Advanced Audience Strategies for Facebook Ads

Ready to take your Facebook ads to the next level? In this episode of The New School of Marketing Podcast, we’re getting real about advanced audience strategies. If you’re tired of throwing money at ads and hoping for the best, this one’s for you. We’ll dive into custom audiences, lookalikes, and some cool tricks to get your ads in front of the right people—so you’re not just spinning your wheels. Let’s make sure your budget is working harder (and smarter), and help you get those results you’ve been looking for!

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Facebook Ads Prep School - what to KNOW and DO before you spend a cent on ads

Connect with me

Website: www.newschoolofmarketing.com
Facebook: @newschoolofmarketing
Facebook group: @newschoolofmarketing
Instagram: @bianca_mckenzie

Learn from me:

🟣 FREE MASTERCLASS: Sell more of your online course with Meta Ads
https://www.biancamckenzie.com/masterclass

🔵 AIMFUL ADS ACADEMY: Tools, resources & 1:1 support to attract more ideal clients and make more sales with proven, easy to follow Facebook & Instagram ad strategies for any budget. https://www.biancamckenzie.com/aimful-ads/

🟢 FACEBOOK ADS PREP SCHOOL: Find out what you need to know and do before spending money on ads. https://www.biancamckenzie.com/prep-school/

🟡 INVISIBLE AD FUNNEL PLAYBOOK: A practical step-by-step guide to making a big impact with a tiny budget. https://www.biancamckenzie.com/playbook

🟠 FUNNEL FUNDAMENTALS: Building effective sales funnels that drive conversions and grow your business. ...

Transcript

Welcome to the new School of Marketing podcast, the place for smart, simple strategies that will amplify your business results. Sharing practical tips, insider knowledge, and actionable advice. Because marketing is something that every business owner can do. Now, let's get started. Introducing your host, Bianca McKenzie, mum, lover of snow sports, camping, horse riding, and in demand launch strategist and Facebook advertising Knowledge bank.

