When you post ads on social media, it’s essential that you target them to the right people. Learn nine Facebook ad targeting tips for higher conversions.
Online advertising can be difficult with little return on investment if done incorrectly.
There was a time when Google Ads was the lone king of online advertising, but Facebook ads are beginning to take a share of the ad traffic away from Google.
What makes Facebook ads particularly useful is the ability to laser target your audience and engage with them in ways you can’t on Google Ads.
We’ve put together a list of Facebook ad targeting tips, so you’ll be able to spend less and get more for your online dollar.
You’ll be a master of Facebook ads in no time with these useful tips!
1. Create a Custom Audience
One of the biggest complaints of Google Ads is having your ads show up to people who aren’t interested in your product or service or aren’t in your preferred demographic.
This costs you money and you don’t get any sales or traffic from it.
Facebook understands your needs and developed custom audiences to maximize the impact of your ads. You can use customer lists, website traffic, Facebook engagement, and Facebook’s own Audience Insights to help target the exact people you want to see your ads.
Facebook can use website visitor behaviour and other methods to find the perfect audience on their platform.
How? They have access to tons of information that Google doesn’t.
2. Retarget Customers on Facebook
Retargeting is nothing new in the annals of online advertising.
It’s when a customer comes to your site and visits an item page but leaves without buying. Retargeting keeps track of that customer and provides ads to that customer of your item, so they’ll go back and buy.
Facebook uses a pixel on your website, and you can further target people by behaviors and page views.
For example, you can only retarget people that put an item in the shopping cart and then left.
3. Create Lookalike Audiences
One of the ways you create a custom audience on Facebook is by uploading customer lists.
The platform then matches that list with Facebook subscribers.
You don’t only want to advertise to existing clients though. You want new clients too. Lookalike audiences use the information from your original customer list and their Facebook personas to craft a list of potential customers is behaviours and demographics like the original customer list.
If there are certain behaviours or demographics your customers have in common such as age, location, etc., then they can find similar audiences that you can send ads to.
4. Find Customers by Life Events
Facebook collects all kinds of data that people freely give it.
They know birthdays, anniversaries, and even when you get a new job. You can use these life events to target new customers.
Perhaps you’re a moving company and you advertise to people to get a new job. You could send ads of gifts for people who have an upcoming anniversary.
Facebook provides unparalleled support for audience targeting. This not only provides great targeting but also creates connections and engagement because you’re acknowledging a major life event.
5. Expand Beyond Facebook
Facebook is the flagship platform, but it owns other social media companies such as Instagram and Facebook Messenger.
If you want to expand beyond Facebook, consider the other platforms.
Instagram is incredibly popular, and millions use Facebook Messenger every day. If you feel your brand would be better served on those platforms, then you still have the information and audience targeting of Facebook, but on a different platform.
You can also run ads on multiple platforms, but each ad is a little different, so it’s best to learn as much as you can before creating new ads.
6. Save Money with Negative Matching
We talked earlier about the problem with Google Ads and people not interested in the product seeing the ad.
One way you can help eliminate that is through negative matching keywords.
For example, if you sell horses, then you would negative match Ford Mustang, so people looking up cars won’t see your ads. You can negative match audiences on Facebook.
If you want to save money, then negative match people that recently purchases an item with then last few days. They just bought something, so they’re less likely to shop again so soon.
7. Laser Target Your Audience
There are millions of people on Facebook every day.
They’re checking in on relatives, watching cat videos, and seeing what their ex is up to.
These people are your audience—but not all of them.
Too many advertisers cast a wide net because they want to reach as many people as possible. That ends up costing more money than its worth.
Instead of casting a wide net, send out several small nets based around specific demographics and behaviours. Facebook’s ability to narrow down audiences based on several factors lets you create a customer list that maximizes purchase potential.
8. AB Test Facebook Ads
A cardinal rule of advertising is that a small change can make a big difference.
Facebook ads are quick and easy to make thanks to a simple user interface, but you can’t just create an ad and then sit back.
In addition to creating the perfect audience, you need to create the perfect ad and landing page. You measure its efficacy through AB testing. You create two ads, nearly identical, but one has a small change. You run both and see which does the best.
You choose that one and then do the test again with a different change.
9. Don’t Run Ads Too Often
It’s been shown that when people see the same ad repeatedly, they end up not liking it and even annoys them.
You can either schedule the ad to run for only a few days and then change it up—or extend the ad schedule but keep the budget the same. That limits the frequency of the ad.
The last thing you want is to annoy potential customers with ad persistence.
These Facebook Ad Targeting Tips Provide Great ROI
If you can run your Facebook ad campaign efficiently, then it can provide a tremendous return on investment.
These Facebook ad targeting tips should help you develop quality ads and choose the correct audiences.
If you want to learn more about Facebook advertising or digital marketing, then please explore our site.
