Top of the Funnel Audience
The aim of this article is to present ways to improve the segmentation of your Facebook Ads audience and thus be able to provide you with a target so that you can achieve better results.
We know that investment in paid media is growing more and more every day, and along with it the number of companies that have started to adopt this strategy. For this reason, it is extremely necessary to focus more on customizing your audience, as this thinking can be what leverages your results.
The first step to getting a good return from audience segmentation is to define your persona. In other words, you need to be clear about who will receive the content of your ads.
The second step is to keep in mind which stage of the funnel you want to target, so that you can create a good audience related to it. In the case of the audience of interest, we're talking about a top of funnelsince only new users will be impacted by your ads.
Do you know what an audience of interest is and how it works?
Facebook Ads' audience of interest gives you the chance to add the interests and hobbies of the people you want to reach, making your ads much more relevant and targeted at a more qualified audience.
There are two different ways to segment your audience by interest.
In the direction type "OR"targeting type, you can select a breakdown that includes or excludes people who meet at least one of the defined interests. Let's say you select the following interests:
- Travel frequently
- Are interested in gardening
- They are architects
A person who is an architect, but doesn't like to travel and/or isn't interested in gardening, would fall within this audience and could be impacted by the ad.
However, if your goal is to reach people who meet all the criteria mentioned above (they travel frequently, are interested in gardening and are architects), for example, you could use the audience restriction actions in the ad manager itself. If the targeting is "E".
5 Good Practices for Targeting Stakeholders
1. Know Your Persona
One of the most effective strategies when it comes to this type of audience is to carry out segmentation based on interests similar to those of the product your brand sells and, above all, based on what the people you want to reach consume.
For example, imagine the following situation: you are responsible for managing paid traffic for a brand that sells vegan products. It's a fact that vegans don't consume products containing meat or other animal derivatives. So stop for a minute and think about the following question: what interests would you select when carrying out segmentation?
It would be a good response to put the word "Veganism" as an interest and it would make total sense for the situation. But just like you, thousands of other companies would do the same. So why not go further with segmentation and generate more results?
Think like your persona. We know that veganism itself is linked to sustainability, which is consequently linked to the environment and countless other behaviors.
Knowing your target audience and your product is the first step to generating great results with audience segmentation.
2. Audience Insights
O Audience Insights is a Facebook tool which provides information and data about people who are connected to your page and who use the Facebook platform in general. With this knowledge, you can study your persona and identify possible improvements for your brand.
Details such as age and gender, education levels, job titles and relationship status are some of the information the tool provides to users. Relevant information like this can be responsible for boosting your results even more and, above all, your return on ads.
Source: Audience Insights Facebook
3. Number of Interests
A frequently asked question relates to the ideal number of interests to include in audience segmentation. The answer is quite simple: there is no exact number, as everything will depend on your goal.
You have to bear in mind that the more interests you put in the segmentation type "OR"segment, the broader your audience tends to be and, consequently, the more you will spend.
Imagine, for example, that a campaign with a relatively low budget is geolocated throughout Brazil, reaching every state and city. If you put a lot of interests that have a large reach, your campaign is unlikely to bring in a well-qualified audience and, consequently, the chances of collecting good results will be lower.
Clearly defining your goal and knowing what impact your brand wants to achieve are essential points for success with this type of segmentation.
4. Connect.io
The range of interests that Facebook provides is extremely broad, but not all of them appear as suggestions on the platform. Some of the interests are hidden and only their names are shown if they are entered correctly.
There are numerous platforms that help their users discover these hidden Facebook Ads interests, but the one we use and recommend is Connect.io. It offers solutions to a number of problems related to paid media on Facebook Ads.
One of these solutions is Connect Explore, a tool that allows you to optimize time by adding new unexplored interests without significant effort and stand out from your competitors.
5. Audience Exclusion
An important segmentation strategy is to exclusion. Exclusion will limit your audience, but when applied well, it will further qualify your audience.
Let's take an example that is applied with some recurrence. If a customer's average ticket is low, and it's a more popular product, the following segmentation is possible:
Exclude an audience that prefers intermediate and high-value products in the country, or frequent international travelers.
All of this is aimed at improving qualification and preventing us from wasting our budget by reaching people who have no real purchasing potential.
However, this doesn't apply to all businesses. You always need to think about who you want to reach and devise a strategy that is coherent with your target audience.
Conclusion
Segmentation by audience of interest is an excellent method when used correctly. With it, you can target your persona and advertise to well-qualified people, broadening your brand's reach at the top of the funnel.
It's important to know how to select interests that match the audience you want to reach and, above all, your product. Tools such as Audience Insights and Connect.io are great allies in the process of selecting and understanding your persona.
Finally, it's worth pointing out and always bearing in mind that the number of interests present in Facebook's audience segmentation is huge, as are the possibilities for strategies and ways of achieving an optimum return.
