Facebook lookalike audiences allow advertisers to target new potential customers who share similar characteristics to their existing customers. This targeting method uses advanced algorithms to find people on Facebook who are likely to be interested in your products or services based on the data you provide about your existing customers.
What is a lookalike audience?
A Facebook lookalike audience is a way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they’re similar to your best existing customers. You create lookalike audiences from Custom Audiences you’ve built in Facebook Ads Manager based on customer email lists, website traffic, or Facebook engagement.
Facebook then uses machine learning to identify common qualities among the people in your source audience. It searches through billions of ad accounts on Facebook to find people who share a similar demographic and behavioral profile to your source audience.
For example, if your existing customers are primarily women between the ages of 25-40 who live in Texas and are interested in fashion, Facebook would find other people on Facebook who match that profile.
How do lookalike audiences work?
Facebook lookalike audiences work by using your Custom Audiences to build mathematical models that reflect the makeup of your existing customers. Here is a simple step-by-step overview of how Facebook creates lookalike audiences:
- You upload a list of existing customer data like emails or website traffic to create a Custom Audience in Facebook Ads Manager.
- Facebook analyzes this source data to identify common demographic and behavioral attributes among the people on the list.
- Their machine learning algorithms search through billions of ad accounts on Facebook to find people who closely match the same profile.
- Facebook builds a new audience of these lookalike users who share common qualities with your source data.
- You use this Lookalike Audience to target ads to new potential customers who are likely to convert for your business.
So in summary, Facebook uses advanced analytics and AI to study your source customers and then identify new people on Facebook who have a lot in common with those existing high-value customers.
Why use lookalike audiences?
Here are some of the key benefits of using Facebook lookalike audiences:
- Find new customers – Lookalikes help you reach new people outside your existing customer base who are likely to be interested in your products.
- Improved targeting – You don’t need to guess at targeting. Facebook’s algorithms automatically find people similar to converts.
- Cost-effective – Lookalikes convert better than broad targeting so you get better results for your ad spend.
- Scalable – Easily scale up your customer base by expanding beyond existing audiences.
- Flexibility – Create Lookalikes from any Custom Audience data source like emails or site traffic.
In short, lookalike audiences help you tap into new audiences who are more likely to convert compared to general targeting. This allows you to cost-effectively scale your marketing and grow your customer base quickly.
How to create a Facebook lookalike audience
Here is a step-by-step guide to creating a Facebook lookalike audience for your ads:
- Build a source Custom Audience – Upload customer data like emails or website traffic to create a Custom Audience to base your Lookalike on. The larger the source, the better.
- Open Ads Manager – In your Facebook Ads Manager account, go to the Audiences dashboard.
- Click “Create Audience” – Choose “Lookalike” as the audience type.
- Select source audience – Choose the source Custom Audience you want to base your Lookalike on.
- Choose country – Select the country you want to target your Lookalike Audience in.
- Set similarity – Choose 1% for the most similar or up to 10% for a broader audience.
- Name your audience – Give the Lookalike Audience a descriptive name.
- Click “Create Audience” – Review your settings and click “Create Audience”. It may take a couple hours to build.
- Target your ad – Once built, you can select your new Lookalike Audience when creating ads.
It only takes a few steps to harness the power of Facebook’s AI to build expanded audiences optimized to convert for your business. Test different Custom Audience sources and Lookalike percentages to see what works best.
Lookalike audience tips
Here are some top tips to get the most out of your Facebook lookalike audiences:
- Base your lookalike on your best customers like repeat purchasers or high lifetime value.
- Test lookalikes at 1%, 2%, and 3% to see what similarity works best.
- Create different lookalikes based on multiple Custom Audiences for variation.
- Focus lookalikes on one country at a time for better personalization.
- Refresh your source audiences regularly to improve accuracy over time.
- Combine lookalikes with detailed targeting for multiply effect.
- Monitor performance closely to identify your best lookalike audiences.
- Adjust your bids and budgets to maximize results from your top lookalikes.
With some testing and optimization, Facebook lookalikes can become one of your most cost-effective customer acquisition sources.
Lookalike audience examples
Here are a few examples of effective lookalike audience uses cases:
Ecommerce store lookalikes
An online clothing store creates a Custom Audience of all customers who have made a purchase in the past 30 days. They then build a 1% lookalike audience targeting the USA to find new potential buyers with a similar profile to recent purchasers.
