Create lookalike audiences in Ad Manager

In this article we will be elaborating on the steps one needs to take to create Lookalike Audiences and how to use it during the campaign creation process in Ad Manager.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Where to find the option to create lookalike audiences?
• How to create a lookalike audience?
• Various states of audiences

Where to find the option to create lookalike audiences?

An option to create lookalike audiences can be found:

In the campaign creation flow, the second step is about 'Budget and Audience', under Audience Controls section we have the Intended Audience section.

Under the Lookalike Audience tab, when you click on the dropdown to 'Create new or select lookalike audience', the first option in the list is to "Create a Lookalike Audience"

How to create a lookalike audience?

This type of target audience refers to a new group of people who align in choices with your current customer base. A lookalike audience uses an existing custom audience you select for its source audience and when you use a lookalike audience, your ad is delivered to that audience of people who are similar to your existing customers which are used as the source for this lookalike group. 

Creation of a custom audience is a single step process, details for the same is as follows:

On clicking the 'Create a Lookalike Audience' button, a modal dialog opens up allowing users to create a custom audience by defining the details in the dialog.

Data source: There are two kinds of data sources which are present as part of the data source dropdown, any one can be selected as the source for creating a lookalike audience -

1. Page - The list of all the pages that are integrated with Ad Manager will be shown in the dropdown and one of them can be selected.
2. Custom Audiences - The list of all the custom audiences present within the Ad Manager will be shown as part of the dropdown list and any one can be selected.

Audience Name: Add a name to this audience for easy identification.

Geographic location: Select a country where you want the audience similar to your source audience to be searched for and grouped to be used. Your choice of Country/countries determine where the people in your lookalike audience are based. Once a source and location is selected, Facebook will find people in that location who are similar to those in your source.

Note: Only countries are supported at this point and cities, neighbourhoods, provinces, etc. cannot be used as the lookalike audience location.

Audience Size: It refers to the range definition which is from 0-10%. A 0-1% audience range includes people who closely match your defined audience source. Increasing the percentage gives you a larger, more general audience.

Click on "Create audience" after entering all this information and a lookalike audience is created and will be shown in the lookalike dropdown but still not ready to be used. 

Various states of audiences

Below are a few states which depict the availability of your audience ready to be used:

1. Ready: This state refers that the audience is created and has met all the specifications of Facebook and can be used as an audience for any campaign.
2. Populating: This state refers to the process of creating a lookalike audience. It takes between six and 24 hours for your Lookalike Audience to populate. Once your lookalike audience is created, it will appear as Ready. As long as your targeting ads with that specific lookalike audience, it will refresh every 3-7 days.
3. Audience not created: This might mean that the audience you used to create the lookalike audience was too small and you need to try creating a new audience.
   

Note: Once a lookalike audience is successfully created, it will be shown as part of the Lookalike Audience dropdown list and can be used for creating a campaign once the status of the newly created audience is ready or is in Populating state.