Hey, welcome back to the new School of Marketing podcast. I'm super grateful to you for tuning in, but before we dive in, I would love to pay respect and acknowledgement to the Palawa people of lutruwita who are the traditional owners of the land on which my business operates. And I pay my respects to the elders, past and present. Okay, welcome, welcome. I have no idea if this actually sounds different to the way I normally record, but I. Full disclosure, I am sitting in my car in a car park while my daughter is at dance class because I could not record my podcast at home this week. If you are in Australia, especially either the southern part of the mainland or Tasmania, you will know that we've had some crazy and absolutely crazy crazy storms go through, and I would say just about half of the state lost their electricity. Yeah, we lost our electricity. We thankfully got it back. Although I just got a message from TAS networks that they're investigating another power outage. So fingers crossed, my power is back when I get back home. But I also lost my Internet in the process. So if you're running an online business, which you might be if you're listening to this podcast, you probably will know how much havoc that will wreak on your business. So yesterday I worked from a cafe, today I worked from the library. And I have a feeling that I will be back there tomorrow. So if this sounds a bit different, that's why. Anyway, it's not gonna let me stop. It's not gonna stop me. I'm not gonna let it stop me. Let's put it that way. And I want to talk about targeting Facebook ads. Targeting. As you know, the show must go on. So here I am sitting in my car, recording a podcast episode. It's hilarious, isn't it? So if you're looking at taking your ad targeting to the next level and absolutely reach the right people at the right time, this episode is for you. And I don't know if you're familiar with Facebook advertising, with targeting or any of that, but I really want to look at, look at all the different options and talk about, you know, those advanced strategies that will get you seen by the right people at the right time. So I'll be talking about custom audiences, lookalike audiences, layering, targeting options and also using exclusions, but doing it effectively. And I'm also going to talk about the dynamic ads because that's a new thing that's come in. And yeah, I'm really excited about this because Facebook has been learning so much about us over the past years, and even though a lot of us ads managers have been complaining about how things are changing, I also think that things are changing for the better. They are actually making it easier for, for you to diy your ads and not having to rely on us ads managers anymore because it is so much more intuitive. Facebook knows us. Facebook really just tracks all of our data and it just makes it easier to get in front of the right people at the right time. Obviously, you still need to put the right things in place, but it's definitely not as complex as it once was. So as someone who has run countless and countless of Facebook ad campaigns over the years, I have learned that refining your audience strategy is often what makes the difference between average and exceptional results. There are so many buttons in Facebook that you can press, and some of them honestly make no difference, doesn't really matter. But audience targeting is one of those things that if you can get in front of the right people at the right time and like you're doing all the things right and your audience is actually right, that's when you're going to nail it. So I'm excited to share those strategies with you today. The first bit I want to talk about is custom audiences, and that means that you're actually leveraging your own data. So what are custom audiences? Let's dive in. A custom audience allows you to create targeted ads and ad sets using your own data. For example, your email list, your database of customers, your website visitors, your social media followers, and those who engage with you. They are people that already know you. And this is really powerful because these people already know your brand. They have that sort of like connection already. They've had like, in a way, they know you. Whether they trust you or like you is a different story. But they're familiar with your brand, and running ads to them means that they are more likely to engage with your ads in some form or shape. So how do you use custom audiences? All right, let's look at how you can use them effectively. One, retargeting website visitors. That means that you're creating ads for people who visited specific pages on your website but didn't convert. This is one of the most powerful strategies for e commerce and also for people who run lead generation ads and potentially sell courses or services. It's one of those things where, I don't know, you might have seen them in your feed where someone goes, hey, I noticed that you looked at blah blah blah, but you didn't check out. Those are the retargeting ads. Number two is engaging your email list so you can target your email subscribers with exclusive offers or exclusive content. Again, yes, they are on your email list. You can email them and they can convert from that. Like, you don't have to pay for it again. But if you're familiar with rules of marketing, it means, and this keeps on changing. It used to be seven interactions, but now it's up to twelve interactions. So people need to see your business twelve times. And that could be different touch points. It could be like one email on Facebook, organic, they might see it in other places, they might see your website. They need to have twelve different touch points before they actually convert. So engaging with your email list, number three is using past purchases so you can promote upsells or new products to customers who have already bought from you. There are so many different ways to use Facebook advertising, so custom audiences allow you to tap into warm leads, making your ad campaigns more effective and more impactful. Especially when you keep in mind that twelve touch point rule you need to create those extra touch points and ads is a