Use Custom Audiences to get More Customers on Facebook

Facebook’s ad targeting options continue to get better. And it all starts with custom audience ad targeting. Facebook faces a lot of critics when it comes to how it uses people’s information, but in terms of targeting options, it’s a marketer’s dream. This is a dream filled with:

· Fan acquisition at a lower cost

· Better ROI from your brand’s Facebook page

· Better targeting for your Facebook ads

· Better engagement on your Facebook page

Here are the easy ways brands can make the most of Facebook ads:

Start with your customers

A brand’s current customers are its biggest assets when it comes to repeat sales, being engaged, creating user-generated content and spreading the word to potential customers. This is no different on Facebook. Start with an email database. If your brand doesn’t have one, it’s time to build one ASAP. (Don’t worry, we can help with that too.)

Once the existing email database is ready, it can be used to create a custom audience, which allows brands to target existing customers they aren’t already reaching on Facebook. In addition, brands can extend this custom audience to create a lookalike audience, which is an audience with similar traits to current customers.

Do you want all of your current customers to follow you on Facebook? The answer is a definite YES! These fans are most likely to become brand advocates and spread the word about your brand to all of their families and friends and followers.

Do you want to be able to target potential customers who are similar to your customers? Absolutely! No brainer!

Website + Facebook = #Winning

When you’re ready to take your brand’s Facebook ad targeting to new heights, website custom audiences can bring your ROI and conversions to a championship level. When your potential customers perform an action on your page, such as view an individual product page or put an item in a shopping cart, but do not make the purchase, wouldn’t it be nice to send them a friendly reminder when they check out Facebook later that night? Website custom audiences allow you to do just that.

Segment your site very specifically down to a product level or broader at a category level. Either way, you can retarget using Facebook ads based on their actions. There are three ways to win using website custom audiences:

1. The hottest way is to retarget to potential customers. These people were so close to making a purchase, but they got distracted. No worries, we’ll catch you later with a Facebook ad.

2. Another way to use website custom audiences is to exclude existing customers OR remind customers what an awesome purchase they made by offering them some complimentary products. It just so happens that one of our specialties is market research on why people buy and reinforcing that purchase AFTER the sale.

3. Lookalike² – In addition to creating a lookalike audience based on your email list, wouldn’t it be great to target people based on who visited your website? Yes, now you can reach potential customers who have similar traits to people who visit your website. We really like lookalikes.

These Facebook options are efficient ways to optimize your ad buys. By testing these options together, it also allows you to compare results. It’s possible that your custom audience could perform way better than your website custom audience. If so, focus your budget there. That’s the beauty of testing with measurable results.

What has your experience been with using custom audiences in Facebook? Let us know in the comments below.