Why Remarketing & Lookalike Audiences Are Essential For Paid Social Success

In the ever-evolving world of paid social advertising, where competition is fierce and attention spans are fleeting, staying relevant and reaching the right audience is paramount. While throwing a net out wide might seem like an efficient solution, it often leads to wasted resources and subpar results. This is where remarketing and lookalike audiences come into play, offering a strategic and data-driven approach to maximise your paid social impact.

Reduction In Audience Targeting:

Facebook has been shifting its advertising strategy towards a more automated approach, specifically in audience targeting. This means they’re offering fewer, more general targeting options and encouraging advertisers to trust their algorithms to find the right users for their campaigns.

Traditionally, advertisers could build highly specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and behaviours. While this level of granularity offered control, it could also limit the potential reach of campaigns. Meta argues that their AI has become sophisticated enough to analyse vast amounts of user data and pinpoint the most relevant users, even with broader targeting.

This approach can be particularly beneficial for reaching new customer segments or maximizing campaign reach. However, it’s important to note that some advertisers may miss the level of control offered by the older, more granular targeting options, which is where the remarketing and lookalike audiences come in.

Remarketing: Reconnecting with the Familiar

Remarketing, also known as retargeting, allows you to showcase your ads to users who have already interacted with your brand in some way. This could include visiting your website, engaging with your social media content, or abandoning their cart after adding items. By utilising this tactic, you essentially “rekindle the flame” with audiences who have already shown some level of interest, making them more receptive to your message.

Types of Remarketing Audiences:

Website Visitors: Target users who have visited specific pages on your website, allowing you to tailor your message based on their browsing behaviour, you can create this audience with a certain date range in mind, for a broader audience you can do the last 180 days, or you can do to past 30 days to be more specific and catch the audience with your mind fresh in their minds.

App Users: Reconnect with users who have downloaded or interacted with your app, encouraging them to re-engage or complete desired actions.

Social Media Engagers: Reach users who have liked, commented, or shared your social media content, fostering brand loyalty and driving further engagement.

Cart Abandoners: Retarget users who added items to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase, offering incentives or reminding them of abandoned items.

Previous Enquiries: You can remarket people who have submitted an enquiry for your product or service, who have not completed the desired action (ie booking a holiday, coming to an event etc)

Previous Purchasers: Reconnect with people who have already purchased your product/service and ask them to do it again whilst showing USPS or even a coupon to show your value in such a saturated market.

Lookalike Audiences: People who are similar to your remarketing list.

While remarketing reconnects with existing audiences, lookalike audiences help you expand your reach to new potential customers who share similar characteristics with your existing customer base or high-value segments. These characteristics can include demographics, interests, online behaviour, and purchase history. Imagine finding a pool of people who are “similar to” your best customers – that’s the magic of lookalike audiences!

Understanding the Lookalike Audience Percentage:

• 1% Lookalike Audience: This highly targeted audience is most similar to your seed audience (existing customers) and is ideal for reaching highly qualified leads but with a smaller reach.
• 10% Lookalike Audience: This broader audience casts a wider net, reaching users who share some, but not all, of the characteristics of your seed audience, potentially sacrificing some precision for greater reach.

Pro Tip: Experiment with different lookalike audience percentages to find the sweet spot that balances reach and relevance for your specific campaign goals. We recommend testing with the 2% first, these people are very similar to your desired audience, however, is a little broader to ensure that you are showing your ads to a decent amount of people without facing any limitations.

The different types of audiences: (Remarketing, Prospecting & Lookalike)

In the world of paid social advertising, where every penny counts, maximising the effectiveness of your campaigns is crucial. Separating your remarketing, prospecting, and lookalike audiences is a simple yet powerful strategy that yields significant benefits.

Each audience type has distinct goals:

Remarketing aims to re-engage past interactors, often requiring nurturing and persuasive messaging.

Prospecting focuses on acquiring new customers, demanding clear brand information and value propositions.

Lookalike audiences target individuals similar to existing customers, requiring a balance between brand awareness and conversion-driven elements.

By keeping these audiences separate, you can tailor your ad content, messaging, and bidding strategies to each specific goal. This leads to better performance and higher return on investment (ROI), as you’re not wasting resources on messaging that might not resonate with a particular audience segment.

Separating audiences enhances targeting and control. It allows for more granular targeting, enabling you to reach specific user segments with tailored messages. This increases the effectiveness of your targeting and reduces wasted ad spend.

Separating the three also prevents audience overlap and fatigue. Showing the same ad repeatedly to the same audience can lead to ad fatigue, where users become desensitised to your message. Separating audiences ensures you’re not bombarding the same individuals with identical ads, reducing fatigue and maintaining ad effectiveness. Additionally, when bidding on the same ad space for overlapping audiences, you can inadvertently compete against yourself and drive up bidding costs. Keeping audiences separate eliminates this internal competition, allowing you to optimise your bids for each segment independently.

Simply throwing money at paid social advertising is not enough. By leveraging the strategic power of remarketing and lookalike audiences, you can reach the right people at the right time with the right message, maximising your return on investment and achieving your marketing goals. So, remember, the next time you consider paid social advertising, don’t forget to explore the power of these two game-changing strategies!