Free Social Media Marketing Course – Lesson 3

In digital marketing, it is very important who the product or service is intended for. For this purpose, the concept of a target audience is used. A target audience is the group of people for whom the product or service is most suitable and who may be interested in it. For example, the primary target audience of a brand that sells children’s toys is parents. Identifying the target audience correctly directly affects making the ad more effective, using advertising costs properly, and increasing sales. The main criteria used to determine the target audience are:

• Age group
• Gender
• Geographic location
• Interests

The target audience plays a decisive role not only for products and services, but also for the language of the message, the visual style, and the platform selection. In other words, the target audience determines not only who the ad will be delivered to, but also how it will be delivered.

Types of Target Audiences in Meta Ads Manager

Before starting an ad campaign in Meta Ads Manager, you must determine who you want to show it to. For this, you need to create a target audience. In Meta Ads Manager, target audiences are divided into three types based on their purpose:

• Saved Audiences
• Custom Audiences
• Lookalike Audiences

Let’s take a closer look at them and examine together how each one is used. I would like to point out that in the video at the end of the lesson, you will see step by step how these target audiences are created in practice. However, after learning this information beforehand, you will understand the steps in the video more easily and be able to apply what you have learned more comfortably.

Saved Audiences

Saved Audiences are one of the most suitable options for social media marketing specialists. To find the potential customers of a product, you can identify the interests, demographic information, and behaviors of people who are interested in that product and direct your ads to this audience. In this way, it becomes possible to deliver your ads to the right target audience and achieve high results in a short time. Let’s say you sell classic men’s shoes. For the product you sell, you can define a target audience approximately as follows:

• Age: 25–45
• Gender: Male
• Location: If you sell nationwide, you can select the entire country. If you sell in a specific region, you can select that region.
• Interests: Shoes, men’s shoes, classic shoes, classic clothing, fashion and trends
• Behaviors: Online shoppers, business travelers, premium product buyers

As can be seen in this small target audience example, it is very important to know who the buyer of your product is and what they like. If you have no idea about your customers, you can benefit from artificial intelligence tools. While creating a target audience, you can get ideas from artificial intelligence to make this process easier.

Custom Audiences

In Meta, Custom Audiences are a powerful tool for retargeting people who have previously interacted with you in any way. You can create a custom audience from people who registered in your mobile app, visited your website but did not make a purchase, watched your videos up to a certain percentage, interacted with your Instagram or Facebook page through likes, messages, or shares, filled out a lead form, or viewed or added products from your catalog to their cart. For example, you can show the ad “Buy Now and Get 20% Off” to users who watched more than half of your online clothing store’s video, allowing you to reach people who already know you with your products. With this method, you both reduce advertising costs and increase the likelihood of sales. This process is called retargeting, and you will receive detailed information about this topic later in the lesson. With Custom Audiences, you can target the following areas:

• Website behaviors: People who viewed products, added them to the cart, or made a purchase
• Mobile app behaviors: People who performed any action in your app
• Social media activity: People who sent you messages on Facebook and Instagram, watched your video, liked and shared your content, and followed you
• Customer list: Phone numbers or email addresses you already have
• Personalized selections: Targeting by name, birth year, or birth month

Thanks to these opportunities, you can direct your ads not to completely unfamiliar people, but to potential customers who already know your brand and have shown interest in your product.

Lookalike Audiences

Lookalike Audiences allow you to find new people who are similar to the custom audience you previously created. The Meta Ads Manager algorithm identifies people with similar interests and behavioral characteristics by looking at the source audience you selected. This is an ideal method for showing your ad to a broader, yet still targeted, audience. For example, you have a custom audience targeting people who sent you a message on Instagram within the last 365 days. By creating a lookalike of this audience, you can reach new users who are similar to those people in terms of behavior and interests. The Meta algorithm analyzes the behavior of the people who sent you messages, examines which posts they liked, which pages they messaged, and which content they sent to their friends, and based on this, finds a new audience with a similar profile for you.

What Is Retargeting and Why Is It Important?

Sometimes people are interested in you but do not purchase your product or service. In such cases, the retargeting technique comes into play. Retargeting is the method of targeting again users who have previously shown interest in your product or service but, for any reason, did not complete a purchase. Retargeting can also accelerate the purchasing decision by helping your brand stay in the user’s memory. By using this technique correctly, you can significantly influence the purchasing decision of potential customers.

How Does Retargeting Work?

When users send messages, interact with your social media accounts, visit your website, or use your mobile app, their behavior is tracked. This data is collected through tracking tools such as Meta Pixel or SDK. Later, based on this data, personalized ads are shown to these users. If you want to retarget the users of a website in Meta, the Pixel code provided by Meta must be added to the website.

Let’s explain this with a real example. You looked at products on an online shopping website and added them to your cart, but you left the website without purchasing the product. Later, you started seeing ads for that product on social media. This is retargeting. The Pixel code placed on the website tracks which product you searched for, which product you viewed, and which product you added to your cart. Then, based on this data, retargeting is carried out, and you see that website’s ad again.

Retargeting is possible not only for websites or mobile apps but also through social media accounts. For example, you can retarget people who sent messages to your Facebook and Instagram page within the last 365 days, watched more than 50% of your video, followed you, or liked your posts.

Remember: who you show your ads to is more important than how much money you spend. Customer list ads allow you to maintain connections with previous customers, generate repeat sales, and achieve stronger results with a smaller budget.

Creating a Target Audience in Meta Ads Manager. Step-by-Step Guide

If you have read the lesson up to this point, you now have the basic knowledge about target audiences. In the video below, you will learn how to apply this information, in other words, how to create a target audience step by step in Meta Ads Manager.