The Facebook Audience Insights tool is an incredibly valuable resource for businesses and marketers looking to better understand their target demographics on Facebook. With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook offers unparalleled access to detailed audience data that can inform strategic decisions about who to target with ads, what content resonates best, and more.
What is Facebook Audience Insights?
Facebook Audience Insights is a free tool that provides aggregated demographic, interest, and behavioral data about the people who are interacting with your Facebook Page or running ads targeting your demographics. It gives you insight into the gender, age, location, language, relationship status and more of your ideal audience.
Some of the key things you can use Facebook Audience Insights for include:
- Researching demographic data about your target audience such as age, gender, location, interests, behaviors and more
- Comparing your audience against other groups to find new audiences to target
- Identifying trends and changes in your audience makeup over time
- Informing ad targeting, content strategy, and optimal posting times
- Benchmarking performance against competitors’ Pages
Facebook Audience Insights gives you aggregate data only ― it does not provide individual user data or profiles. The tool is compliant with Facebook data policies and provides insights you can act upon to make smarter marketing decisions.
How to Access Facebook Audience Insights
To access Facebook Audience Insights, you need to have an active Facebook Page, not just a personal profile. Here are the steps to get started:
- Go to facebook.com and log into your account if you aren’t already logged in.
- From your homepage, click on the down arrow in the top right corner and select “Manage Pages” from the dropdown menu.
- Choose the Page you want to access insights for. Make sure you are an admin for this Page.
- From that Page, click on “Insights” in the left sidebar. This will open the Insights dashboard.
- Select “Audience” from the overview page. This will bring you to the Audience Insights tool.
The Audience Insights dashboard provides an overview of your top categories like Age, Gender, Location and Languages. You can dive deeper into each category from here.
Overview Tab
The Overview tab shows the total number of people connected to your Page and the number of new Page likes over the past 7 days. A graph shows how your total Page likes have grown over time.
This gives you a quick sense of how well your Page is growing its audience and whether recent efforts have helped accelerate growth.
People Tab
The People tab contains demographic information about the people connected to your Page such as:
- Age
- Gender
- Relationship status
- Education level
- Languages
Compare your Page audience against Facebook’s total audience benchmarks to gain insights. For example, you may find your audience skews heavily male while Facebook’s overall split is more even, signaling an opportunity to better engage female prospects.
Location Tab
View your audience footprint across countries, cities, and regions in the Location tab. This can help guide decisions about localized marketing efforts, ad spend, choosing relevant languages, and more.
You can view users both by where they live and where they connect from. Someone may live in the U.S. but travel abroad and engage with your Page while in the U.K. Checking access by connection location highlights opportunities like that.
Interests Tab
Dive into the interests, behaviors, and preferences of your audience under the Interests tab. Facebook groups these into categories like:
- Interest categories based on how users self-report their interests
- Behaviors pulled from users’ activity on Facebook
- Brand affinity based on the Pages and content people engage with
These interests can inform the type of content you create and share to cater to your audience’s preferences. You may spot interest areas you’re not currently targeting that represent new opportunities.
More Demographics
Expand your analysis under More Demographics, where you can view data points like:
- Relationship status
- Work employer
- Job title
- Education level
Use this to refine your understanding of your target audience(s) and identify new opportunities. For example, seeing a high percentage are married with children may influence how you shape engagement and messaging.
Comparing Audience Sets
One of the most powerful features in Facebook Audience Insights is the ability to compare your Page audience against other audiences. This enables you to identify differences between groups and find new audiences with untapped potential.
To compare audiences:
- Go to the People or Interests tab
- Click on the “Compare” button
- Choose the category you want to compare, like age or gender
- Select the second audience you want to compare against
- View a side-by-side comparison of the audiences
You can choose audiences such as:
- A competitor’s Page
- Another Page you manage
- Facebook’s total audience
- An audience you previously saved from ads
Compare interests between your customers and lookalike audiences to discover new opportunities. See where competitors’ audiences differ from yours among key demographics. The insights can directly inform how you expand your reach.
Exporting Your Audience Data
If you want to analyze the audience data further or share it with stakeholders, you can export the full data sets as CSV files. Here’s how:
- Go to the People or Interests tab
- Click on the “Export Data” button
- Select the specific categories you want to export
- Choose whether to export as Page Likes or Daily Active People
- Click “Export Data”
The report will compile and start downloading automatically as a CSV file. You can then open it in Excel or other programs to conduct further analysis, create visualizations, build presentations, and more.
Scheduling Exports for Ongoing Analysis
For regular analysis, it’s handy to have your Audience Insights data exported on an ongoing schedule. Facebook makes this easy to set up.
To schedule automatic exports:
- Follow the export process above, but click “Schedule Export” instead of “Export Data”
- Choose your desired export frequency and categories
- Facebook will automatically email you the report on that schedule
Schedulable frequencies include daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly. Schedule your key reports so you have ongoing access to the latest audience trends and shifts over time.
Analyzing Your Data Further
Once you’ve exported your audience data, you can analyze it further to unlock additional insights. Here are some tips:
- Calculate metrics like average age and percentages for gender split.
- Build charts and graphs to visualize trends over time or demographic splits.
- Run statistical tests to identify correlations, outliers, or significant patterns.
- Match external data sets like sales or web traffic to see how online and offline action correlates to audience shifts.
- Feed the data into business intelligence or data visualization tools like Tableau for interactive dashboards.
