A few short weeks ago, I wrote a post waxing lyrical about Facebook lookalike audiences and their numerous targeting opportunities. If you havenât seen it, you should.
Check it out here.
Today, I want to take on lookalike audiences from a slightly different angle. That angle is, controversially, excluding them from your retargeting strategy.
See, when you’ve got your winning ad sets up and running, it’s tempting to cast your net as wide as possible.
The more people you advertise to, the more conversions, right?
Sort of. If you’re advertising to people with no interest in your product, you’re literally squandering money on being ignored.
In fact, with Facebook advertising being the way it is, excluding people from seeing your ads is a guaranteed way to succeed.
đ Let’s Quickly RecapÂ
I expect most of you know what a Facebook lookalike audience is, but here’s a quick reminder.
Lookalike audiences are built up of people likely to be interested in your product or service because they already match your best existing customers.
Lookalikes can reap you a world of benefits, from higher click-through-rates (CTR) to better quality leads.
Facebookâs algorithm does a fantastic job of finding these users, and you can enjoy the results with barely any effort on your part.
You can even control the size of the lookalike audience you want, from 1 – 10%.
If you opt for a 1% lookalike audience, Facebook will find users with 90% of the same characteristics as your current customers.
If you go right up to 10%, Facebook will show your ads to 10% of the population in the countries you choose.
A 10% audience is more likely to give you âwildcardâ leads.
Facebook will show your ads to users who wouldnât usually see them but have just enough matching characteristics to give them a shot.
There are obviously pros and cons to opening up your audience this wide, so youâll need to carefully monitor your lookalikes over 48 hours to see the results.
One major con with a broad lookalike is the same problem I mentioned earlier: advertising to people whoâll flatly ignore your product until it goes away. Which brings me toâŠ
đ Exclusion Targeting: A Sneak Peak
When other blogs talk about âexclusion tacticsâ, theyâre usually talking about custom audiences.
As a starting point, this completely makes sense.
Facebook faithfully starts showing your ads to those within your specified parameters. These are usually people whoâve seen your ads before and made that initial click – but didnât convert.
This is a great way to get conversions because some people take longer to make a buying decision than others.
Chances are, the second or third time they see an ad, their resistance and will-power will break entirely, and theyâll end up making the purchase.
On the other hand, some people are attracted to a product or service but possess an iron will. No amount of retargeting will convince them to take out their wallet.
If you continue to bash away at them, youâre virtually flushing money down the toilet.
Itâs time to exclude these people and forget about them forever.
You donât need these kinds of people in your life. Instead of wasting your budget on users who donât want what youâre offering, use your Facebook pixel data to hone your audience into those who do.
This is called “excluding a custom audience”.Â
Remember this, as itâll help you with your lookalike audiences later on.
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đ Before Excluding Prospects, Segment ThemÂ
When it comes to Facebook ads, some of the leads you get are going to be better than others.
Properly segmenting them is the name of the game here. Done well, segmenting can have a massive effect on your overall lead quality.
Iâve spoken before about LeadsHook and what a successful investment itâs been for us.
We use the quiz software LeadsHook in most of our ad funnels.
Though quizzes mean the audience will need to make more clicks, the reams of data help qualify our leads and categorise them according to type.
Say, for example, that you want leads for insurance or a loan. The user will click the ad, read the advertorial, and take the quiz on the landing page.Â
Depending on their answers, you can send these leads to two separate thank you pages.
For the sake of ease, letâs call them Prospect A, Prospect B, âGood Thank You Pageâ and âBad Thank You Pageâ.
Prospect A has a steady job, and theyâre a homeowner. Theyâre looking for a large loan, and their credit rating is squeaky clean. Itâs likely theyâll become a converted customer, so you send them to the âGood Thank You Pageâ.
This thank you page will probably contain information about a scheduled call or email and will welcome them on board.
Prospect B, on the other hand, is a bit down on their luck. Theyâre currently renting, and theyâre unemployed to boot. On top of that, they only want a small loan, and their credit report hardly sings their praises.
Naturally, the quiz directs them to the âBad Thank You Pageâ. This one will say something like âSorry, we canât help you this time,â and may offer some alternatives.
When it comes to Prospect B, there is a way to get less of these cluttering up your distribution system: excluding them entirely.Â
[But if you do get Prospect B-type leads, donât mark them as useless just yet. There are ways to make money from Prospect Bs still, and you can find them here].
â And The Nitty-Gritty: Excluding Lookalike Audiences
Imagine youâve got two people doing freelance work for your business. One is a delight; theyâre creative, professional, and courteous.
The other person, on the other hand, is a disaster. Their work is shoddy, they consistently miss deadlines and, when you call them out on it, theyâre obnoxious.
You know all this, and yet you continue to hire both of them anyway. Then you sit back and wonder why half your results are terrible.
This can happen if you donât exclude someone from the outset.
So you want more Prospect As and no more Prospect Bs. The answer? Use your segmentation strategy to find two types of lookalike audience.
If youâre doing things right, you should see your current audience divided cleanly into two. Use your pixel information and create a custom audience of those who are hitting the âGood Thank You Pageâ and another of those reaching the âBadâ.
Once your pixels have enough data (about 300 hits on each page), you can then use this info to create a âGood Lookalike Audienceâ and âBad Lookalike Audienceâ.
Next, go onto Ads Manager, select the campaigns you want to exclude from your âBad Lookalike Audienceâ and click onto âad setâ.
There, youâll see a small âexcludeâ button. Click onto it and make sure you save your changes!
đ Conclusion
There you have it – anyone included in your âBad Lookalike Audienceâ will not see ads from that campaign. Excluding is an excellent strategy, as you could potentially save yourself millions of wasted clicks.
Best of all, Facebook is doing all of the hard work for you.
Now youâre building lookalike audiences on purely top-quality leads, youâll see your CPL drop and could even charge your client more for your services.
Want more targeting tips for Facebook?
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