When creating Facebook advertisements, the targeting you use can make or break your campaign’s success. In order to achieve the best results from your ads, it is important to know your target market and find the demographics on Facebook that best match your target markets demographics. The following are a variety of ways in which your company can target laser Facebook users. (NOTE: These targeting options are also now available for Instagram advertising as well)!
Age, Gender and Location Targeting
Facebook gives advertisers the option of targeting advertisements to users between the ages of 13 through over 65 so that you can focus on specific ages that best match your target market. After choosing your desired age range, decide whether you’d like the ads to be shown to males or females. For a more specific audience, combine age and gender targeting with a location. For example, if you own a store in Chicago, you can choose Chicago in the location menu so that your ad is only served to Facebook users who live in the area.
Interest Targeting
When interest targeting is properly executed, it can lead to amazing results. Facebook has millions of interests in its database, so it is crucial that you to do some outside research before typing in just any interest that is related to your brand. For example, if you own a company that sells golf equipment, you do not want to use the general interest “golf” because it is too broad. Instead, use Google to search for specific golf associations, magazines, websites, clubs, events etc. that would be of interest only to those that are avid golf players. By using very specific interests, you will capture an audience that is most closely related to your brand, thus driving more qualified traffic to your website.
Occupational Targeting
Occupational targeting is a great way to advertise if your business offers products or services that are ideal for people who work within a specific industry. For example, if you own a company that sells construction equipment to general contractors, electricians and construction workers, occupational targeting will help place your ads in front of users who are most likely to need construction equipment on a regular basis. When using occupational targeting, it is important to ensure that you choose “Job Title” when searching within the detailed targeting menu.
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Income Targeting
Income targeting is one of the most effective options if you sell a product that is tied to affordability. In the detailed targeting menu, search for “income” then choose the income range that best suits your needs. You can also target based off of a person’s net worth and liquid assets by searching “net worth.” Keep in mind, when you are targeting people with a higher net worth or higher income, the competition to target these individuals is going to be higher. Therefore, it is likely that your cost per objective (Clicks to Website, Page Likes, Conversions) is going to be higher than if you did not use income targeting. But that makes sense because as advertisers, we are willing to pay more money to reach a more qualified audience.
Custom Email List Targeting
Last, but certainly not least is targeting based off of your own email list. Targeting based off your company’s email list is arguably one of the most successful ways to advertise on Facebook. This is due to the fact that you will be showing ads to people who ALREADY know your brand and its offerings. To target an email list, simply upload the list to Facebook via the “Audiences” section of your Ads Manager.
As with any successful Facebook advertising campaign, split testing yields the best results. Test a variety of these types of targeting together and separately to see which works best for your company!
Use these targeting options for your own advertisements and share your success with us in the comments below!
