FACEBOOK ADS | LOOKALIKE AUDIENCES

You’ve used Facebook, but Facebook ads are a completely different thing altogether. The Facebook algorithm has changed so much so that brands need to allocate a bit of spending in Facebook ads alone. There are many different types of ads for different purposes, but that’s a conversation for another day. Today, we will touch a bit on this new-‘ish’ feature called Lookalike Audiences. Simply explained, a lookalike audience is targeting your brand’s target audiences based on a custom audience (people on your email list, your website visitors, Facebook users who engage with a video you post on your Facebook page etc) What happens when you create a lookalike audience is, Facebook helps you find users who have similar attributes to the people who are in your custom audience. How does Facebook know how to do that ? – Well, Facebook sure does know quite a bit about its users. Facebook helps make anonymous data available to advertisers to help them reach their ideal target audiences. Creating lookalike audiences is like using a powerful marketing tool for efficiently finding high-converting users.

OBTAINING DATA FOR YOUR LOOKALIKE AUDIENCE

Now that you understand a little about Lookalike audiences, the next important step is getting the data of the audiences. Lookalike audiences are basically formed based on source audience using these data which you will need to upload to Facebook from your database or website data.  Here are the possible places you can look:

• Customer Information – You can obtain this either from a newsletter subscription list of a customer file list.
• Website Visitors – For you to create a custom audience based on your website visitors, you will need to have something called a Facebook pixel installed. With this, you can create an audience of people who have visited your website in the past, looked at a product page or even completed a purchase.
• Engagement – An engagement audience are the people who engage with your content on your social media.

Source: Hootsuite

USING A LOOKALIKE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR BRAND
​
Creating a lookalike audience can help you target people similar to your existing visitors, readers and customers. If you are a brand owner, this is something you should try for your brand, if you’re keen on advertising as precisely as possible whilst maximizing your ROI.

Lookalike audiences are a great way to target expansion of your brand in a brand-new global market. Which is why pinpointing a location is an important element you must remember. For instance, if you would like to start branding your product in a different country, consider creating a lookalike audience in that particular country or if you’re not sure where to – you can try countries with emerging markets. With lookalike audiences, you can also closely monitor who the Ad is show to and watch how your selected audience is responding to it. Thanks to Facebook’s targeting features, you’d be able to constantly monitor your Ad performance. Now, if your Ads are working with your targeted audience, it shows you’ve hit your goal – it works! Here’s the golden tip, if your Ad is relevant, your conversion rates will go up – and while this is happening, Facebook will take all of this into account. If Facebook recognizes your Ads are relevant to their audience and the conversion rate is good, Facebook will give you a better Relevance Score, which will bring down the price of your Ads.
 
FIXIE DUST’S TIPS FOR NEWBIES

If you’re new to lookalike audiences, don’t worry too much – every skill you pick up is fairly new to you until you master it. Here are a two little tips we’d like to share to make your experience easier:

• Keep your audience list up to date! – Wherever you choose to source your customer information, make sure your information is as current as possible. If you’re adding a custom audience based on your website, you may want to target those who have visited your website in the last 30 to 90 days instead of someone who visited your website a year ago.
• Test your look alike audience – Consider trying different audience sizes for your different campaign goals to see what works better for your brand.

If you are lost and need a hopeful hand and a sprinkle of Fixie Dust to guide you through, you can always call us, DM us or even drop us an email! Don’t be shy – let’s focus on making your brand shine brighter than ever together! Maybe try and let us know how this worked for you. If you want to track what’s happening with your website, you will need to have something called a Facebook Pixel installed to your Facebook page. Keep a lookout on our next article where we share with you about Pixel.
​
Stay safe.

Xoxo,
Your Pixies