by Amelia Krahe | June 26, 2015


New to Facebook ads? Be sure to check out Part 1 of my 3-part series: Why Use Facebook Ads? 5 Reasons to Start Your Campaigns TODAY. This is Part 2.


Now that you're convinced using Facebook ads is a good idea for your business, let's move on to the nitty-gritty details of ad management. A good place to start: who are you looking to target with your ads?


The extreme specificity of Facebook's advanced targeting features ensure that advertisers are not taking a shot in the dark with their ad placements. Need some targeting options to get you started? Check out just some of the audience building features Facebook ads offer:


Choosing an Audience: You've Got Options!

There are a few ways to create an audience on the Facebook ad platform, each one useful depending on the campaign you'd like to run.


Targeted Audience ("Saved Audience" in Facebook Speak)


Saved audiences are fully-customizable target groups that advertisers can create based on a plethora of variables. The more variables selected, the narrower the audience gets. By giving some thought to the kinds of customers with whom your business has historically worked, and by brainstorming the kinds of people you know are likely to become customers, you can come up with a specific target audience.


"Custom" Audience


You can create a custom audience based on traffic to your website, or by uploading a current customer list. Once you upload your list (or put a tracking pixel on your site to collect web traffic), the ad platform will link customers on your list (or visitors on your site) to their existing Facebook profiles.


This tactic for audience building is useful in several instances. If you'd like to get back in front of site visitors who didn't convert the first time they visited, you can run a remarketing campaign. These campaigns will display your ads within Facebook to Facebook users who have previously visited your site. Custom audiences are also useful if you're running an offline campaign that is geared towards customers at specific addresses (ex. a direct mailer) and would like to synch it with an online campaign.


"Lookalike" Audience


These audiences are based on existing custom audiences, users who like your page, or visitors who visit your website. Facebook's algorithms will generate a list of users whose profiles are similar to those in the audience you select to mimic. From there, you can narrow down the audience by targeting geography and other features.


...This is where things get creepy.


Advertising on facebook gives specific options for targeted audiences.


Where's Your Audience? Location Targeting


Home performance, insulation, and HVAC companies are inherently service area-specific (SABs), so location targeting is an invaluable asset as we create Facebook ad campaigns. In its typical super-customizable fashion, the ad platform lets you target certain geographies in a variety of ways, by using zip codes, cities, and even specific addresses. You can add as many locations as you want, exclude certain areas, create custom radiuses around each area, include people who live in the location vs. people who have recently visited the location...it gets pretty specific.


Demographic Targeting 

Target people based on their age, language, education level, and a whole lot more with demographic targeting. Advertisers can get crafty with options like homeownership, net worth, year home was built, political persuasions, job titles, and life events (like recent engagements, expectant parents, and new movers - all people who are likely to be in the mood to invest in their homes).


Facebook Ad targeting


Becoming a Creeper: Interests & Behavioral Targeting


The stealthiest and most specific targeting options live in two categories: interests and behaviors. Selections are additive, meaning the audience size grows the more factors you target. Facebook has said that interest and behavioral targeting is based on a user's activity within Facebook (pages the user "likes," content the user shares, etc)...the jury is still out on whether that is totally true, since some of these interests seem way outside the activity of a normal Facebook user within Facebook. Check out some of these options and see for yourself:


Example Interests


Ventilation

Mold growth

R-Value

Allergen

Thermal comfort

Radon mitigation

Air quality index

Fresh Step cat litter

Neon


Example Behaviors


Length of residence

Recent homebuyer/new mover

Watch home improvement shows

Use primarily cash

Intending to travel to Dubai


See what I mean about the crazy specificity? Play around with creating audiences to see what sample sizes you get based on your target location and selected variables. The possibilities are (pretty much) endless.


For my final installment in the series, I'll explore the fundamentals of creating the actual Facebook ad, including suggestions for creative, strategies for some unique features to the platform, and tactics for ongoing management of ad campaigns. See you soon!