Having the CSV data sets enables unlimited possibilities for custom analysis. The insights you uncover can guide messaging, creative, budget allocation, and more.
Acting on Your Facebook Audience Insights
The true value of Facebook Audience Insights comes from taking action based on what you learn about your audience. Here are some ways to act on your audience insights:
Guide Ad Targeting
Use interests, demographics, and behaviors from your analysis to identify high-potential targets for ads. Create lookalike audiences, target interest clusters, focus on certain age groups, and more.
Shape Content Strategy
Craft content that speaks directly to your audience’s interests and preferences. Make content that caters to their languages, addresses pain points, answers questions, etc.
Inform Messaging
Tweak messaging to align with what resonates with your audience. Test messages tailored to certain locations, ages, or interest groups.
Set Benchmarks
Establish audience benchmarks you want to reach over time based on metrics like ages, locations, and interests. Track progress against these goals.
Identify New Audiences
Find new audience segments to expand your reach by comparing against other groups and spotting gaps.
Consistently act upon the insights Facebook Audience Insights provides and track how it impacts key metrics like engagement, reach, sales, and more. Use what you learn to continuously refine your Facebook marketing strategy.
Tips for Using Facebook Audience Insights
Here are some top tips to use Facebook Audience Insights effectively:
- Check Audience Insights regularly to stay on top of audience shifts.
- Segment your audience to analyze subgroups like buyers vs. browsers.
- Compare multiple audience sets to uncover new opportunities.
- Set custom analysis export schedules for ongoing reporting.
- Use interests and behaviors to guide ad targeting and creative.
- Blend insights with external data like sales for deeper understanding.
- Turn insights into clear strategic recommendations for your marketing and ad campaigns.
- Share reports with colleagues and stakeholders to align your initiatives.
Limitations of Facebook Audience Insights
While incredibly useful, Facebook Audience Insights does have some limitations to be aware of:
- Data is aggregated and anonymized, not individual profiles.
- Not every Facebook user fills out their education, work, and other demographic info.
- Interest targeting is based on likes and declared interests, which are imperfect.
- Data lags slightly behind, usually 2-3 days old.
- Sampling methodologies change occasionally, disrupting some historical comparisons.
Despite these limitations, Audience Insights remains one of the most powerful audience data sources available. Just supplement with other data like surveys and third-party tools as needed.
Custom Audience Research
Beyond your core Facebook fans, you may want to conduct custom audience research using tools like surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Here are some tips:
- Ask about their key demographics to expand on Facebook’s core data.
- Inquire about brand affinities and preferences beyond Pages liked.
- Gauge reactions to potential messaging, creative ideas, and content formats.
- Identify where they go for information, advice, recommendations, and reviews.
- Learn more about their buying processes across channels.
These qualitative insights complement Audience Insights data to fully round out your understanding of customers and prospects.
Third-Party Audience Intelligence Tools
Beyond Facebook’s built-in analytics, a number of third-party tools exist to enrich your audience intelligence. Some top options include:
Google Analytics
Connect Google Analytics to your website and Facebook to analyze how your audiences interact across channels. Blend this with Facebook Insights for powerful cross-channel analysis.
Social Media Listening Tools
Platforms like Keyhole and Brandwatch reveal conversations and trends happening around your brand across social media.
CRM Data
Incorporate CRM data on current customers – like segmentation, lifetime value, and attributes – to overlay with Facebook Insights.
Marketing Automation Platforms
Many marketing automation tools integrate with Facebook to track engagement over the customer lifecycle.
Surveys
Run custom surveys with a tool like SurveyMonkey to probe your audience’s attitudes, preferences, and behaviors.
Each platform provides unique signals to blend with Facebook for 360-degree view of your audience.
Case Studies and Examples
Here are a few case studies and examples of how brands have leveraged Facebook Audience Insights:
Outdoor Retailer Targets Millennial Hikers
An outdoor retailer analyzed its Facebook audience and saw a growing percentage of 25-34 year olds interested in hiking and camping. It used these insights to tailor more gear and hiking content focused on millennials. As a result, store traffic from this audience increased 30% year-over-year.
Software Company Expands Across Europe
A software company noticed significant pockets of audience growth in Spain, Italy and France in Audience Insights. It used this to guide translated ad campaigns into each country, targeted by interest. Within 3 months they increased European subscribers by 50%.
Gyms Gain Insights Into New Mothers
A chain of gyms saw a rise in new mothers in its Facebook audience data. It created targeted ads and content focused on pre-natal fitness and “moms’ night out” classes. This resulted in a 10% bump in membership sign-ups from expectant and new mothers.
Publisher Identifies New Content Opportunities
An online publisher saw an uptick in interest across cooking, travel, and home decor categories. They used this to expand content across these verticals which led to a 20% increase in traffic and social followers.
These examples show the power of leveraging Facebook Audience Insights to understand your current audience and identify new opportunities to fuel growth.
Conclusion
Facebook Audience Insights is an invaluable resource to tap into the data of your current and potential audiences. Regularly checking the data can lead to smarter decisions in how you engage, target, and scale your marketing efforts.
Use Audience Insights to:
- Understand who currently engages with your brand.
- Craft messaging and content tailored to their interests.
- Benchmark performance over time.
- Uncover new audiences and opportunities.
- Export data for further analysis.
- Guide your overall Facebook strategy.
Blend these built-in insights with custom research and third-party tools for a holistic view of your customers. Consistently act upon what you learn to drive real business impact.