Effective targeting is the foundation of a successful Meta Ads campaign, as it ensures your message reaches the right people, maximizing engagement and conversions.
By targeting the right audience, you can increase relevance, reduce waste, and achieve better ROI.
Targeting Options in Meta Ads
In Meta Ads, you can target your desired audience using three primary options:
- New Audience
- Custom Audience
- Lookalike Audience
Differing in their approach, New Audiences, Custom Audiences, and Lookalike Audiences offer distinct targeting strategies.Let’s examine the distinct characteristics of these audience types.
Discovering Fresh Leads: The Power of New Audiences
These are audiences you build from the ground up.You build your audience by selecting from these criteria:
Location:
- Cities
- Countries
- Regions
- Zip codes
- Geographic radius (target people within a specific distance)
Demographics
- Age
- Gender
- Education (level, field of study)
- Job title
- Income
- Occupation
- Relationship status
- Family dynamics (parents, married, etc.)
Interests
- Hobbies
- Passions
- Sports
- Music
- Movies
- Books
- Travel
- Food and drink
Behavior
- Past purchases
- Device usage (mobile, desktop, tablet)
- Operating system
- Browser
- Online activities (shopping, gaming, etc.)
- Purchase history
- Subscription services
Custom Audiences: Targeting Based on Real Connections
Custom audiences allow you to target people who have previously engaged with your business, such as loyal customers or those who have interacted with your app or website.
You can build a custom audience using your own information such as email addresses and phone numbers or data from Meta platforms.
Bring Your Own Data to the Table
To build custom audiences, you can leverage data from these internal sources:
- Website
- App Activity
- Customer List
- Offline Activity
- Catalog
Unlock Meta’s Data: Sources for Custom Audiences
You can create a custom audience with sources from Meta technologies
- Video
- Lead Form
- Instant Experience
- Shopping
- Instagram Business Profile
- Events
- Facebook Pages
- Facebook Marketplace Listings
- WhatsApp Messages
Mirror Your Success: Reach New Customers with Lookalike Audiences
Lookalike Audiences share similar traits and characteristics with your existing customer base, enabling effective ad targeting and increased conversions.
To create a Lookalike Audience, start by selecting a Custom Audience as your source audience, which serves as the foundation for generating a new audience with similar characteristics.
When using Lookalike Audiences, additional targeting options are not required, as the audience is automatically generated based on the characteristics of the source audience.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Meta’s audience options – New Audiences, Custom Audiences, and Lookalike Audiences – empower advertisers to precision-target their ideal customers.
New Audiences allow targeting based on interests and behaviors, Custom Audiences leverage existing customer data, while Lookalike Audiences expand reach to similar users.
By mastering these three audience types, businesses can enhance ad relevance, drive conversions, and maximize ROI.
FAQs
Q 1. What are saved audiences?
Saved Audiences enable advertisers to store their targeting criteria and easily apply them to future ad campaigns.
Q 2. What is the maximum number of Custom Audiences allowed per ad account according to Meta’s documentation?
Meta allows up to 500 Custom Audiences per ad account.
Q 3. What is Meta Advantage+ audience?
Meta Advantage+ audience harnesses advanced AI capabilities to find and target your perfect audience, offering a seamless and high-performing solution.
