With over 3 billion users worldwide, Facebook has become a dominant player in the realm of social media. Everyone from business executives to college students are using Facebook. With commanding power and influence, advertisers have been flocking to the platform with enthusiasm. Often, they end up spending millions on advertising as if they were in the Wolf of Wall Street. While your target market may be on Facebook, it’s your job to leverage Facebook ads targeting options properly.
Facebook has hundreds of targeting options to choose from. To get the most out of the thousands you’ll soon spend on the platform, you must first learn how to take the helm of Facebook’s targeted advertising features.
Here are some tips to help you make sense of Facebook’s targeting choices and zero in on your target market.
Primary targeting methods used by Facebook
Facebook has a multitude of advertising options, but it all starts with narrowing down who you want to reach. Many who want to learn how to win a Facebook Ads auction start by studying the targeting options. This provides a new perspective and a different way of thinking about how to sell products or services.
When creating an ad, you can target very precise segments, like within certain income brackets or level of education. In other words, you can really hone in on super-specific customer traits, identify friend networks, and retarget website visitors.
You can also play with demographics – age, location, gender, occupation, and much more. Consider this GoPro ad, for example.
Now the target audience for this ad might be:
- Photographers/ videographers
- People who love adrenaline-pumping adventures
- Thrill-seekers who are interested in extreme photography
- Visitors who have been to the GoPro purchase page but haven’t completed the purchase
That’s a lot of precision, huh? The sheer number of possible Facebook ad targeting options is seemingly infinite. But we’re going to try and simplify things a bit to give you a sense of how you can go about using that information.
Let’s dive into some of Facebook’s primary surface-level targeting approaches you can use for product placement.
Location targeting
Facebook location targeting allows you to focus on users based on where they are. Since Facebook has knowledge of all their users, they can pinpoint their location down to:
- People living in or recently in your chosen location
- People living in your chosen location
- People recently in your chosen location
- People traveling in your chosen location
You can also cast a wider net by targeting the traditional criteria of geo-targeting users by state, locality, zip code, country, etc.
Demographic
Facebook allows you to utilize an array of demographics to make your advertising campaign tailored and relevant. Listed below are a few demographics to explore for your Facebook advertising strategy:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Relationship status
- Work and employment
- Education
Behavior
Facebook’s behavior-based advertising feature targets users whose behaviors indicate they are most likely to convert. For example, if someone visits your pricing page, you can target them with a coupon ad. With this functionality, you also have the ability to identify your ideal customers. Those who are already in the looking-to-buy stage and instantly target your ad to them.
Interests
Facebook’s interest targeting feature allows you to target people who have shown a specific level of engagement in your industry. By reaching these people, you can show your ads to people who know what you do. Ideally, they could also be interested in what you’re offering. Let’s say you’ve got a local business that sells R&B records. You can target users who have an affinity for music, vintage record players, R&B artists, etc.
Retargeting
Facebook’s tracking capabilities extend to your website. You can target people who have taken an action on your website – even QR codes they scanned while browsing. This data can be used to serve ads on Facebook to individuals who are already familiar with your name. It’s a clever way to drum up interest in your business or drive customers back again. They’ve already had a taste of what you’re selling so might as well let them finish their meal, right?
Examples of ad targeting choices by industry
As you can see, Facebook ads targeting allows you to personalize your approach. Let’s go into a few examples of Facebook ads targeting done right. Choosing the right audience for you:
Automotive industry
Auto enthusiasts and potential car buyers are likely to engage with pages posting content that helps with car research. You can make a list of car related interests for your ads. It will increase your chance of reaching the right people.
Alternatively, you could create an ad target flow that leverages “Automotive” behavioral targeting. From there, you can choose the relevant subcategories:
- Motorcycle
- New Vehicle Buyers (Near Market)
- New Vehicle Buyers (In Market)
- Owners
- Purchase Type
- Used Vehicle Buyers (In Market)
By exploring the browsing options, you can find a full section for vehicles. If you are selling cars, there’s probably no better audience than this one.
We highly recommend trying out these different options separately. It will allow you to make ads that speak to the needs of each – Minivans vs Automobiles.
Hotel and travel industry
A lot of hotels & travel companies are driving tons of customers by leveraging dynamic Facebook ads. In this competitive market, you must differentiate on all levels including targeting.
Start by layering in broad interest options. Next, select the ‘travel’ category and proceed by choosing the relevant subcategory, which includes:
- Vacations
- Tourism
- Air travel
Now you can zoom in on the behavior of your ideal customer persona.
Choose the travel category in the behaviors tab followed by the appropriate subcategory from the list:
- Frequent travelers
- Frequent international travelers
- Returned from travel 1 week ago
- Returned from travel 2 weeks ago
Afterwards, you’ll want to factor in other demographic information influencing a person’s desire to travel. For example, Newly-engaged users demonstrate a high degree of travel readiness.
Tips for managing your Facebook ads
As you can see, Facebook provides a ton of options for optimizing your targeting. In reality, you might feel overwhelmed and it’s normal. Here are some tips to help you manage your Facebook ad campaigns:
1. Facebook Ads Competition
Your competitors’ audience represents a group of users who have demonstrated a strong interest in similar goods and services to yours. By targeting your competitor’s fans on Facebook, you can reach out to individuals that are more likely to be interested in your business.
One way to get your Facebook ad in front of your competitor’s audience is to use the Audience Insights dashboard inside your Meta Business Suite account. Just enter your target audience’s characteristics and use the Top pages section to see which pages your target users already connect with.
2. Targeting Facebook Buyers
Did you know they could also tell when you were considering making a purchase? In fact, they also keep data on who purchased from a Facebook ad.
In other words, you can target people who are more likely to purchase from you through a specific audience.
To take advantage of this, simply go to the Behaviours section of your Facebook Ads account and select the Purchase Habits option. From there, you can choose from a variety of purchase-related options where you can target users based on their likelihood to buy a product or service.
3. Work with K6 agency
In reality, Facebook ads can be very profitable but the market is very competitive. While you might get an initial success, making your Facebook ads work in the long term can prove to be very difficult.
It’s why at K6 agency, we’re constantly working on creating the most perfected system to create Facebook ads consistency. From creatives to strategy, we take care of everything to help your brand flourish.
It’s how we’ve helped numerous clients generate more than $500,000 in their first 6 months. Don’t hesitate to take a peek at our case studies.
Get your Facebook ads to reach the right people
Facebook’s advertising platform is chock full of targeting options because the platform recognizes that businesses have different needs, and those needs require different approaches. Crafting the right marketing message and choosing attractive creatives is helpful, but the real challenge is reaching the right people. That’s why you should spend some time digging into the various Facebook ad targeting options in order to really succeed with your ads.