Facebook Lookalike Audiences: A Complete Guide for Beginners

Facebook Lookalike Audiences are a powerful tool for businesses seeking to expand their reach by targeting new audiences similar to their existing customers. This targeting option leverages Facebook’s algorithms to find people who share characteristics with your best customers, increasing the likelihood that these potential customers will engage with your business.

This guide will explain what Lookalike Audiences in Facebook are, the benefits of using them, and how to create and optimize these audiences for maximum results.

What Are Lookalike Audiences?

A Lookalike Audience is a custom audience that Facebook creates by identifying users who resemble your existing customer base. By analyzing common characteristics such as demographics, interests, and online behavior, Facebook finds users with similar traits and behaviors, making it easier for you to reach people who are likely to be interested in your brand.

Benefits of Lookalike Audiences on Facebook

Utilizing Lookalike Audiences on Facebook comes with several advantages that can improve your advertising strategy:

1. Targeted Expansion: Reach new people who have similar characteristics to your existing customers, increasing the likelihood of conversions.
2. Cost-Effective: Since these audiences are more likely to engage with your ads, you can achieve a higher return on ad spend (ROAS).
3. Customization: Facebook allows you to fine-tune the size and attributes of your Lookalike Audience, making it easy to focus on your desired market segments.
4. Efficiency: Save time and resources by targeting high-potential prospects rather than starting from scratch with broad audience targeting.

How Does Facebook Create Lookalike Audiences?

Facebook generates Lookalike Audiences based on a Source Audience—a group of users you define as your ‘best customers’ or ideal target audience. The Source Audience could be built from website visitors, Facebook followers, email subscribers, or any customer data you upload. Once you upload your Source Audience, Facebook uses its data and algorithms to find people who closely match these users’ characteristics, behaviors, and interests. Additionally, incorporating a custom intent audience can help refine your targeting further by focusing on users who have shown specific interests or intent related to your products or services.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Create a Lookalike Audience in Facebook

Creating a Lookalike Audience in Facebook is straightforward, but it’s essential to have a solid Source Audience to maximize the effectiveness of the audience. Follow these steps to set up your audience:

1. Set Up a Source Audience
   • Go to Facebook’s Audiences section within Ads Manager.
   • Select Create Audience > Custom Audience to upload or select a Source Audience.
   • Choose the type of audience you want to use as a source, such as website visitors, customer file uploads, or people who engaged with your page or app.
   • This Source Audience should ideally have between 1,000 to 50,000 people for optimal performance.
2. Create the Lookalike Audience
   • Go back to the Audiences section and click Create Audience > Lookalike Audience.
   • Choose your Source Audience from the list of available audiences.
   • Select the location where you want to find Lookalikes. This could be a country, region, or a more specific location.
   • Set the Audience Size. The size ranges from 1% to 10% of the population in the selected location, with 1% being the closest match to your Source Audience. Smaller sizes are more targeted but may limit reach, while larger sizes increase reach but may be less precise.
3. Optimize and Launch
   • After selecting your audience size, click Create Audience.
   • The audience will take some time to populate. Once ready, you can select it when setting up a campaign in Ads Manager.

Types of Source Audiences for Creating Lookalike Audiences

Choosing a strong Source Audience is critical for the effectiveness of your Lookalike Audience. Here are some effective options:

• Website Visitors: Use Facebook Pixel data to create a custom audience of recent website visitors.
• Email Subscribers: Upload a list of your email subscribers, especially those who have purchased or shown strong engagement.
• App Users: For businesses with mobile apps, create a Source Audience of high-engagement users based on app interactions.
• Facebook Page Engagement: You can create a custom audience from people who have engaged with your Facebook page, including likes, comments, and shares.
• Video Viewers: Create an audience based on people who watched your videos for a specified duration, such as 25%, 50%, or 75% of the video length.

Optimizing Lookalike Audiences for Better Results

1. Define a High-Quality Source Audience: Select a Source Audience that best represents your most engaged or high-value customers. An engaged Source Audience will lead to more effective Lookalike targeting.
2. Experiment with Audience Sizes: Start with a 1% Lookalike Audience to capture the most relevant users. Gradually test larger audiences, such as 2-3%, to expand reach and find the sweet spot between scale and relevance.
3. Combine with Interest-Based Targeting: Layer Lookalike Audiences with specific interests, behaviors, or demographic targeting to fine-tune ad delivery and further refine the audience.
4. Exclude Existing Customers: To prevent your ads from reaching users who have already converted, exclude them from your Lookalike Audience by setting up an exclusion list in Ads Manager.
5. Create Separate Lookalike Audiences for Each Objective: For different campaign goals, create Lookalike Audiences based on specific Source Audiences. For instance, use one audience of recent purchasers for conversion campaigns and another of page engagers for awareness campaigns.

Examples of Effective Lookalike Audience Strategies

1. E-commerce Business: A company selling home decor products used a 1% Lookalike Audience based on recent buyers. They achieved high ROAS by focusing on users who closely matched their recent customers’ demographics and purchase behaviors.
2. SaaS Company: A software company targeting small businesses created a Lookalike Audience from their top 1,000 subscribers. By layering interest-based targeting around relevant business topics, they optimized for leads and saw a significant increase in sign-ups.
3. Local Business: A regional restaurant used Lookalike Audiences based on local engagement (likes and comments) from their Facebook page. They restricted the audience location to a 10-mile radius to increase foot traffic, achieving higher engagement rates and better ad performance.

How to Create a Lookalike Audience on LinkedIn

If you’re wondering how to create a Lookalike Audience in LinkedIn, the process is similar to Facebook’s, with slight differences due to the platform’s focus on professional attributes:

1. Go to Campaign Manager on LinkedIn.
2. Choose Create Audience > Matched Audiences > Lookalike.
3. Select your Source Audience, such as website visitors or contact lists.
4. Define the Lookalike Audience parameters, including location and other professional demographics.
5. Launch your ad targeting the Lookalike Audience.

LinkedIn’s Lookalike Audiences are particularly beneficial for B2B campaigns since they rely on professional data such as job title, company size, and industry, which are ideal for targeting similar business profiles.

Monitoring and Adjusting Lookalike Audiences

Once you’ve created your Lookalike Audience, tracking performance is essential to optimize future campaigns. Here are some tips:

• Track Engagement Metrics: Use Facebook’s insights to monitor engagement metrics such as click-through rates, conversions, and ROAS.
• Adjust Audience Size: If engagement is low, try reducing the audience size for more specificity, or expand it if you’re looking for broader reach.
• Refine Ad Content: Tailor your ad content to appeal to this broader but similar audience, considering their interests and behaviors.
• Experiment with New Source Audiences: Try creating Lookalikes from different types of Source Audiences, such as people who interacted with a specific video or page post, to compare effectiveness.

Conclusion

Facebook Lookalike Audiences offer a powerful, data-driven approach to expand your reach by targeting users who resemble your best customers. By creating and optimizing Lookalike Audiences, you can improve ad relevance, drive higher engagement, and maximize your campaign ROI. As you experiment with audience sizes and Source Audiences, be sure to track performance and adjust your strategies for optimal outcomes. With the right setup and ongoing refinement, Lookalike Audiences can become a valuable asset in any Facebook advertising strategy.