Last week I noticed a sponsored post from Facebook themselves was in my news feed so, because I'm an obsessive ad stalker, I looked at their targeting.
They were using a Lookalike Audience.
So, out of curiosity I turned off all of my ad preferences & spent this week looking at the targeting used in every ad I was shown.
(Yes, I was temporarily blocked from using the "why am I seeing this" feature several times each day!)
In total, I saw 207 prospecting ads & 26 retargeting ads.
62%
Used Lookalike Audiences
Out of the 207 prospecting ads, 128 (or 62%) were using lookalike audience targeting.
Side Note: I also clicked on every ad to see their landing pages (again, because ad stalker).
Only 12.5% of these advertisers were following up on their warm traffic with retargeting ads! Do you?
I'm not surprised that lookalike audience targeting was the most common type.
They're known for delivering higher conversions at a lower cost & they're easy to set up.
The hardest thing is deciding which audience to use as the source!
The Best Sources To Use To Create Your Lookalike Audiences:
Buyers
high value buyers
repeat buyers
specific product buyers
bundle buyers
purchased on desktop
purchased on mobile
purchased using iOS
purchased using android
all buyers from the past 7, 14, 30, etc days
Leads
abandoned checkout event
add to cart event
phone leads
email leads
messenger leads
specific funnel leads
app downloads
free trial users
all leads from the past 30, 60, 90, etc days
Video Views
>95% watched
>50% watched (high converting videos)
Website Visitors
site visitors from the past 7, 14, 30, etc days
product page visitors
order form visitors
blog category visitors
specific blog post visitors
landing page visitors
Facebook page followers
Off Site Visitors
people who have made a reservation
guest register
loyalty program
account or membership holders
client list
registrations for in-store giveaway
How To Get The Best Results From Your Lookalike Audiences
Always start with your most profitable audience
Select an audience source that is most suited to your goal
Use 1% similarity
Make sure your source audience is bigger than 1,000 people but less than 10,000
Remove any audience overlap
Match device source audiences with device targeting
Combine lookalike audiences with location targeting
Make sure you test & track your results
Need Any Help With This?
If you want more insights into the best way to use lookalike audiences for your specific ad campaigns & goals you should check out my main business website ViaFunnel.com.
