Don’t go anywhere, advertisers, we’re here to help you master Detailed Targeting for Facebook Ads. This is one of the most fundamental and essential things before starting with Facebook Ads or anything else related to advertising on Facebook.
I’ll go from the basics like detailed targeting options to the experience of working with it. Pay close attention from beginning to end so you don’t miss out on the most valuable knowledge.
Table of contents
Guide On How To Use Detailed Targeting For Facebook Ads
The first part of this article is about how to do Detailed Targeting on Facebook Ads. Basically, this feature helps you filter out audiences with specific information that you feel is suitable for your ads. And this is one of Facebook Ad Targeting Methods for pro advertisers.
To start using Facebook Ads Detailed Targeting, you can access Meta Ads Manager. Set up a new ad, go to the Ad Set level processing step, and you can see the detailed targeting feature as shown in the image below:
It includes the options ‘Demographics’, ‘Interests’, and ‘Behaviors’. I will analyze each section in detail for your convenience:
Detailed Targeting: Demographics
For this section, Facebook Ads provides you with information so you can target audiences such as: Education, Financial, Life events, Parents, Relationship, Work. It’s completely different from demographic information like gender and age in the previous section. Don’t confuse these two types of demographics.
For each of these options, Facebook Ads also provides more detailed information. Here, I will take ‘Parents’ as an example:
As you can see, Facebook Ads will provide you with additional detailed options such as: ‘Parents (All)’, ‘Parents with adult children’, ‘Parents with early school-age children’, etc.
You can choose one or more pieces of information that you feel are suitable for targeting. For example, here I want to sell LEGO toys for children. It’s clear that I can’t target children directly, as it’s not available on Facebook.
Therefore, I can only target their parents. And of course, I will choose ‘Parents with preschoolers (03-05 years)’ and ‘Parents with early school-age children (06-08 years)’. Even if I have a good budget, I can continue to choose ‘Parents with preteens (09-12 years)’.
In case you are too doubtful about your choices, you can target more broadly, without going into too much detail. Continuing with the example above, LEGO toys can also be suitable for teenagers, so I can also choose ‘Parents (All)’.
This helps me reduce competition with other advertisers who are also targeting parents and are being too specific. It can also significantly reduce bids, CPC, and CPM.
Detailed Targeting: Interest
Next is ‘Interests’. The available interest-based targeting options in Meta Ads Manager include:
- Family & Relationships
- Technology (computer & electronics)
- Food & Drink (consumable)
- Business & Industry
- Hobbies & Activities
- Shopping & Fashion
- Fitness & Wellness
- Sports & Outdoors
In my opinion, you can delve a bit deeper into analyzing your customers. Think and analyze what attracts them. What are their interests in travel, food, and entertainment?
Once you have important information about their interests, it will be very easy to target appropriately. However, if you feel vague and unclear about anything, I think you should still target broadly and let Facebook Ads’ AI work.
Besides, understand guide on how to target Facebook Ads by Email Address is one of important targeting knowledge here. If you really want to know it, please read it before continuing with this article.
Detailed Targeting: Behaviors
In the ‘Behaviors’ section, there are too many options, so I will show you a summary image here:
For these behavior options, you need to clearly understand these behaviors through Meta Audience Insight. It will be more useful for specific behaviors of the audience on Facebook.
‘Behaviors’ relate to a variety of specific information. From traveling or having traveled to a certain location, to the time spent active on Facebook, etc.
The advice I have for you in this section is not to be too specific when you’re not sure. If you’re certain that the behavior is relevant, you also need to test it with A/B Testing. I will share about this tool in the later part of the article.
Experience When Using Facebook Ad Detailed Targeting In 2024
In 2024, everything seems to be changing rapidly. In the past, the more crucial information you had about potential customers, the more detailed you could target and increase CTR. However, nowadays, Meta has become increasingly modern and focused on the usefulness of AI. Therefore, the way of targeting is also very different.
Don’t worry, we’re here and have the latest experience and knowledge about how to target in 2024, including:
Review your ads product/service/brand/content
You read that right, I want you to take another look at what you’re advertising. More specifically, I want you to understand one fundamental thing:
All of your audience will pay attention to your ads if you understand your customers in every detail.
Essentially, you need to redefine everything you’re advertising on Facebook. You also need to cross-check what your brand’s goals are, what information your audience has, and what they care about.
Brainstorm and list all of those ideas. Then review the information of the audience who have interacted with your Page or ads, posts. Trying to understand them and answer their questions or solve their problems is the best way at this time.
About Audience Size
As for Audience Size, it’s best not to leave it at red or yellow level. Keep it green. This is the optimal point for Facebook to distribute your ads and show them to the right Audience.
Next, I want you to remember one important thing:
If you’re in doubt about any section of Detailed Targeting, you should choose broader age range.
Simply because it will help you rebalance your Audience Size, allowing Facebook’s AI to work and suggest more relevant audiences for you. When you’re unsure about something, let Facebook’s AI help you.
2024 is a year where AI has risen to become one of the indispensable tools of the Marketing industry. And Facebook also proves to be smart when using AI in advertising. I’ve also tested this with at least 20 of my ads, and the AI really didn’t disappoint me.
About Exclude & Narrow Audience
For this content, you need to know when you need to use Exclude or Narrow Audience. It is a specific situation.
For example, I want to target people with an interest in travel. But I actually don’t want to show ads to people who are traveling or have recently traveled, I just want to focus on people who have traveled and are passionate about travel before. Then I would click on ‘Exclude these custom audiences’ or ‘Narrow Audience’.
Here’s a detailed explanation of the two options:
- Exclude these custom audiences: This option allows you to exclude one or more Audience Lists that you have previously used or created. You must go to the ‘Audiences’ page to create an Audience List containing the Audiences you want to exclude.
- Narrow Audience: This option allows you to narrow down Audiences directly within Ads Manager. The process is similar to how you would target an audience. But it only narrows the Audience List, not excludes it.
Combining both features above, I will create a new ‘Saved Audience’ and narrow down to people who have traveled in the last 1 or 2 weeks. And do Exclude them in Ads Manager, that’s it.
Control ad cost
Controlling costs during the targeting process is crucial. If you’re not aware, every adjustment you make in the ‘Detailed Targeting’ section can affect the cost of your advertising.
The metrics that change the most when you change Audience information are CPM, CPC, and bid. And it will definitely increase if you compete with big competitors with bigger budgets. They will place higher bids to knock other competitors out of the game. So when you compete with them, you will also receive suggestions for high costs.
It’s good to know about one of the best ways to test your effective Audience. That is…
Split test your audience
The A/B Test tool is always available in Meta Ads Manager. It helps you identify the high-performing ads and ad components.
If you want to test which Audience is right for your ad and delivers the highest performance, you can create two identical ads, differing only in Audience Information, and let A/B Test do its job.
Repeating this will help you eliminate ineffective Audiences that are not useful to your ads. At the same time, you can find the most suitable Audiences to focus your budget on.
Summary
Finally, this article has come to an end. But surely no one wants your journey with Facebook Ads to end prematurely. While Detailed Targeting for Facebook Ads is one of the most important pieces of information, to succeed with Facebook Ads, you need more than that.
In the advertising process, you will encounter many obstacles, bans are always waiting to make you suffer. However, don’t worry too much because we have Facebook Agency Account For Rent. This is one of the best services for Facebook Advertising that SpeedX Agency has researched for a long time. Don’t miss it, it will definitely be useful for you, advertiser!
Thank you for paying attention to this article, and have a great day with Facebook Ads!
