You know that feeling when you meet a new client and they are just perfect? They understand your value, they don’t try to negotiate every last detail, and they actually enjoy what you do. You probably find yourself wishing you could just clone them.
Well, in the world of Meta advertising, you basically can. It’s called a Lookalike Audience, and if you aren’t using them, you’re likely working way harder than you need to.
What actually is a Lookalike Audience?
Think of it as the ultimate “I’ll have what she’s having” for your business.
A Lookalike Audience is a way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they share similar characteristics to your existing customers. Facebook’s algorithm looks at your current crowd, their interests, behaviours, and demographics, and goes out into the digital world to find people who “look” exactly like them.
How do we find your “Source”?
To build a lookalike, you first need a “Source Audience.” This is the blueprint the algorithm uses. The better the blueprint, the better the results. You can build these from:
- Your Customer List: Uploading your email database.
- Website Visitors: People who have been poking around your site recently.
- Engagement: People who have been liking, commenting, or saving your reels.
- Purchasers: This is your most powerful source. Instead of just guessing who might be interested, you’re telling Meta: “These are the people who actually pulled out their wallets, go find me more people just like them.” It takes the guesswork out of the equation and focuses your budget on high-intent users.
The 1% Rule
When you set up a Lookalike, you’ll see a percentage scale from 1% to 10%.
- 1% represents the people who most closely match your source audience.
- 10% is a broader group.
If you’re just starting out, we usually recommend sticking to that 1%. It’s the “inner circle”, the people most likely to actually vibe with what you’re selling. As you grow and want to scale, that’s when we start widening the net.
Why bother?
Stop me if this sounds familiar: you spend hours picking out “interests” like Business or Yoga or Shopping, only to find your ads are being shown to people who aren’t even close to your target.
Interests are a bit of a guessing game. Lookalikes are data-driven. Instead of guessing that your customers like “Coffee,” the algorithm sees that your actual customers are all 35-year-old women in Auckland who shop at certain spots and engage with specific content. It does the heavy lifting so you don’t have to.
Is your data ready?
Before you jump in, remember: garbage in, garbage out. If your “Source Audience” is just a bunch of random people from a giveaway you ran three years ago, your Lookalike will be just as random.
You want to build your Lookalikes based on your best people.
Feeling like your ad targeting is a bit of a shot in the dark? Get in touch, we’d love to help!