really good way to sometimes push someone over that conversion line. All right, the next one is lookalike audiences, which means that you can expand your reach. Now, what are lookalike audiences? Lookalike audiences are one of Facebook's most powerful tools. You can actually create an audience that mirrors the characteristics of your best customers. And this allows you to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business. When this is super, super powerful is when you use a list of customers and your model or your mirror, your lookalike audience based on your actual existing customers. Facebook, like I said, knows so much about us, they will find people that are like your audience, like they are a look alike audience. Now, how do you use lookalike audiences effectively? One, start with high quality seed audiences. Like I said, use your best customers, your most engaged followers, your most like your highest, converting leads as a base audience, and then create your lookalike audience based on that. Number two is using narrow lookalike audiences. So with Facebook, when you create these lookalike audiences, you can choose how similar to your base audience they are or how broad. So, and it goes in a percentage. So begin with a one percentage 1% similarity to get that higher precision. And then gradually you can broaden it to two, three or even more percent, it goes up to 10%. So if you upload a list Facebook that is of your customers and it needs to be minimum, minimum of 100 people in the one country for this list. So you need to have at least 100 sales from the same country. Then you can say, I want to create a lookalike audience with a 1% similarity. And those are the people that are most like your lookalike audience. And then you can use them to in your ad targeting the next one. Number three is create multiple lookalikes. So you can build lookalikes based on different data sets. Like you can use the past purchases, website visitors, newsletter signups. So yes, using past purchases will probably create the strongest kind of lookalike audience, but it shouldn't let you stop there. Use people that have visited your website. You need the pixel for this install. So if you haven't got that, go back to a pixel episode. Or get my Facebook ads prep school where I teach you all about the pixel and how to install it and like what it does. So make your lookalike audiences based on your past purchases, but also on people that visited your website, people that are on your list, like let Facebook help you find more of those people. So lookalike audiences are an absolute game changer when it comes to scaling your ads and especially getting in front of the right people. They give you the ability to find new, highly relevant prospects while at the same time expanding your reach. So lookalike audience is the next step. Like retargeting and getting in front of the same people like with custom audiences is great and it helps with conversions. But once you need to start getting like attracting more ideal clients, like new ones, that's when you start with lookalike audiences. The next part is layering targeting options and this means that you get more specific. So let's look at this advanced strategy of layering your targeting. Layering your targeting options allows you to refine who sees your ads by combining demographic interest and behavioral factors. And this makes your ads more relevant to the audience and it also improves your chances of conversion. So how do you layer your targeting? One? Combine demographics and interests. So there's lots of ways to target inside of Facebook, and you can find people based on demographics and based on interests. So target people based on demographics. So for example, age, location, etcetera. And layer on interests or behaviors that match your ideal customer. So you might say, and I'm going to use one of my clients locally here that only promotes to Tasmania. So I would say the demographic is Tasmania and their audience is generally over 55. But we don't always specify that because, you know, someone who's 45 or 40 might also purchase from them and they have an interest, for example in Cradle Mountain. So they're tassies that have an interest in Cradle Mountain. That's still quite broad, but it might be like tassies that have an interest in hiking, for example. So combine the demographics and their interests or behaviors. Number two is exclude irrelevant audiences. So you can use exclusions to prevent your ads from showing to audiences who are not a good fit for your offer. I have to say that I very, very rarely use this option, but sometimes you can and you can exclude people who have already purchased from you. So there's absolutely no point for you to advertise to your existing customers if they're already paying you and you don't really need to attract them as a customer again, and there's absolutely no point of view for you to pay for the ads to go to your existing customers. The only exception that I often make is if my clients have existing audiences or existing clients customers who are very engaged and who will interact with the ad in a positive way, which often means that they are leaving social proof and in a way, reviews or testimonials in the comments. That's the only reason why sometimes I do not exclude past buyers from an offer. So you can exclude irrelevant audiences. And number three is use narrow audiences for specific offers. So for example, for niche products or high ticket offers, you can keep your targeting narrow to focus on those most likely to convert. So what I mean by that is mostly going back to, in a way, retargeting. And so when, for example, when we're in a launch with one of my clients, we make it really broad in terms of the lead magnet. Like it goes to anyone who's in the right kind of audience. But once the cart's open and you can purchase the program, we're not going to promote it to everyone because it's very unlikely that someone in a cold audience purchases. So we narrow it to those who are on their email list. So that's, you know, a way to narrow your audiences. So layering targeting options helps you drill down into your ideal audience. And the more