* Notes from Facebook:

• A source can be a Custom Audience not created with your pixel data, your mobile app data, or fans of your Page.

• Consider using a group of 1,000 to 50,000 of your best customers based on lifetime value, transaction value, total order size, or engagement.

• Your Lookalike Audience will only include people from the country/countries you select during creation.

• Your source audience must contain at least 100 people from a single country in order for Facebook to use it as the basis for a Lookalike Audience.

• You can create up to 500 Lookalike Audiences from a single source audience.

• People in your source audience will be excluded from your Lookalike Audience unless you use a pixel as your source audience.

• You can use multiple Lookalike Audiences at the same time for a single ad set. The ad set will target your ads to people who are in any of the selected Lookalike Audiences.