Ultimate Guide to Using Facebook Lookalike Audiences in 2024

Verily, dost thou seeketh the assistance of Facebook Lookalike Audiences in thy quest to find thy finest customers? Fear not, for we hath gathered tips and best practices to aid thee in creating them for thy Facebook ads.

Facebook Lookalike Audiences, a masterful matchmaker between thy brand and new admirers, verily a potent advertising tool. Thou doth furnish Facebook with the qualities of thy beloved customers, and Facebook doth proffer a new target audience brimming with prospects that do meet thy criteria.

Art thou prepared to uncover the audience of thy dreams? Read on to discover how to craft a Lookalike Audience for thy Facebook ads, and to glean tips that shall guide thee in finding the ideal match.

What ho, a lookalike audience on Facebook?
A Facebook Lookalike Audience is a bespoke advertising audience crafted to reach individuals akin to thy current customers.

How are Facebook Lookalike Audiences fashioned?
Facebook’s advertising system doth take an existing audience, discern its salient characteristics (such as behavior and interests), and then seek out similar audiences sharing those traits.

Thou may pair Lookalike Audiences with other ad targeting parameters, like age and gender or interests and behaviors.

Benefits of Facebook Lookalike Audiences
Denizens within a Lookalike Audience art more inclined to engage with thy content than the general populace, rendering this form of ad targeting particularly valuable. Herein lie other reasons to opt for Lookalike Audiences over alternative forms of ad targeting on Facebook:

• Easier to uncover high-quality leads: Thou can reach new individuals beyond thy customer list with Lookalike Audiences. However, not just any denizen on Facebook – thou art specifically targeting individuals who do share akin characteristics to thy top customers. This doth indicate their increased likelihood of showing interest in thy ad.
• More value on ad spend: Experimentation is requisite for social media ads, yet none doth desire to expend more coin in discovering their top-performing ad. With Lookalike Audiences, thou can test multiple audiences simultaneously devoid of the necessity to create divers campaigns.
• Saves thee time: Lookalike Audiences do make it facile to uncover audiences intrigued by thy ad devoid of additional toil on thy part. Should thou already possess an extant audience, then thou can employ it to unearth Lookalike Audiences.

How to employ Facebook Lookalike Audiences
Ere thou embark on creating a Facebook Lookalike Audience, thou shalt need to first create a Custom Audience. Facebook shall thereafter utilize the Custom Audience to form thy personalized Lookalike Audience.

The steps to create a Custom Audience shalt rest upon the source. (But fret not, for we doth possess a full guide on how to forge a Custom Audience).

These art the fundamental steps to create a Custom Audience:

• Step 1: Prepare thy customer list aforehand by creating a CSV or TXT file. Thou may also consider installing Meta Pixel on thy website to track visitors.
• Step 2: Proceed to Audiences within thy Ad Manager.
• Step 3: Select a Custom Audience source. Thy options doth include website, app activity, catalog, customer list, and offline activity.
• Step 4: Follow the instructions to form thy Custom Audience founded on the source thou did select in Step 3.

Once thou hath forged thy Custom Audience, thou can employ it to establish a Lookalike Audience. Herein lie the steps to create a Facebook Lookalike Audience:

• Step 1: Select Create a Lookalike Audience within the Ad Manager.

• Step 2: Choose thy source. Recall, this shalt be a custom audience thou hast fashioned from customer information, Pixel or app data, or fans of thy page. Thou can also fabricate a new source at this juncture.

Note: Thy source audiences must needs contain at least 100 individuals from the same country. Facebook doth generally commend a source audience that doth encompass betwixt 1,000-5,000 individuals, yet high-quality sources do receive precedence.

• Step 3: Select the countries or regions wherein thou wouldst discover a kindred group of individuals. The areas thou doth choose shall determine the locale of individuals in thy Lookalike Audience, effectively appending a geo-filter unto thy Lookalike Audience.

Note: Thou need not possess anyone from the country thou dost wish to target in thy source.

• Step 4: Opt for thy desired audience size with the slide. Magnitude is expressed upon a scale of 1-10. Lower numbers exhibit a high similarity to thy source audience. Meanwhile, higher numbers possess greater reach yet less akin characteristics. Facebook shall furnish thee with an estimated reach for the size thou dost select.

