Correct Targeting Can Make or Break a Campaign
The key to a successful campaign is targeting the right people with the right message. Targeting is more than just figuring out the general demographics of your audience.You can make the perfect message, but if you send it to the wrong audience, they won’t click it.
Facebook’s Relevance Score has shown that the better you are at targeting the right audience, the lower your cost per click will be.Proper targeting will make your ads more successful, and lower your overall cost of running them. This will improve your ROI and boosts your bottom line.
1. Combination of Basic Demographics is the Starting Point
When you first set up an ad, Facebook will first ask you to select the location, age, and gender of your target market. Only selecting these three targeting options is a huge mistake. It will make your audience way too large.That doesn’t mean that you should ignore them. Make sure you narrow down all three basic fields for each ad you create. This is your first step for audience targeting. Each time you make your ad too broad, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
2. Target the Interest of Your Audience’s
Trying to target your ideal customer just based on demographics isn’t enough. This is why you need to be very specific with your targeting. If your target audience is too large, your CTR will be too low, and your ads will fail. The best way to narrow your audience is by defining the interests of your ideal customer. Be sure to narrow your focus as much as possible.
3. Find People Already Searching For Your product
More than half of all consumers research online before purchasing.The consideration of purchase window is not very large. Most products have a week or less from the time a customer starts shopping until they buy.Facebook can identify your ideal customers who are in the looking to buy stage and instantly target your ad to them.
This means even if they haven’t heard of you yet and have only been researching on your competitors sites, you have a chance to steal them away before they decide to buy.
4. Target By Income Level
If your offer is targeted to people of a specific income level, your ads should be targeted the same way .Facebook allows you to target consumers from 30 different financial behaviors. Under the Demographics section, you can target by Income, Net Worth or even Liquid Assets.Targeting by income will be much more effective than trying to target everyone.
5. Where your Audience Works
If you offer a product or service that appeals to people in a particular industry or occupation, you should target those people. In the demographics section, you can narrow your audience down by work categories.
6. Target Home Ownership
You can target people on Facebook based on whether they own or rent their home.You can also narrow it down to whether they are a first-time home buyer or not. You can find this under the demographics section
7. Group Your Audience by Their Level of Education
Knowing the education level of your target audience helps you customize everything from tone to the language of a campaign. It’s also important if your product is created for people with a certain level of education. Facebook allows you to narrow down by field of study, specific school attended, or undergrad years.Over half of all Facebook users have a college education.If your ideal customer has a secondary education, Facebook has a huge potential for reaching them.
8. Decide if your Ads are Ethnic
If you live in the US, you have the option to target to a specific ethnic affinity. You can find this option in the Demographics section. If you sale something that is more popular with a particular ethnicity, this option can help you target the right ad to them. Keep in mind, that if you’re targeting an ethnicity, and your ad has people in it, those people should be of the same ethnicity.
9. Target Those With Children
Under Demographics, you can target people based on their parental status and the age of their children.These options are useful whether you’re selling kids’ products or services specifically for parents.
10. Find People who Love to Travel
Facebook gives you the ability to select your audience based on their travel behaviors.
11. Target People with Similar Political Beliefs
Facebook allow you to target people based on their political beliefs in the US. Political options can be found under the Demographics section.Facebook can only target people who have voluntarily chosen to put their political views in the About Me section of Facebook. Over half of all consumers are more likely to buy from or boycott a brand because of its stance on a social or political issue. Targeting those who align with you politically, and avoiding those who won’t, should increase your ad performance.
12. Target Couples who Have an Anniversary Approaching
Under demographics there is a Life Events option. You have the ability to target people with an anniversary in the next month or the next two months. If you’re trying to target people ready to buy a present, this is a good option to select. Anniversaries and holidays are known to be huge events for retailers.
13. Find Friends of People Celebrating a milestone
Another great way to find people ready to buy gifts is to seek out friends of people who are about to celebrate something.
14. Find People In a Long-Distance Relationship
Another option under the life events category is a long-distance relationship. People in long-distance relationships are said to spend more money on events, travel, and restaurants, more than other couples. If you sell something that falls into one of those categories, this is a worthwhile group to target with your Facebook Ads.
15. Target Those Currently Away
Another life event that may be worth targeting are people who are currently away from their family or away from their hometown. Facebook can tell by location data whether someone is currently away. This is works similarly to targeting those in a long-distance relationship.People who are away from home tend to spend more on food. It can also be used to target people who might be looking to change careers, or are homesick and wishing they could travel home fot cheap.
16. Target New Hires
You can target people who just started a new career under the life events section. A new job could be a potential for a raise and possibly more disposable income. It could also mean a new dress code and a need to buy new wardrobe.
17. Target buyer profiles
Similar to purchase types, this is another way of targeting shoppers who are likely ready to buy. Buyer profiles are found under the Behaviors section. These people are considered to be strongly aligned with the given profile based on their activities. Using this option can help you target people most likely to buy from you.
18. Search for people in expensive homes
Under demographics, select Home.Then choose Home Type, followed by Home value. You can now select from a range of home prices to target your ideal customer.This can be a great alternative to targeting by income if you want to target people able to afford luxury or high-end products. Combining home cost with location can make this targeting even more specific.
19. Target Gamers
Gaming is a huge market, and there are multiple ways to target gamers with Facebook. The first option is found under Buyer profiles. Simply select Gamers.A second option is under Digital activities. Here you can select Console, Canvas, or Facebook gamers. Data shows, gamers under 35 are much more likely to pay to download a game.
Bonus Ideas:
Focus on a Good Cause
Most Americans expect businesses to lead the way in improving society and the environment. This means that over half of consumers are very conscious of the brands and businesses they buy from. Target people who are interested in the same causes that you support. You can find people who donate to or support charitable causes under the Behaviors section.
Target Mobile Phones
Under Behaviors, you can choose to target people based on which device they use to log into Facebook. If your product or service is related to cell phones or tablets, then this is a good way to narrow your audience. People are very loyal to their phone brands and operating systems.It also lets you know that people will most likely be viewing your ad on mobile, so make sure it’s mobile-friendly.
Start narrowing down your target audience if you don’t see results from your ads. There are a ton of combinations you can choose from to define your target market. Don’t worry about going too narrow. Your market and ad need to be specific and perfectly-matched if you want to see results. Facebook Ads are very effective when done correctly. As long as you understand your ideal target market, and use these methods to reach them, you will see the ROI for your ads increase in no time.
