Facebook advertising targeting optimization uses these 8 methods!

The number of advertisers and industries in China that use Facebook for promotion may be limited, but as an Internet person, we have to maintain keen insight, strong learning ability, and learn more about some of the products we will be involved in in the near future or in the future.

Today, I will share with you the optimization methods for Facebook advertising targeting, hoping to help you broaden your ideas for information flow optimization.

Can your Facebook ad targeting be further optimized?

Are you looking for new ways to reach your ideal audience with Facebook ads?

This article introduces eight ways to help you optimize your Facebook ad targeting. New targeting options can help you increase conversions on your Facebook ads.

1. Filter lookalike audiences by interests

If you have a blog with a lot of traffic or a wide range of potential customers, using lookalike audiences to target a larger audience is a great option. However, in many cases, the lookalike audiences are too large. For example, in the United States, the smallest lookalike audience size is around 1 million.

To find a smaller and more targeted audience for your ads, we recommend testing ads with different interest targeting. When you find the right match combination of lookalike audiences and interests, you’ll have a more targeted audience and a lower cost per click/ conversion .

Here’s how to combine interests with lookalike audiences.

First, select the lookalike audience you want to test. For example, in the image below, I’ve selected a lookalike audience of 1.9 million people (equivalent to 1% of the US population).

Then scroll down to Detailed Targeting and add interests one by one.

Test the options above with a traditional “single point of interest” audience (which has a wider reach). See if you can refine your definitions within your already clearly defined audiences.

Improve interest targeting through companies and blogs

The way audiences are defined by interests has evolved dramatically over the past year. In the early stages of interest targeting, the available interests are limited and the interest coverage is usually general (e.g., running, marathons, triathlons).

Now, it’s possible to define companies, blogs, and even influencers as interests. Instead of using broad terms, you could choose interests like Run Keeper , Nike + Fuelband, Jeff Galloway + Runner's World Blog, etc. These types of interests are often more effective than broad terms.

If your audience is too small, try selecting dozens of companies, apps, influencers, and blogs.

This is an example of a classic and advanced audience combination.

Here are recommended combinations for smaller audiences.

You can start with a broad audience and then refine it with more segmented options, or start small and expand your reach over time. Whatever strategy you choose, make sure you provide enough impressions to fully and accurately test its effectiveness.

2. Relax the age range

A common practice for defining the target audience is to select the appropriate age group based on product definition or through Facebook Insights . For example, when developing an advertising campaign for college students, most advertisers will select the 18-22 age group.

A great way to lower your conversion costs is to expand your age range. To test a wider age range, try any of the following options:

• Select age in 10-year intervals (e.g. 18-28)
• Select an age range between 30 and 40 years old (e.g. 18-58 years old)

You might be surprised to learn that the main target audience for Facebook ads has remained the same, but the cost has decreased.

3. Use the “MustAlso Match” feature

Last October, Facebook launched a new feature called “Detailed Targeting”. This way, you can choose to "must also match" more interests, rather than just satisfying any one point in a set of interests.

Multiple experiments from different categories and industries have shown that adding “must also match” interests leads to more precise audiences, which can reduce click/conversion costs by 25%.

For example, if you select Twitter as an interest and Socialmedia Marketing as a "must also match" interest, this match will perform better than if you normally select both interests or just one interest.

To test which options are actually useful to you, change the "Must also match" interest options in the options box below. Try adding two or three interests, keeping closely related tags, and watch if your conversion rate improves. If not, it may be because one of the interests you are targeting is too far off.

Unless your advertising campaign is specifically targeting potential customers, don't waste advertising dollars on users who are already loyal to you. It is possible to exclude certain demographics or audience groups for specific interests.

To do this, you first need to install the Facebook code on your blog or website. This code will build a Facebook group of people who have visited your blog. Then exclude all visitors to your blog in the Custom Audiences section. Select a custom audience you created or an existing audience.

