4 Ways to Build Facebook Lookalike Audiences to Expand Your Targeting

 Do you want to reach more consumers with your Facebook ads?

Looking for creative ways to reach more people like your ideal customers?

Lookalike audiences allow you to build new audiences using an established source audience such as people who have viewed your video or previously purchased from you.

In this article, you’ll discover how to use Facebook lookalike audiences to successfully scale your ad targeting.

What Are Facebook Lookalike Audiences?

Facebook lookalike audiences are an advanced targeting option that goes beyond the basic interest and demographic targeting functionality. They’re currently the most effective Facebook targeting tool to find your ideal customer.

At the core of all lookalike audiences is a source audience upon which you build a lookalike audience. Facebook takes all of the data points of your source audience and finds new, similar people using a set percentage sample (which you specify) of the population in your chosen country.

Unlike interest-based targeting, lookalike audiences allow you to create the source audience, giving you more control. As a result, you end up with better-quality audiences because you can find new audiences that are almost identical to your existing ones.

Lookalike audiences are best used to target new cold audiences at the top of your sales funnel. For example, you could run top-of-funnel content campaigns to all of the lookalike audiences you build. This would start to warm them up as you take them from the top of the funnel to the bottom.

Now let’s look at how to create four types of lookalike audiences.

#1: Create a Video Lookalike Audience

Facebook users watch 100 million hours of video on the platform every day, so it should come as no surprise that video is Facebook’s best-performing content.

Video allows you to build brand recognition and trust with your target audience quickly. If you’re running a video-based content strategy and want to scale your campaigns to reach more people, lookalike audiences let you find new people based on those who’ve already watched your videos.

Before you can create a video lookalike audience, you first need to create a custom video audience, which will be the source audience for the lookalike.

Create a Custom Video Audience

Custom video audiences allow you to segment your viewers based on what videos they’ve watched and their level of engagement.

To create a custom video audience, open your Facebook Ads Manager and navigate to the Audiences dashboard. To do that, click the menu button and click All Tools.

Under Assets, click Audiences.

Next click Create Audience and select Custom Audience from the drop-down menu.

In the pop-up box that appears, you’ll see four custom audience options. Select Engagement on Facebook.

Next select Video.

You’ll see the box where you create your custom video audience. Select your engagement criteria from the Engagement drop-down list and choose the videos from which you want to build your audience.

Define the time period, give your audience a name, and click Create Audience.

You can create an audience for all video views at every engagement level: 3 seconds, 10 seconds, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 95%. To create each one, repeat the process outlined above for the different engagement options.

Build a Video Lookalike Audience

Now you’re ready to create your video lookalike audience. Navigate to the Audiences dashboard in your Ads Manager just like you did when you created the custom video audience. Then click Create Audience and select Lookalike Audience from the drop-down menu.

In the Create a Lookalike Audience box, you’ll see three fields: Source, Country, and Audience Size. For the source, select the custom video audience you created in the previous step.

Next choose your country. This is typically the country in which the majority of your source audience is located. For example, if you work predominantly with UK-based businesses, any lookalike audience you create will be in the UK.

Finally, select your audience size. Audience sizes range from 1% to 10% of the total population in the country you choose, with 1% being those who most closely match your source. You may want to start at 1% and increase the audience size when you want to scale campaigns to reach more people.

When you’re finished, click Create Audience. You’ll receive a notification when your lookalike audience is ready to use, which could take up to 30 minutes.

#2: Set Up Email List Lookalike Audiences

Email-based lookalike audiences often deliver the best results. Why? Because you can take your existing customer list and use that as the source for your lookalike audience, essentially cloning your customer base.

As with video lookalike audiences, first you’ll need a custom email audience of your subscribers/customers before you can create an email-based lookalike audience.

Create a Custom Email Audience

Navigate to the Audiences dashboard, click Create Audience, and select Custom Audience from the drop-down menu. In the first pop-up box, select Customer File.

You have two options for adding your email data: upload your data as a file/copy and paste the data, or import it from MailChimp. If you’re uploading your email list, click Choose a File or Copy and Paste the Data.

Next upload the email list (which is a CSV file in the example).

Then map your identifiers. The more identifiers you use the better match rate you’ll see. In the example, we’ll use First Name, Last Name, and of course, Email Address.

