Pinpointing the audience for your business is key when advertising.

Facebook for Business states that narrowly targeted campaigns only reach 38% of your potential audience, where specifically targeted ads will reach a whopping 89% of the audience.

By targeting the appropriate audience through desktop, mobile and tablets, you will specifically reach the people that will help your business grow, therefore giving you the best value for your advertising budget.

Information from this article suggests that a clearly defined audience will fall between a large gap of between 1,000 and 180,000,000 people, depending on the size of your target audience.

The following simple, yet necessary criteria must be considered to ensure your posts are reaching the correct viewers:

 

DEMOGRAPHICS

Target the age and sex of your audience.

You can also delve deeper by honing in on education level, marital status and life events.

 

LOCATION

If you need to narrow down your audience to a specific location, you can easily do so by selecting country, state/province, city and zip code.

You can also designate a mile radius from a location to cover a broader, yet more defined area.

 

INTERESTS

By using data collected from their users, Facebook uses keyword suggestions to assist in targeting the people who have liked groups and pages with similar interests.

Job titles and education also play a role in determining what interest category a person will be located.

 

TARGET VISITORS TO YOUR WEBSITE

Marketer, Jon Loomer recommends targeting people who have visited your website or a specific page on your site. This will trigger them to purchase any items left in their cart, or they may decide to stay on the site to see what new has been added.

On the other hand, you can also exclude your audience in the same manner by entering the website/page that they have visited.

 

CREATE A LOOKALIKE AUDIENCE

Facebook gives the option to create a lookalike audience with data from similar pages. People who like a popular page will be able to see your ads as well.

Choose the size of your audience carefully. The larger the audience, the less targeted your ad will be.

 

BEHAVIORS

According to this article, targeting behavior will increase conversion rates.

Facebook offers eight main categories, with each of them having multiple subcategories that can narrow down your precise audience.

The main categories you can choose from are: Automotive, Charitable Donations, Digital Activities, Financial, Mobile Device Users, Purchase Behavior, Residential Profiles, and Travel.

Further details on each behavior category can be found here.

 

CONNECTIONS

Decide if you want your audience to be your current viewers or if you want to add new connections, or both.

You also have the option to choose friends of those who are currently connected with you. Many friends have the same interests, so this could be a benefit to your campaign.

 

CONCLUSION

Play around and adjust your target options to find the sweet spot for gaining exposure to the right audience. There may be more than one combination that will work well for you.

Develop a budget and analyze your data so you can make the most out of your ad. You will save money in the long run by doing short test runs to see how each campaign unfolds.

Facebook collects data from their own platform as well as other sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau, surveys, public record data, warranty cards, etc. By using the information they have gathered to your advantage and choosing the correct targeting options for your ads, your site should receive increased traffic and you will be on your way to success.

Discover more ways to use Facebook to expand your business in this article: 3 Content Ideas for Your Facebook Business Page.