Are you in the process of creating a Facebook target group for your Facebook ad and don’t know how best to proceed? This article explains step by step how to create a Facebook target group.
Where can I find the target groups in the Ads Manager?
First go to the Facebook Ads Ads manager.
Once there, click on the “Business Manager” tab and then select “Target groups”.
This tool is the target group manager, also known as the “Facebook Audience Manager”. Here you can create target groups according to your needs. Which target group you ultimately want to use is up to you.
Create target group
Before you can create a target group, you must create an ad in the ad manager create an ad. To do this, click on “Target groups” in the menu and then select “Create ad” in the left-hand menu tab. Now select the goal of your ad – for example, reach, conversion, traffic, interactions, video views, lead generation or brand awareness. You will then be taken directly to the ad group / target group.
You can now create a new target group or use an existing target group that has already been saved. Facebook distinguishes between three types of target groups:
- Custom Audiences
- Lookalike Audiences
- Saved target groups
Custom Audience
Custom audiences are dynamic target groups. With a custom audience, you are therefore targeting people who fulfill a certain condition, such as “a person who has already interacted with your company”, “all website visitors in the last 365 days”, users of your app, subscribers to your email list or contacts from your CRM system. This allows you to reach people who are interested in your offers or services. This target group updates itself daily and is either linked to the data collected on your website or interacts with user behavior within Facebook or Instagram. If you select this target group, you can work with your own data sources or your own Facebook data with the prerequisite of Facebook pixels.
Lookalike Audience
If you have already created a target group where saturation has occurred, then you can create a “lookalike” of this target group. In this case, saturation means that you have already reached all people within this target group. With a lookalike audience, you address people who have similar search and purchasing behavior to your existing customers. An example of this would be a fitness website that is frequently visited by active women and men in their early 20s. With a lookalike audience, you could instruct Facebook to reach even more active men and women in their early 20s. This is a simple way to generate new customer groups.
Saved target groups
With saved target groups, it is possible to combine an already created audience and associate it with certain characteristics of people. You can define “core target groups” completely yourself based on various characteristics. Here you can define demographic characteristics, interests, behaviors and other details of the target group yourself. The advantage of this is that it is up to you how large your target group ends up being and what specific values you focus on. The disadvantage of “core target groups” is that you can quickly get the targeting of your customer base wrong. In order to use the “core target groups” efficiently, you should know your customer base and your prospective customers and their circumstances very well.
Demographic characteristics
Demographic characteristics such as location, age, gender and language are determined in order to categorize a Facebook target group. For example, it is possible to define the age range of the target group and which gender it should be. It is also possible to narrow down the target group based on location/place of residence or language. If provided by the user, information about relationship status or employer can also be used for targeting.
For the location data, it is advisable to select the option “Lives in this location”, as otherwise all people who are in location XY will see your ad. Depending on the project, this can of course also be intentional and have a positive effect. For example, if you select “People who have recently been to this location”, you automatically include all tourists in the target group. You should definitely bear this in mind if you want to expand your audience.
Furthermore, the location and radius can be selected to limit the area in which the ad is to be broadcast. For a local ad placement, it is advisable to keep the radius small so that the ad is only shown to people who are within the specified distance.
The next step is to select the age of the target group. Here you should ask yourself whether the ad is aimed more at a young or older audience, or even both. You can use the statistics of your website on Facebook as a guide. To do this, call it up, click on the “Business Manager” menu, scroll down to the “Analysis and reporting” menu item and click on “Audience Insights”. An analysis of the age and gender of your current subscribers will now open.
Under “Detailed targeting” you can now define the interests and circumstances of your target group. You should provide fairly accurate information here so that the ad is displayed to the right people. You should therefore know exactly who your potential customers are. The more precisely you know your customers, the better you can select characteristics that suit your customers in “detailed targeting”. We have written a separate blog post to make the AND/OR links easier for you to understand: Linking target groups for Facebook ads
In the last point, you set which language your target group speaks and which connection they should have to your company. For example, you can select people who have used your app or people who like your website. You therefore determine whether the target group should have a connection to your site/app etc. or not. For example, if you only want to reach users who do not yet know you, then select “Exclude people who like your page” to ensure that only new users are reached.
Save target groups
If you are now satisfied with a target group, save it. This way you can use the target group again for the next ad instead of entering all the details again. This saves time, especially if you plan to advertise more frequently on Facebook. You also have the option of saving several target groups and then displaying them as required.
Conclusion
With the current three different types of target groups, Facebook covers all the important functions of a target group. A Facebook target group is there to ensure that your ad is displayed to the group of people for whom your offer is of interest. The prerequisite for creating a successful Facebook target group is that you know your potential customers and have gathered as much information about them as possible. It is therefore advisable to collect customer data as early as possible.
Do you need help with social media marketing, Facebook ads or other areas of online marketing?
Then contact us now without obligation and arrange a free initial consultation!
