Data-Driven Facebook Ad Targeting

Facebook is one of the most dynamic advertising platforms in the greater digital marketplace, and it’s shaped not only by social trends but also by the innovation of new and better tools for ad targeting. Facebook's recent privacy changes driven by the iOS 14 update, for example, has limited the amount of user data for targeting, but advertisers are already adapting strategies to optimize targeting results after the change.

One of the greatest things Facebook has to offer is data-driven targeting, which provides a powerful toolkit when used with the correct strategy. Today, we're diving into actionable insights to empower your Facebook advertising campaigns.

Understanding Your Current Customer Base

The first section of data to consider is your customer base, and the best source of data is your own CRM data. Use your CRM and Facebook's advertising toolkit to create detailed customer profiles - the behaviors and characteristics that your customers share that will allow you to target new people who fall into the same profile.

By identifying common characteristics and behaviors, you can use the Facebook Audience Insights tool to seek out new audience members that reflect your existing customer profile. In other words, people who are likely to be naturally inclined toward your brand, share a common motivation, and have a higher chance of responding to ads that appeal to your current audience.

Building Custom Audiences

Facebook can also help you design a custom audience that will be receptive to your ads. For example, website visitor retargeting allows you to send ads to people who visited your website but have not yet completed a conversion - or appeal to recent customers who may be interested in buying again.

Customer list uploads can further power the Facebook targeting toolkit to help you revisit your existing customers and appeal to new customers who are similar.

Engagement-based audiences target customers who engage with your brand or have specific engagement behaviors. These engagement behaviors indicate that they might be more responsive to specific advertisements, like targeting an interest or pain point.

Leveraging Lookalike Audiences

Facebook makes it possible to build Lookalike Audiences based on your existing audience segments. This allows you to target people who are similar to your current audience for optimal responsiveness to your ads.

Start by selecting your best seed audiences and consider the optimal audience size percentage for each target group. Explore how to get the best results by testing different lookalike sources so that your target audiences have the reactions you expect and optimize conversions.

Geographic considerations also play a role. You can refine your selection of Lookalike Audience members based on those who are close to a store, within a weather-defined region, and so on.

Advanced Targeting Strategies

Once you've begun to master Facebook's data-driven audience toolkit, you can start exploring some of the more advanced targeting strategies.

• Stacking: Stack multiple targeting parameters to see how they work together to build a more optimized audience.
• Interests: Use interest-based layering to target audiences that have positive characteristics and interests that align with your brand's offerings.
• Behaviors: Explore the many options for behavioral targeting techniques to identify which behaviors make an audience more receptive to your brand.
• Exclusion: Learn what to exclude to avoid wasting your spend and effort on uninterested audience members.

Empower Your Facebook Advertising with Data

Data-driven Facebook advertising provides a powerful set of tools to refine your target audiences based on the information you have about who you’re trying to reach. The best results come from continuous testing and optimization.  Contact us to consult with a full-stack digital marketing team that can help you quickly identify the most effective strategies, tests, and refinements.