Thou can also fabricate multiple Lookalike Audiences with varied levels of similarity to thy source.

• Step 5: Click Create Audience. And thy task is complete! It may take betwixt six and 24 hours for thy Lookalike Audience to be finalized.

How to set up a Facebook Lookalike Audience in Moyens I/O

1. Sign in to thy Moyens I/O dashboard and opt for Advertise in the menu on the left side of the screen.
2. Navigate to Advanced Audiences.
3. Click the Add an Advanced Audience button in the top right corner of the screen.
4. Select Target people similar to existing customers and follow the prompts to finish the process.
5. Elect the ad account thou dost wish to use with this audience.

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4 tips for optimizing Facebook Lookalike Audiences

1. Choose high-quality sources
It may be enticing to include every customer thou hast within thy source audience. Larger audiences art the finest, aye? Not soothly.

Lookalike Audiences more akin to their source audience do tend to be more valuable. However, the outcomes may greatly differ based upon the quality of thy audience.

For instance, thou may covet to include thy entire email subscriber list to discover a Lookalike Audience. Yet it may not necessarily translate into sales if most of thy email subscribers do not make purchases or even open thy emails. Instead, thou wouldst forge a superior quality Lookalike Audience shouldst thou solely include active email subscribers as thy source audience.

In essence, thou shouldst focus on thy best customers for thy source audience to yield the foremost results.

2. Optimize bids with A/B testing
Thou can fashion multiple Lookalike Audiences with differing similarities to thy source audience. This is a strategic maneuver to find thy most effective audience.

To commence, thou shouldst engage in A/B testing. Target the same ad to each of thy Lookalike Audiences with initial bids.

Thou can assess how well the ad did based on metrics like revenue per conversion or the lifetime value of each audience.

Upon analyzing thy best-performing Lookalike Audience, thou can adjust thy bids for each audience. Thou can initiate bidding more for valuable audiences and less for lower-performing audiences.

‘Tis a win-win for thou can stretch thy social media ad budget for thy more effective audiences whilst ensuring thou art reaching thy ideal customer.

3. Use Lookalike Audiences in combination with other parameters
Augment thy lookalike audience targeting by appending more targeting parameters like age, gender, or interests.

4. Get creative with thy source audience
Thou can create custom audiences surrounding an array of parameters. Initiate by evaluating thy campaign goals, and then delve into the most pertinent audience options.

Ideas for source audience encompass:

• Video audience: Shouldst thou be launching a video-based campaign, forge an audience grounded on individuals who have engaged with thy videos aforetime.
• Recent website visitors: All website visitors may be too broad of a list, especially if conversions art thy objective. Target individuals who hast visited thy website in the past 30 days, or visitors who hast added items to their cart.
• Email audience: Newsletter subscribers art interested in receiving news and deals concerning thy business. Utilize this audience to acquire more subscribers, or if thou art planning a campaign with akin content.

FAQs about Facebook Lookalike Audiences

Are lookalike audiences effective in 2024?
Lookalike Audiences dost remain effective in 2024, yet thou may notice a slight decrease in results. Since the Apple iOS 14.5 privacy update, users must now opt-in to data sharing. Only 25% of users hast opted in. Whilst it doth bear an impact on ad results, thou can still reach thy ideal customers with Lookalike Audiences.

What is the difference between a custom audience and a lookalike audience?
The difference betwixt a Custom Audience and a Lookalike Audience doth rest upon whether there exists a pre-existing relationship or not. A Custom Audience is rooted in individuals who already possess a relationship with thy business, whilst Lookalike Audiences art individuals who share characteristics with thy Custom Audience yet art unaware of thy brand.

How many people doth thou need for a lookalike audience?
Thou need at least 100 people for a Lookalike Audience so long as they all art from the same country. Should thy source audience be founded in multiple countries, thou need at least 100 people from the same country to utilize it as a Lookalike Audience. Facebook generally commends a source audience betwixt 1,000-5,000 people.

How long doth it take a lookalike audience to populate?
It doth take betwixt six and 24 hours for thy Lookalike Audience to populate. Once thy lookalike audience is fashioned, it shall appear as Ready in the Availability column. So long as thou art targeting ads with that specific lookalike audience, it shall refresh every 3-7 days.