After you click Upload & Create, you’ll see a progress bar and how many rows of data were successfully uploaded.

Now under Next Steps, click Create a Lookalike Audience.

Build an Email Lookalike Audience

In the Create a Lookalike Audience box that opens, you’ll see your custom email audience in the Source field.

Select your target country (from which the majority of your email list comes) and choose the audience size. Consider starting with a 1% lookalike audience and scaling from there. Then click Create Audience.

#3: Create Conversion Lookalike Audiences

Conversion lookalike audiences let you find new target audiences using a website custom audience of people who have completed a specific conversion event.

For example, if you’re an ecommerce business running a discount code lead magnet, create a website custom audience of people who have triggered a lead event action by opting in for the discount code. Then use that audience as the source for your lookalike audience.

Before you can create the source audience for your conversion lookalike audience, make sure that you’ve set up and installed conversion tracking.

As with video and email lookalike audiences, you need to create the source audience first. It will be a website custom audience of people who have completed a specific event action.

Create a Website Custom Audience for Conversions

In the Audiences dashboard in your Facebook Ads Manager, click Create Audience and select Custom Audience from the drop-down menu. In the pop-up box, select Website Traffic.

From the Website Traffic drop-down menu, select Custom Combination.

Click the URL drop-down menu and select Event.

Choose the event you want to create the audience from (Lead, for example). You’ll see a list of event actions you’re currently tracking using the Facebook pixel.

In the field called In the Last, enter the time parameter for how long people will stay in your audience once they’ve completed the specific action. For example, you might choose 120-180 days to have the maximum number of people in your audience.

Finally, make sure the Include Past Website Traffic box is selected, give your audience a name, and click Create Audience.

Build a Conversion Lookalike Audience

Now navigate to the Audiences dashboard, click Create Audience, and select Lookalike Audience from the drop-down menu.

In the Create a Lookalike Audience box, choose your website custom audience from the Source drop-down list.

Then select your country and choose the audience size (1% is a good place to start).

Finally, click Create Audience and wait for Facebook to build your lookalike audience. Once it’s ready to use, you’ll receive a notification and it will appear in your Audiences dashboard.

#4: Construct Page Likes Lookalike Audiences

Lookalike audiences for page likes are the easiest to set up because you build them from the fans of your Facebook page. If you have a large number of Facebook fans who actively engage with your organic posts, a page likes lookalike audience is a great way to find new similar target audiences.

Differing from the three lookalike audiences above, you don’t need to create a custom audience for your source audience.

In the Audiences dashboard in Facebook Ads Manager, click Create Audience and select Lookalike Audience. In the Create a Lookalike Audience box, select your page name from the Source drop-down list.

Then choose your target country and select your audience size.

Tip: With all lookalike audiences, the larger the source audience, the better quality the lookalike audience will be (since there are more data points to use). A general guideline for building lookalike audiences is that the source audience must have at least 1,000 people in it.

Conclusion

One of the advantages of using lookalike audiences is the ability to scale your campaigns quickly and easily. Because you create lookalike audiences based on a percentage sample of people in your target country (from 1% to 10%), you can start with a closely defined 1%, and as you reach higher ad frequency, introduce the 2% audience, and so on.

Compare this approach with interest-based targeting, which is more hit and miss when you have to create new audiences from different related interests.

What do you think? Do you use Facebook lookalike audiences for your Facebook ads? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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The Entrepreneur's Complete Guide to Social Media Marketing

Social media can be an incredible way of growing your business. For example: 

• You might use Twitter to establish your expertise
• Facebook ads are targetable and help to grow your reach
• Blogging will keep visitors coming back to your site again and again
• Emerging networks like Vine, Instagram and Tumblr can help you make your mark

But how do you stay on top of all of the opportunities out there? Read on for tips on using social media to grow your business. 

1 Develop a Content Strategy

In order to make the most of your social media marketing, develop a content strategy first with these resources: 

Build Your Personal Brand Using Social Media -- Even if you still have a "day job," social media strategy can help you. Here's how. 

Social Media Marketing Intro -- This is a great place to start to get the right overview of social media marketing for your business. 

Real-Time Marketing -- "Real-time marketing" is all the rage among big brands like Ford and Pepsico. Here's how you can use it to supercharge your marketing efforst for very few bucks. 

