20 Nov How to Find Your Target Audience on Facebook
Targeting all one billion Facebook users may seem like the right way to get your brand out there, but you’d be wasting your money by reaching people who may not be interested in your message. Not only are you reaching users who are less likely interact with your content, but you’re also more likely to pay more per person for more eyes on your ad, especially when they’re not your target audience on Facebook.
Instead of trying to reach as many users a possible, focus on targeting users who are more likely to engage with your content. The more relevant your ad, the higher your Facebook Relevance Score will be, which means the cost of reaching those users will be lower. Earlier this year Facebook rolled out the Relevance Score reporting metric, which takes into account the positive and negative feedback they expect the ad to receive from its target audience. The less relevant your message, the lower the score, and this could lead to higher costs because the Facebook delivery system is designed to show the right content to the right people.
Not sure who to target? The Facebook Audience Insights tool is a great start to learning about your current fan base, acquiring additional fans or identifying new ones. The tool is designed to help advertisers learn more about their audience with information on geography, demographics, purchase behavior, and more.
There are many ways to target your post, but don’t feel overwhelmed! You don’t have to use all of the targeting options at the same time. Here’s a list of targeting options I’ve found useful.
Geographic Location
Is your product only sold in certain areas of the United States, or is your message only relevant to those in the Midwest? Instead of targeting all of the United States, focus on areas where your audience is located. You can target as general as the state level or as specific as the ZIP Code™ level. You can also target a 10-50 mile radius of a city or ZIP so you don’t have to spend time entering the ZIP Codes of specific locations.
Demographics
Facebook demographics can be incredibly specific with characteristics that include education, employment, household, and lifestyle. Instead of a combining all of the characteristics in a single target, consider breaking them up into separate targets so that you’re able to optimize towards the better performing target.
Interests
Of all of the targeting options available on Facebook, this is my go-to target, as it tends to perform well every time. That’s likely because your message is likely to be aligned with what your audience already likes on Facebook.
Targeting is about both precision and experimenting as you discover how to reach the most relevant audience for your content. Facebook has all kinds of tools to help you test and learn, see what works, and optimize in order to reach the right people. When you do, it has great rewards.
