‘Can You Target Professions On Facebook’ is a question that many newbie advertisers still ask till today. With numerous Facebook ad targeting options, it’s understandable that people may get confused and overloaded. If you are one of them, this post is for you. Here’s the latest and detailed answer to Facebook’s professional targeting feature in 2024.
Table of contents
Can You Target Professions On Facebook Ads in 2024?
Yes, you can still target professions on Facebook ads. Here’s how.
- Go to Facebook Ad Manager at https://adsmanager.facebook.com/adsmanager/
- Create an Ad Campaign > Go to Ad Set > Audience > Advantage + audience > Detailed targeting
- Click Browse > Demographics > Work.
Here’s the full breakdown of the Work Targeting segment in Facebook ads in 2024.
- Employers
- Industries
Industry Targeting Option | Audience Size | |
1 | Large business-to-business enterprise employees (500+ employees) | 94,708,774 – 111,377,519 |
2 | Administrative Services | 14,012,526 – 16,478,731 |
3 | Architecture and Engineering | 4,954,965 – 5,827,040 |
4 | Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Media | 7,525,083 – 8,849,498 |
5 | Business Decision Makers | 36,329 – 42,723 |
6 | Business and Finance | 5,998,572 – 7,054,321 |
7 | Business decision maker titles and interests | (Size:36,282 – 42,668 |
8 | Cleaning and Maintenance Services | 2,066,671 – 2,430,406 |
9 | Community and Social Services | 6,339,883 – 7,455,703 |
10 | Companies founded before 2000 | 880,193 – 1,035,108 |
11 | Companies founded between 2000 and 2009 | 592,745 – 697,069 |
12 | Companies founded between 2010 and now | 848,739 – 998,118 |
13 | Company revenue: $1M to $10M | 579,238 – 681,185 |
14 | Company revenue: less than $1M | 284,450 – 334,514 |
15 | Company revenue: more than $10M | 637,623 – 749,845 |
16 | Company size: 1-10 employees | 546,483 – 642,665 |
17 | Company size: 101-500 employees | 487,883 – 573,751 |
18 | Company size: 11-100 employees | 887,212 – 1,043,362 |
19 | Company size: more than 500 employees | 575,746 – 677,078 |
20 | Computation and Mathematics | 5,130,269 – 6,033,197 |
21 | Construction and Extraction | 3,150,863 – 3,705,415 |
22 | Education and Libraries | 8,430,618 – 9,914,407 |
23 | Farming, Fishing and Forestry | 3,072,681 – 3,613,473 |
24 | Food and Restaurants | 3,266,129 – 3,840,968 |
25 | Government Employees (Global) | 649,633 – 763,969 |
26 | Healthcare and Medical Services | 7,846,043 – 9,226,947 |
27 | IT Decision Makers | 10,089 – 11,865 |
28 | IT and Technical Services | 5,133,232 – 6,036,682 |
29 | Installation and Repair Services | 5,043,256 – 5,930,870 |
30 | Legal Services | 736,625 – 866,271 |
31 | Life, Physical and Social Sciences | 3,861,039 – 4,540,582 |
32 | Management | 13,247,199 – 15,578,707 |
33 | Medium business-to-business enterprise employees (200 – 500 employees) | 36,425,191 – 42,836,025 |
34 | Military (Global) | 764,545 – 899,105 |
35 | Production | 8,623,579 – 10,141,329 |
36 | Protective Services | 2,143,676 – 2,520,963 |
37 | Sales | 10,819,147 – 12,723,318 |
38 | Small business-to-business enterprise employees (10-200 employees) | 93,179,461 – 109,579,047 |
39 | Transportation and Moving | 4,738,830 – 5,572,865 |
40 | Veterans (US) | 1,131,829 – 1,331,031 |
- Job titles
How To Target Professions On Facebook Ad?
To be specific, there are 3 main approaches in targeting working professionals.
Targeting Employers
Demographics > Work > Employers
Here, you can search the name of a specific company to reach people who work there. Facebook will offer some choices related to your input.
For example, when you search ‘CNN’ as an employer, Facebook will show 2 suggestions: CNN (size: 54,963 – 64,637) and CNN International (Size: 12,157 – 14,297).
Targeting Industries
Demographics > Work > Industries
In this sub-category, you can tick the boxes to target people based on the industry they are working in or the company size.
You can target specific industries relevant to your business. For example, if you are advertising a point of sale system, you may target industries like ‘Food and Restaurants’ and ‘Sales’.
Also, you can target your ads based on the size of the company. For instance, if your POS system fits small and medium-sized businesses, you shouldn’t waste money running ads to large companies.
Targeting Job titles
Demographics > Work > Job Titles
For Job title targeting, you can insert a job title to target people based on the job title they listed in their Facebook profile. Similar to Employer targeting, Facebook will show related options.
Take an example, when you type ‘designer’, you will see various choices such as ‘Designer’, ‘Architectural designer’, ‘Costume designer’, ‘Garden designer’, ‘Lighting designer’, ect.
You may also want to read: Facebook Ad Targeting Methods: Core Techniques For You To Learn
Targeting Professions On Facebook Ads: Important Notes To Keep In Mind
While targeting professions seems to be a wonderful tool for your ad campaigns, there are some important notes you should keep in mind.
Professional information on Facebook is not always accurate
Professional information on Facebook is self-reported by users. Therefore, it’s not always accurate or updated, because not all users will share their personal information or update it frequently.
Not everyone in a company is a potential customer
Even when you target the right companies, remember that there are different positions in a company, and not all of them will need your product.
For example, you are advertising a video editing software, and your ideal customers are video editors working at news and media companies. With Employer targeting, you can reach people at some media companies like BBC, CNN, CBS, etc.
However, an accountant at BBC is less likely to need your product. So you may combine it with job titles to refine your audience, like in the photo below.
You may need to go more specific with Job title targeting
You can use more specific job titles to narrow down your audience more effectively.
For example, instead of searching for a general job title like ‘Designer’, you may search for ‘Graphic Designer’.
But don’t go too specific
If your selected audience is too specific, you will get a warning from Facebook saying that your ad campaign may get no conversion.
In this case, you may need to expand your audience by removing some selected detailed targeting options.
So, how much should you expand? Well, it depends on many factors, but you can refer to some general guidelines as below:
- Brand awareness campaigns: minimum 500,000 to 1 million people.
- Traffic and engagement campaigns: 100,000 – 500,000 people.
- Conversion campaigns: 10,000 – 50,000 people is okay.
Bonus Tips For Professional Targeting On Facebook Ads
Not only Work Demographics can help you target professions. You can use Facebook Behavioral Targeting or Field of Study Targeting to reach professional audiences.
For example, you can find people who manage shops on Facebook or Instagram under Detailed targeting > Behaviors targeting > Digital Activities > Shop admins.
Or go to Detailed targeting > Demographics > Education > Fields of Study to target people based on their field of study, which may indicate their scope of work.
For example, to target graphic designers, you can search for people who listed their field of study as Graphic design in their profile.
Conclusion
Now, you’ve known the answer to ‘Can you target professions on Facebook?’ as well as how to target likely customers based on professions effectively. By combining multiple ad targeting methods, businesses can reach their desired professional audience and make the most of their ad campaigns.
It’s crucial to stay updated on Facebook’s evolving advertising policies. Follow SpeedX Agency for the latest information about Facebook ads.