Social Media Influence: Map Your Allies -- A vital first step to being successful in social media is figuring out how to reach a receptive audience. Here's what you need to know. 

Social Media Influence: Content Strategy -- Once you develop an idea of where your audience is, you can craft an irresistible content plan. 

2 Start and Monetize a Blog

The truth is that making money with a blog can be challenging. But with a strategic approach, and the right tweaks, you can make money with a blog. Here's what you need to know to get started: 

Making Money Online with a Blog -- The basics of targeting the right niche. 

Running a Content Business -- You may be able to profit from your expertise with a content business. 

Making Money with Affiliate Marketing -- Affiliate marketing is one of the most lucrative ways of making money online. 

3 Master Specific Social Networks

Lots of entrepreneurs specialize in one social network. See which one is right for your business here: 

• Google+
• Tumblr 
• Pinterest
• Vine and Instagram
• Twitter
• Instagram

4 Grow Your Business with Social Media

Use Social Media to Provide Better Customer Service -- Did you know there are a number of great social media tools to make customer service easier? Find then here. 

Crowdfunding a More Social Marketing Paradigm with Joseph Jaffe -- Learn from the master of social media marketing how he crowdfunded his lastest book.  

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Use Roundups to Explode Your Traffic Overnight

Have you got the new site blues?
You’re writing great content, day after day, but no matter what you do, you just can’t seem to get more traffic back to your site.  It’s frustrating. The work you’re putting in isn’t translating into more visitors.
You’re on a tight budget, so spending big on Facebook or Google ads isn’t an option. You need a way to get traffic without having to pay for it.
You just want eyeballs on your site. You’ve done everything you can to optimize your blog, but now you need traffic.
So, what can you do to drive traffic to your blog that’s free, easy, and takes a simple investment of your time?
It’s called the roundup post, and it’s one of the best ways to generate traffic to a new blog. As a bonus, you’ll also build relationships with the influencers in your niche at the same time.

What is a Roundup Post?

A roundup post is made up of responses from multiple experts in your niche on a topic that’s important to your audience.
By publishing a roundup post, you leverage the expertise and popularity of your niche’s experts. And by asking your experts to share your post with their audience, your traffic will increase exponentially.
Here’s an example of a roundup post from Ashley Faulkes of Mad Lemmings:

It’s a popular topic and provides a ton of value to readers, which is why this post has reached over 20K shares. Ashley has added even more value by rounding up the best posts and resources on each of the business ideas, along with tips and advice from experts.

Why are Roundup Posts Effective at Generating Traffic?

Roundup posts are effective traffic generators because featuring popular experts, and asking them to share your post, gets your content in front of a huge audience and you’ll get more shares overall.
BuzzSumo found that if a single influencer tweets your post, you’ll receive 31.8% more shares. And the overall share rate only increases as the number of influencers who share your post increases.

So, are you ready to boost your traffic with a roundup post?

How to Create Your First Roundup Post

Creating an expert roundup post can take a bit of time, but it doesn’t need to be difficult. The key is to have a system in place and follow it closely.

Step 1. Decide On a Topic

The first thing you need to decide on is the topic of your roundup post and the question that you’ll ask your influencers.
But how do you work out what’s a good question?
There are a few factors that go into a good question:

• It must be something your audience wants to know the answer to
• It can’t be answered by a simple yes or no
• There’s no obvious answer

When brainstorming for content ideas, you consider asking your email subscribers by sending them a survey. Click here for a really great tool that can embed a survey right into your emails! It is super easy to use & will have you on the right track in no time.
Another alternative is to check Quora, Reddit, and other forums to see what questions are being asked and which ones have the highest engagement.

Step 2. Choose the Experts You Want to Feature

It’s a good idea to always include more bloggers in your initial list than you want to include in the final post. Bloggers, marketers and entrepreneurs are busy people and not all will respond to your request in time, if at all.
Plus, the more experts you feature, the more traffic you’ll potentially receive.
For example, an HR company had the greatest traffic result from one of their roundup posts that had responses from over 150 experts. Two other roundup posts of theirs featured fewer experts and received less traffic. So, you don’t want to feature too few experts.
But how do you find enough experts to participate in your roundup?
Chances are you already know many of the experts in your niche. However, if you’re putting together a large roundup, you’re going to have to go digging.
Here are three ways to find more experts for your roundup
1. Search for Previous Roundups in Your Niche
There are a couple of different ways you can use to find previous roundups. You can search on BuzzSumo or Ahrefs to find popular content, or you can do a simple Google search for your keywords.

