Targeting: Lookalike Audiences
What Data Sources may be used to create a Seed Audience?
- Custom Audience (create a Lookalike Audience that resembles your existing customers and clients.) - Website Data (Facebook Pixel can recognize website visitors across devices, and marketers can specify page visits and actions that trigger the pixel.) [i.e. Seed a Lookalike Audience based on a Custom Audience generated from people who have "completed a purchase [pixel]" from your website.] - Mobile App (Seed a Lookalike Audience using a Custom Audience of people who engaged with your mobile app; then target new prospects who resemple people who've triggered in-app events [i.e. "completed registration" or "achieved level"].) - Facebook Page Fans (Create a Lookalike Audience based on people who Like your Page & who have shown interest in your business.)
With Lookalike Audiences, you can reach people who are 'SIMILAR' to:
- Existing customers - People who like your FB page - Visitors to your website - People who engage with your mobile app
When you specifiy an Audience Size, what opportunities may you optimize for?
- Similarity (Audience Size close to 1 = small Lookalike Audience, high resemblence to seed.) - Reach (Audience Size close to 10 = larger Lookalike Audience, less similar to seed.)
From what 2 places within your Ad Account may you create Lookalike Audiences?
1. Audiences area 2. Ads Manager or Power Editor
How do you create a Lookalike Audience from the Ads Manager or Power Editor?
1. Go to Ad Set level... 2. From this point, the process is exactly the same as creating a Lookalike from Audience Area. -Select/create source audience -Choose where to target your ads -Decide how closely Lookalike Audience should resemble original Seed Audience (similarity v. reach)
How do you create a Lookalike Audience from the Audiences Area?
1. Locate the Create Audience button, and select "Lookalike Audience." 2. Choose your seed audience: this may be an existing [source] Custom Audience or Page, or a new [source] Custom Audience. 3. Add the location (or locations) you'd like to target, and refine your audience size. 4. Optimize for Similarity: An audience size of 1 means that your Lookalike Audience will contain the top 1% of people on Facebook who most closely resemble your seed audience. Optimize for Reach: Increase the Audience Size percent. This means more people are eligible to see your ad, but they may be lower-quality matches to your seed audience.
What are the 3 types of Lookalike Audiences?
1. Value-Based Lookalikes 2. International Lookalikes 3. Multi-Country Lookalikes
Fill In The Blank: Seed Audiences must contain at least _____ people from a single country, and ideally between _____ and _____.
100; 1,000; 50,000. The more people in your Seed Audience, the higher % of Facebook finding similar people.
Define: International Lookalikes
An Audience of similar people in any country, or worldwide. May help companies expand across international borders.
Define: Value-Based Lookalikes
An Audience which resembles your very best customers, based on previous or predicted spend. A 'Customer Value File' seeds the new Lookalike Audience.
Define: Lookalike Audiences
An new Audience based on the traits (demographic, behavioral, etc.) of your best customers.
Define: Multi-Country Lookalikes
An option to create a new similar Audience from multiple countries, an entire region, or a free trade area. May optimize ad spend, by distributing your budget to the countries where it will work most effectively.
Pro Tip: Use Expanded Targeting as a Backup
Check the "Expand interests when it may increase conversions at a lower cost per conversion" box during ad set creation. It allows us to expand your targeting if we can't get enough conversions from your specifically-defined target audience. This automates a switch from specific to broader targeting if the former is unsuccessful.
Pro Tip: Use Highly-Relevant Seed Audiences
Choose seed audiences that connect directly to the objective you want to achieve. For example, to increase online sales in a mobile app, use Facebook SDK to generate a Custom Audience of your highest-value mobile app users.
Pro Tip: Segment Your Audience
Expand on a good source rather than using multiple similar ones. If, for example, you have a good source and have created a Lookalike Audience of the people who are most similar to it (say, the top 1%), we recommend expanding on that source (say, by incorporating the top 2% and 3%). For example, split a seed audience by purchase behavior — one containing people who've made online purchases in the last 30 days, another of people who have spent more than $500 in the last 7 days, and so on — and then create Lookalike Audiences based on each. Or, test different bidding strategies by excluding different slices of your audience by creating: A 1% Lookalike Audience A 2% Lookalike that excludes the 1% audience A 3% Lookalike that exclude the 2% audience This "tiered lookalike" strategy can help marketers hone in on the most effective audience size for their messaging.
Pro Tip: Audience Quality is More Important that Audience Size
Generally speaking, a Lookalike Audience source of between 1,000 and 50,000 people is ideal. However, having a high-quality source (meaning a source made up of your best customers) is more important than any specific number. For example, if the source is good, it doesn't matter if it's 20,000 people or 30,000. You may even be able to succeed with 100 people. Lookalike audiences perform best when a seed audience is significantly smaller than the pool that the Lookalike Audience will be drawn from. If your seed audience is very large or diverse compared to the total number of people in the country or locations targeted, try segmenting it into smaller groups and then create Lookalikes from each.
Pro Tip: Combine Facebook Targeting Tools
Layer on targeting options like age, gender, and interests to better understand who your potential customers and clients are. However, if your ad set is optimized for conversions, layering parameters may muddle — rather than refine — your targeting, since Lookalike Audiences already incorporate information like age, gender and interests from your source.
Pro Tip: Avoid Broad Lookalike Audience Sources
Sources like "all app installers" or "all purchasers" are not ideal for conversion-optimized ad sets because they don't distinguish between great customers and average customers. Everyone is just grouped together. Ask what metrics you rank your existing customers by. Do any correlate with the difference between great and average customers? Use any proprietary data you have to help you make the distinction. If you don't have much data of your own, try dividing customers by pixel fires. Create a Lookalike Audience from a source made up of the customers who've taken actions you care about.
True or False: Only pixel-based Lookalikes contain all members of the Seed Audience.
TRUE
True or False: You need to be an Admin on a Facebook Ad Account to create a Lookalike Audience. You can only use Custom Audiences as a seed if you created them. To seed a Custom Audience with mobile event data, you have to be an Administrator or Developer on the app, and there must be active SDK event tracking in place. Lookalike Audiences update dynamically: as long as ads are being targeted to a Lookalike Audience, it will refresh every 3-7 days.
TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE
True or False: A Seed Audience may consist of high-value purchasers, or those who are deeply engaged with your Facebook Page or Mobile App.
TRUE. The Seed Audience should be a group of people who are important to the success of your business, and your Lookalike Audience will resemble this seed - so Quality matters!
Pro Tip: Experiment with Audience Size
Test each seed audience by to see whether they perform better for similarity or for reach. Consider different optimizations for different campaign goals.
What tells Facebook how closely the Lookalike Audience should match the Seed Audience?
The Audience Size
Pro Tip: Use High-Quality Data
The more up to date your data is, the better we can match your ads with the right audience with high accuracy.
What is the starting place for your Lookalike Audience, which tells Facebook what qualities to match?
The source, or seed