specific you get, the better your chances of converting your ad spend into actual sales. Okay, the next one is using exclusions to fine tune your targeting. So why do exclusions matter? So like I said, I don't always use them, but they are a powerful and often overlooked tool for fine tuning your audience. By excluding certain groups, you actually avoid wasting ad spend on people who are unlikely to convert or people who've already taken action. And they don't need to be in the targeting audience because they're not going to take action. Like I said, the only exclusion from this for us would be if the audience is highly engaging or highly engaged and for example, leaves comments and social proof about how amazing the product is or how amazing the program is. That's when we tend to leave them on, but otherwise turn them off. So how do you effectively use exclusions in your ads? One, exclude past purchases for acquisition campaigns. So don't waste your budget showing ads for new customer offers to people who've already bought from you. Likewise, if you are trying to attract leads, you also don't need to include past customers. They're already in your world. They are already like right there. So think about this and whether or not there are people that you absolutely do not need to show your ads to. Number two is exclude certain age groups or certain locations. If your product or service isn't relevant to a certain demographic, use exclusions to eliminate those groups. And I tend to advertise to the exact locations that we want to be in. But sometimes you want to go worldwide and just exclude a few countries so you can do that. Number three is exclude overlapping audiences. So to prevent your ads from competing with each other, you can actually exclude overlapping audiences. Again, I don't use this very often because sometimes setting it up this way is more of a hassle than it is worth, but it can really support your ad spend and your results. So using exclusions is kind of like filtering out the noise. You only want to pay for the ad impressions that count, and exclusions can help you focus on the right people. The next one, and this is a fun one, is dynamic ads based on your audience behavior. Dynamic ads allow you to automatically show the right product to the right person based on their behavior on your website. It's actually a more personalized and scalable way to retarget visitors and to engage potential buyers. It is seriously awesome and a little bit freaky. So how do you make the most of dynamic ads? One, retarget abandoned carts. You can actually show personalized ads to people who added items to their cartae but didn't complete the purchase. So if you've been shopping somewhere and you put stuff in your cart and then you went, oh, gotta do the dishes or whatever, you left your cart, your stuff is in there. Then you scroll on Facebook, you know, while you sit on the couch, you're like, oh my God. Oh, yes, I was putting those things in my cart. So you can actually target people or, you know, show those ads to the people that have abandoned their carts. Number two is show product recommendations. Again, this is like super groovy. Use dynamic ads to display product recommendations based on the items that people were viewing or have purchased. You can literally go, hey, you bought this. And now check this out. How cool is that? And number three is utilize cross selling. So encourage additional purchases by selling complementary products to your past buyers. Again, it's like, hey, you bought this in the past, now check this out. Really cool. So dynamic ads offer a hyper targeted and personalized experience that literally speaks directly to each customer's interests and behaviors and that will boost both your engagement and your sales. It's super, super cool. So these are all advanced targeting strategies that you can play with. The main thing is, though, that you know who your ideal client is, who your ideal audience is, so that you can push the right buttons and pull the right levers inside of Facebook so that you can get in front of the right people and your ad spend is not wasted. And that's what you want to do. So advanced audience strategies on Facebook are all about fine tuning who sees your ads. And that goes from a custom audience and lookalike audiences to layered targeting, to exclusions and to using dynamic ads. Each of these strategies can help you reach the right people with precision, and it'll help you maximize your ad spend and really, in a way, ultimately grow your business. It's super important that you know who your ideal client is. But the first ones, I would say, play with are custom audiences, if only, like, if you create a custom audience, if only to create a lookalike audience, so that you can get in front of more people that are already buying from you or getting on your list, or like, in a way, engage with you. So start implementing one of these strategies today. Tag me on Instagram. Bianca McKenzie. Or you can, you know, dm me on Instagram. Tell me what you're playing with. Tell me what you're creating first. Your ads will become more efficient and your results will speak for themselves as like, as soon as you get in front of the right people, you will feel like you have literally unlocked the holy grail of Facebook ads. So if you want to know more, I will pop this, the link to my Facebook at prep school in the show notes, it is honestly the best way to start with Facebook ads. It will teach you everything that you need to know before you spend a cent on Facebook ads. And I will also show you one super quick ad you can create to start getting more leads. So thank you so so much for joining me on this episode. I hope it was helpful. Like I said, tag me on Instagram. Dm me. I, as always, can't wait to share more marketing tips with you next week. And if you are ready to actually dive into this Facebook and Instagram advertising business, make sure that you visit newschoolofmarketing.com where you can download practical free resources and subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. I can't wait to go on this journey with you. Until next time, take care and market your business every day.