Facebook Detailed Targeting is now available to the masses and can be accessed using either Power Editor or Ads Manager.
This is brilliant news because it gives advertisers the ability to fine tune their audience targeting with the introduction of AND targeting.
What is Detailed Targeting
Quite simply,
Detailed Targeting is a Facebook feature that gives advertisers the ability to create a very specific audience. The targeting fields you can utilise include Demographics, Behaviours and Interests.
It offers advanced features including the ability:
- to use OR targeting (person likes fitness OR healthy diet)
- to use AND targeting (person likes fitness AND healthy diet)
- to EXCLUDE (person likes fitness BUT NOT yoga)
and you can use these features individually or together depending on your audience requirements.
Let me explain with some numbers.
Before Facebook Detailed Targeting there was only an option to use OR targeting when creating an audience.
An example is the easiest way to show this :
My base audience size is 14 Million (Australia, All ages and genders)
The ‘OR’ (old) Way
Interested in
Marketing 3 Million
OR
Small Business 3.4 Million
See how the audience size has increased – they are interested in EITHER marketing OR small business.
Detailed Targeting – The ‘AND’ Way
Interested in
Marketing 3 Million
AND
Small Business 1.1 Million
This audience is more defined than the first – they are interested in marketing AND small business. This one small word AND allows us to get really SPECIFIC with our targeting.
Why is Detailed Targeting a Big Deal?
Prior to Facebook Detailed Targeting only advertisers using the Facebook API or third party paid apps could use ‘AND’ targeting, which gave them an unfair advantage.
Why?
Their audience targeting was a lot more specific so they got better engagement with their ads because the people seeing them were actually interested in the subject matter. This kept their relevance scores (an important Facebook measurement) high and in turn reduced their costs per action.
By making this available to everyone Facebook has (again) levelled the playing field, and made their targeting a whole lot more powerful.
Here's a graphic to show what I mean…
Previously (using the OR targeting) you would have been targeting all of the people in this image. With the AND targeting you only target the people in the middle.
The Right Targeting
One of the most common reasons Facebook Advertising fails to produce a result is because the audience targeting is wrong.
You can have the best product range or service in the world and a great story BUT if you’re telling it to the WRONG people, you’ll never sell anything.
So before you do anything else make sure you know who your target audience is. For whatever reason this step is skipped by so many – please don’t be one of them! Spend the time getting this right and you’ll be rewarded with increased revenue and reduced costs. (If you’d like some questions to help you with your target audience click here)
How To Create a Detailed Targeting Audience
Here’s a quick video showing you the steps to utilise the detailed targeting audience feature within Facebook.
The 3 Key Areas of Detailed Targeting are :
1. INCLUDE people who match at least ONE of the following
Begin with your major target keyword. In the video I used ‘marketing’. This produced an audience size of 3 Million.
2. and MUST ALSO match at least ONE of the following
Add other interests, behaviours or demographics to refine your audience. In the video I used ‘small business’. This reduced the audience size to 1.1 Million.
3. EXCLUDE people who match at least ONE of the following
If there are interests, behaviours or demographics that are not relevant to your target audience you can exclude them here. In the video I used ‘work from home’. In this instance the audience size remained unchanged.
These 3 options really do give you the ability to put your message in front of a super specific audience.
Facebook have created a great targeting infographic that shows your many options, click here to download the PDF.
Detailed targeting is a real win win for users and advertisers – users will only see posts in their news feed based on their interests and advertisers will only have to pay to put their message in front of people that want to see it. See win win. You really can have your cake AND eat it too!
Bang For Your Buck
The Facebook platform offers huge opportunities for virtually any type of business. With a monthly active user base of 1.59 Billion, the detailed targeting audience abilities and low cost (you can begin with as little as a couple of dollars a day) it’s definitely a platform you should be using or at least considering to market your business.
Your Prospects Are Just a Few Clicks Away
There has never been a better time to get your message out there. The internet and specifically Social Media sites like Facebook have given us all the ability to publish and distribute content relatively easily.
It’s your turn.
Jump into Power Editor or the Ads Manager and test it out, and take advantage of this amazing opportunity Facebook has given us.