Once you’ve found a roundup in your niche, you can choose which featured experts you want to add to your list of targets.
Matthew Woodward suggests targeting the experts that engaged with previous roundup posts, as they are more likely to share and engage with your roundup post.
2. Alltop 
Alltop lists top blogs by category. A search of your niche will bring up plenty of blogs to search.
This is a more time-consuming method, as you’ll have to manually click through to the blogs to determine if you want to include the expert in your roundup.

3. Hashtagify.me 
Hashtagify.me can be used to determine the top influencers for different hashtags. Search relevant hashtags to find Twitter influencers in your niche.
Check their Twitter profile to find their blog and determine if you want to include them in your roundup.

Keep the list of bloggers and entrepreneurs you want to approach in a spreadsheet. If you can’t find their email address on their site, go ahead and sign up for their email list. You should be able to reach them on the email address they send the welcome email from.

Step 3. Prepare for Responses

Now that you’ve created your list of influencers to approach about participating in your roundup, you’ll need to prepare for responses.
A roundup post involves dealing with a lot of data, so it’s imperative to have a clear organization strategy before you start collecting information.
The simplest way to collate responses from your influencers is via a Google Form. It’s free, and very easy to get started.
You’ll want to include fields for:

• Name
• Website URL
• Twitter Handle
• Short Bio
• The question

You can quickly and easily set your form up to auto-populate a Google Sheet. Then all you need to do is link to your form when you email the expert to ask for their input.
The hard work of collating responses is done for you and when the time comes to write your post, it’ll save you loads of time.

Step 4. Reach Out to Your Experts

You’ve got your question ready, and your Google form is good to go. Now you can start reaching out to your influencers.
How do you go about this?
Influencers are busy people. Neil Patel suggests engaging with your chosen influencers before you send them a request to participate in your roundup – they are more likely to respond to someone who they’ve interacted with before.
You can get on your expert’s radar by commenting on their blog posts, joining their email list, responding to their emails, and sharing their content on social media.
When you craft your email to your influencers make sure you:

• Are clear about what you want them to do
• Outline the benefit to them
• Leverage social proof – if you’ve had a response from a popular, well-known blogger, let them know!

Here’s a template example from QuickSprout on how to word your outreach email:

Step 5. Write the Post

Once the responses are in, it’s time to organize your responses into a blog post. You won’t have to do too much writing – your experts have done it for you – but you’ll still need to write an introduction and conclusion, and format the post in a way that makes sense.
For your experts’ responses, you’ll need:

• A headshot from their website, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Gravatar. Save each image under their first and last name to make sure you’ve attributed the right head to the right influencer!
• A link to their website
• Their response
• Short bio
• A click to tweet (optional)

Here’s an example from Time Management Chef of how to format your expert’s response:

Step 6. Email Your Experts and Let Them Know the Post is Live

Email your influencers to let them know you’ve published the post and thank them for their involvement. You can ask them to share the post with their followers in this email.
Here’s an example email template from Sue Anne Dunlevie of Successful Blogging:

Step 7. Share on Social Media

The next step is to share the post on social media yourself, tagging the experts who contributed.
You may not be able to tag every expert in one post, so space it out over the course of multiple posts until you’ve tagged them all.
Here’s an example of how to tag featured influencers on Google+ from CrazyEgg:

Wrapping it Up

If you’re a new entrepreneur and you’re not getting the kind of traffic you want, try a roundup post. A roundup post is an excellent opportunity to reach out to influencers, form relationships with them, and leverage their audience.
By reaching out to expert’s in your niche, you can leverage their expertise and popularity helping you bring a ton of value to your readers and reach an entire new audience.
To start, choose a valuable topic by finding out what your audience wants to know. Looking at Quora, Reddit or using a simple tool to survey your audience can give you some insight into what your audience is struggling with. Next, you want to reach out to influencers to have them answer a question about the topic. Go ahead and use the template from Neil Patel to craft your email.
Once you’ve received your responses, write the post and start sharing it on social media. Don’t forget to ask your experts to share it with their audience as well. This is the crucial step as you are leveraging their audience and connections to help you grow your traffic. Use the template email from Sue Anne Dunlevie to help you craft the perfect message.
The final step? Sit back, relax, and watch your traffic and audience increase! If you’ve chosen your influencers well, it’s really that easy.
Have you published a roundup post? What were your results?