Service business lookalikes
A dental clinic builds a lookalike audience based on a Custom Audience of current patients who have visited the clinic in the past 90 days. They target a 3% lookalike to find people near their location who are a fit for their services.
Video course lookalikes
An educational business selling online video courses creates a Custom Audience of webinar signups in the last 6 months. They use this engaged list to build a 2% lookalike audience to find more prospective students to promote new courses to.
Non-profit lookalikes
A non-profit organization builds a Custom Audience of recent high-value donors. They use this source audience to create a 1% US lookalike audience to acquire new recurring donors with a similar philanthropic profile.
These examples demonstrate the versatility of Facebook lookalikes for businesses in any industry to expand their marketing reach.
Lookalike audience sizes
When creating a Facebook lookalike audience, you can choose the desired similarity or percentage match to your source Custom Audience. This determines the potential size of the lookalike audience.
Here are the approximate sizes of lookalike audiences at different match percentages:
| Lookalike Percentage | Relative Audience Size |
|---|---|
| 1% Lookalike | 1-5% of population |
| 2% Lookalike | 5-12% of population |
| 3% Lookalike | 12-20% of population |
| 4% Lookalike | 20-35% of population |
| 5% Lookalike | 35-50% of population |
| 10% Lookalike | 60-75% of population |
As you increase the percentage, the lookalike audience expands to include more of the population. Test lookalikes at different percentages to find the right balance of similarity and reach.
Lookalike audience limit
Facebook currently has a maximum lookalike audience size limit of 100 million people per audience. So if your 1% lookalike would exceed 100 million based on the population and data source, Facebook will cap the audience at 100 million.
For larger countries, you may need to use a lower percentage like 1% to stay under the 100 million person limit. For smaller countries, you can likely use higher percentages without hitting the cap.
Lookalike vs. interest targeting
Comparing lookalike audiences to traditional interest-based targeting can help highlight the unique benefits of the lookalike approach.
Here is a quick look at how Facebook lookalikes and interest targeting differ:
| Lookalike Audiences | Interest Targeting | |
|---|---|---|
| Basis | Your customer data | Keywords and declared interests |
| Accuracy | High – based on actual users | Low – based on guessed interests |
| Effort | Easy automated process | Manual research and guesswork |
| Results | Proven high converters | Mixed bag of respondents |
The main advantages of lookalikes are leveraging actual customer data for accuracy and Facebook’s AI for easy setup. Interest targeting requires manually guessing interests that may or may not indicate likely buyers.
Combining lookalike and interest targeting
You can combine lookalike audiences with additional interest or demographic targeting for multiplied specificity. For example, you could target a 2% lookalike audience who also match interest keywords relevant to your products.
Layering lookalikes with interests or other filters lets you further refine your audience for improved conversion rates. Test layered targeting approaches to determine the best formula for your business.
Troubleshooting lookalike audiences
Here are some common lookalike audience issues and fixes:
Lookalike is too small
- Increase lookalike percentage to widen audience pool.
- Broaden geography filter from city level to country.
- Use larger custom audience source if data permits.
Low relevance in lookalike
- Decrease lookalike percentage for tighter match.
- Remove unrelated low-quality sources from custom audience.
- Layer interests or demographics for better filtering.
Lookalike audience overlaps source
- Avoid overlap by excluding source audience when targeting lookalike.
- Increase lookalike percentage distance from source.
- Create separate ad sets for source and lookalike audiences.
Lookalike performance decreases
- Refresh source custom audience with new data periodically.
- Test new lookalikes split by interest, recency, value, etc.
- Re-evaluate targeting, creative, and bidding strategy.
Regularly monitor lookalike performance and update targeting to maximize results over time. Testing is key to improving and evolving your approach.
Conclusion
Facebook lookalike audiences are a powerful tool to help advertisers efficiently scale customer acquisition. By tapping into Facebook’s AI modeling capabilities, marketers can quickly build expanded audiences closely matched to their ideal buyers.
The key steps are creating a quality source audience, selecting the right lookalike percentage, meticulously targeting your ads, and continuously optimizing performance. When utilized strategically, lookalikes can become a cost-effective driver of sales and customer growth.