What is Audience Targeting?
Audience targeting is a marketing tool used when marketers need to sector their target based on certain characteristics. Facebook makes social media advertising easy with the use of its audience targeting options. Depending on what your business goals are, you can select the audience targeting option that is right for your marketing strategy and that will provide the best return on your investment. This article explains each of Facebook’s advertising options and why they might be a good fit for your social media advertising plan.
Core Audiences:
Core audiences are ideal for businesses that already have a specific target audience in mind. Depending on what the business is advertising, there may be particular behaviors, interests, connections, demographics, or locations that may be best suited for their ideal audience. For example, if you run a dog grooming business in Des Moines, Facebook allows you to specifically target dog owners currently living in Des Moines. Utilizing the selected criteria and Facebook’s algorithm, this type of audience has a greater chance of generating higher-quality leads.
Custom Audiences:
Custom audiences are groups of people who have already shown interest in your business. These audiences are built off of contact lists, app installs, or website visitors. Targeting people from existing CRMs or pixels allows you to create audiences that are more in line with your business goals and have a higher chance of converting. Custom audiences are also great for remarketing campaigns and targeting users who have visited your page or website but have not made a purchase yet.
Lookalike Audiences:
A lookalike audience is a way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your ads and your business. Facebook uses one of your custom audiences as a source audience from which to create the lookalike audience. The people in the lookalike audience will have similar interests, demographics, and intents as your custom audience and is a way to expand your ad targeting to people who are likely to interact with your ads. You can choose a percentage range of how closely you want your lookalike audience to match your source custom audience. The smaller the percentage, the more exact an audience match. The larger the percentage, the broader your audience will be.
End Note:
While these Facebook audience options are helpful in reaching relevant consumers, it is important to first define your business goals and choose a Facebook audience that will most likely help you meet those goals. Need help creating a marketing strategy to achieve your business goals? Check out our digital marketing services here!