Rather than defining all users who visit your blog as one audience, group your visitors into different engagement categories. This way, information can be delivered to the appropriate audience in a targeted manner. Here are some potential benefits:

• Increase overall audience engagement.
• Increase conversions for every audience.
• Build long-term brand value. (Do not annoy specific audiences with irrelevant information.)

Here are some breakdowns to try:

• Segment by last visit: Retarget users who visited your blog in the last 14 days, 14-60 days, or more than 60 days. Users who have recently visited your blog are more likely to convert, and the cost is usually lower.
• Segment by number of pages visited by users: Redirect users who visited only 1 page, 2-5 pages, or more than 5 pages. This is a good indicator of the level of user interest in the product.
• Segment by specific page: Redirect a group of users who visited a specific page, such as a quote page. They are more likely to convert.
• Segment by visitor duration: select less than 10 seconds, 10-60 seconds, or more than 1 minute. This is another indicator of user engagement. It is usually a good strategy to remove all users who spend less than 10 seconds on your blog. They are less likely to remember your brand and not show much interest.

To create retargeting groups over time on your blog, specific pages, or number of pages visited, we recommend using Google Tag Manager.

You can increase conversions by targeting and directing digital device users who are more likely to click and register/purchase.

More optimization methods can be discovered through the user behavior section. As an advertiser, you can use behavioral tags to define audiences (e.g., frequent travelers, TV game players, or Facebook page owners). When you use behavioral tags to remove users who are unlikely to convert, you’ll see surprisingly good results.

While some behaviors cannot be excluded, they can be circumvented by selecting other options. For example: To remove users using 2G/3G mobile networks, select only users using 4G and Wi-Fi. This way, you can target users with more technologically advanced devices, using smartphones, who are more likely to click on your ads.

If you are worried that your landing page is too large to load, we recommend that you try an AB test between 4G and 3G. This will help you determine if load time is a significant factor.

The user's browser type can also reflect a lot of user information, so that high-conversion target objects can be better targeted.

Some products attract more Chrome users, and some products attract more Safari users. For example, unless you are targeting recent users or an advanced audience, select all browsers except Internet Explorer. Doing so will help improve every aspect of your advertising and marketing campaigns.

In theory, if an ad is shown on mobile and desktop devices, the CPC for each platform will be the same as if the ad campaign was shown on only one platform. However, this is not how it actually works.

When you create the same ad campaign for both platforms, CPC can sometimes go down. Facebook doesn’t distribute impressions evenly across platforms, and in most cases, over 95% of ads will appear on mobile devices.

We ran three different tests: the first set of tests had ad placements on both mobile and desktop, the second set of tests had ad placements on desktop only, and the third set of tests had ad placements on mobile only. The results may surprise you.

Don’t forget that consumers use desktop and mobile differently, so segmenting your advertising campaigns based on this will also allow you to better target specific messages to each audience segment. This kills two birds with one stone.

• How to A/B Test Facebook Ads

To understand which optimizations work better, you need to A/B test your ads and make sure you’re only testing one thing at a time. Here are some tips to help:

• Don't run too many tests in parallel. You can avoid having your campaigns compete with each other if you advertise to different audiences (by country, age group, interest segment) or don’t test every one at the same time.
• Always create a new ad set. Don't adjust existing ones. Previous results always influence current results. For example, if you have a low CTR , resulting in a higher CPC, it may be more expensive than ads on a new ad set, even if you optimize.
• Each test was performed for at least 24 hours. Due to Facebook’s algorithm, if you want the test results to reflect future results for future ad campaigns, you should run it for at least one full day. Of course, the longer the better.
• Create a budget large enough. I usually start with a budget to get to at least 50 clicks. For example, if your average CPC is $0.50, your budget would be $25.

A successful Facebook ad campaign is often the result of dozens of optimizations and tests. Testing can help you identify those little tweaks in your campaign setup that could have a huge impact on your results.

Run a few new tests each week and you’ll see positive results right away.

What do you think? Have you ever optimized your information flow ads through A/B testing? What tips can you offer? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.