How to Use Facebook Audience Insights for Precise Ad Targeting (1/2)

Last Updated on January 21st, 2020 at 12:06 pm

Facebook Audience Insights

Facebook Audience Insights, used wisely, assists you to connect your brand directly to your customers.

Fb is one channel to interact with your audience.

However, how do you know you are reaching the right people?

You should dig deeper than knowing just the age and gender of your followers. You need more detailed insights such as job titleshobbies, and relationship status.

So you could say, show, and share the right things. At the right time. With the right content.

So you could tell your boss, “it’s working!

So she-or-he can tell you—”nice, you could keep your job.”

What’s Facebook Audience Insights?

It is a tool to higher know your Facebook audience.

Facebook Audience Insights (FAI) shows you aggregate info for 3 groups:

  • People connected to your Page
  • People in your Custom Audience
  • People on Fb

It will assist you to create more meaningful content. And, to find more people in your targeted audience.

Time to learn how, now.

How to use Facebook Audience Insights

Do you have your business set up on Fb? Which means, are you currently a Fb ‘business user’ ?

No? Create your business page first.

Then, find Facebook Audience Insights within the Facebook Ads Manager.

Here we go.

1. Choose the audience you need insights for

  • Open the FAI dashboard (Got multiple accounts? Dismiss the popup to select a different one from the top right dropdown menu.)
  • Select an audience. The dialog will show your options.

Simple so far, right?

Options for choosing an audience in the Facebook Audience Insights dashboard

Which option to select?

  • Everybody on Fb: Learn how to attract new people on Fb
  • People connected to your Page: Learn more about your existing audience, to make higher content just for them
  • Custom audience: Did you make a custom audience? If so, you will see that option in this dialog.

For this guide, let’s go with numero uno—Everybody on Fb.

It will assist you to gain insights based on your Fb advertising strategy.

2. Build your target audience demographics

Time now to gain insights for your targeted audience.

Note the Demographics tab highlighted. That is where you will be trying and applying various settings as you move down the left side of the page.

  • Choose a demographic on the left
  • View the outcomes in the charts on the right. Cool, huh?

Age and Gender demographic on Facebook Audience Insights dashboard

Let’s take a look at each demographic.

Location

Got a physical location for your business? Say a comic book store in downtown Nashville? An interior design shop in Portland? A lawn mowing business in Charlotte? Select your country, region or city.

Selling services online? Or building your brand across the web? Include countries worldwide.

Selling physical products? Stick with countries where you ship to. And maybe where shipping costs are reasonable.

Age and Gender

For age, got to be 18 years or older. That’s just how it’s with Fb.

Choose an age range that matches with your analysis and audience personasSame for gender.

Unsure about these demographics? No problem, leave these blank for now. As you gain more insights, you may very well return to them.

Consider this insights exercise as a process, versus an event. Learn as you go and develop.

Interests

Ah… interests are where it gets fascinating.

A lot of options with this demographic. Entertainment. Cooking. Sports. Tech. Relationships. Donuts. Tractors. Telepathy (try it, I did). Oohlala. Go wild.

Drill down utilizing the drop downs. Or kind in something. Begin broad, go slender. Or visa versa. Play with this, and watch what occurs with the graphs as you learn and refine and understand.

For instance…

  • Begin with U.S. and any age → See 56% women and 44% men across Fb users
  • Add Food and Drink as an interest → 60% women, 40% men. Hmmmm.
  • Narrow it to Restaurants → 67% women, 33% men
  • Narrow it even more, to Coffeehouses → 70% women, 31% men.

Interests > restaurants demographic narrowing down even further to Coffeehouses

Are you in business brewing and selling coffee locally, say in Seattle? Add that to your location.

age and gender demographic for people that go to coffeehouses in Seattle, as seen on the Facebook Audience Insights dashboard

Moderately than 70% nationally, ladies now present up at 62% in Seattle. You simply discovered who to talk to—including their ages.

That’s some quality time spent with your laptop and Facebook Audience Insights.

Fun, ain’t it? Let’s keep going…

Advanced

Let’s see… LocationAge & Gender, and Interests all specified—with helpful insights revealed.

What next?

How about… LanguageRelationship StatusEducationJob Titles, and Market Segments?

Politics and Life Events are fair game, too (like people who began a new job or moved to a new city).

The “Advanced” section permits you to view even more precise details about your chosen demographic.

Back to your Seattle coffeehouse.

Choose All Parents.

Wow, just went from 62% to 72% for ladies. Even more telling, notice the impact on Relationship Status, Education, and Age.

Demographics for people who attend coffeeshops in Seattle on the Facebook Audience Insights dashboard: Age and gender, relationship status, education level

So then… an advert promoting your business seems in order for these demographics:

  • Parents (women and men)…
  • From 25 – 54 years old…
  • College-educated…
  • With children

The more details you add, the smaller your audience becomes. And the more focused your advert could (and should) be. It’s a beautiful factor.

It’s better to resonate with the few than appear vague to the many.

It is on you to make the right message. And now you understand who to target.

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