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10 Ways to Promote Your Latest Blog Article

YOUR article is polished and ready to go. You hit “Publish,” and eagerly wait for reactions. Whether it’s likes, shares or comments, any response is welcome.

As an author, feedback fills you with a sense of accomplishment and confirms that what you’re doing is meaningful. Engagement validates that your overall message is resonating with your followers and allows you to make a difference.

Still, one of the biggest obstacles bloggers face is how to effectively promote their articles. You’ve invested so much time into creating content that matters, naturally you’d want to find the best way to promote your content in order to get as many followers as possible!

So, here are ten ways you can promote your latest blog article:

1. Share It on Social Media

The most popular form of promotion is sharing your article on social media. However, it’s not enough to simply just share the link or use the autopost. Instead, use these methods to enrich your status update:

• Add images for visual interest (more on that here)
• Add relevant hashtags
• Include engaging intro text
• Tag relevant people or accounts
• Use a tracking link to keep an eye on engagement (hint, hint – try Click Perfect)

Image source

2. Ask Influencers to Share Your Content

Influencers are respectable people in your industry, and as such they have the power to boost the success of your article tremendously.

Try to reach these individuals through social media channels, or via email, and ask them to share your article.

Keep in mind that the article has to be both relevant to the industry and of high quality in order to intrigue and inspire them to share.

3. Send an Email to Those Mentioned in the Article

Whether you’re referencing articles, eBooks or 3rd party material as resources within your own post, make sure you contact the authors as a part of the promotion.

A best practice is to ask for an opinion, however you can also politely ask them to share on social media or link from their own blog while you’re at it! In most cases, they will respond positively, as it beneficial for both parties!

Important: Don’t forget to list resources in your article and always provide links back to the original content.

4. Contact People Who Have Shared Similar Content in the Past

Those who have already shared similar content might be interested in reading (and sharing) more about this topic, which is why this method is great for finding people who are genuinely interested in the niche you write about.

A great way to locate these individuals is through mentions and hashtags on social media.

You can also find blogs and websites that have shared similar content using a tool, such as Open Site Explorer. Simply copy the link of the related content, look up the web addresses that link to that content and get in touch to recommend your own article for inclusion.

5. Repurpose the Content to Target Users on Different Platforms

Repurposing content helps you expand the reach of your content, by leveraging the power of different platforms. For example, if you have a blog article, try creating a presentation featuring the same content, and then share it on relevant platforms, such as SlideShare. This way you reach SlideShare viewers, thus increasing the number of online users you reach.

6. Feature the Article on Your Website

There are two ways you can promote the article on your own website.

Firstly, make sure you feature it on the front page. Add a feature section specifically for your blog, that way anyone who visits your site will see the content.

The second way to boost its performance is to share it as, “Latest news” in the sidebar. This way you promote the article to the users who reach your website through other content. A sidebar is a great way to catch their eye and keep their attention once they’ve finished up looking at what they initially clicked through to see!

7. Leverage the Power of Subscribers

Once you publish the article, create an engaging email send it to your subscribers. After all, they provided their email address because they wanted to be informed about new content that you publish!

Feel free to ask your subscribers to share the article as well. If they liked the content, why wouldn’t their like-minded friends or followers benefit from the information too?

8. Take Advantage of Bookmarking Websites

Bookmarking websites, such as Reddit, StumbleUpon, or Triberr as a way to gain exposure to users who are part of these online communities. All you need to do is join a bookmarking website and create a profile, and then you’re ready to promote the articles through the platform.

Since social interaction is integrated into these types of websites, you should try to be active and interact with other users if you want to increase the number of people that see your posts through the platform.

9. Add the Article to an Online Magazine

User-curated online magazines is also a great way to promote content, as it allows you to create your own online magazine focused on a particular topic, or allows for the possibility to be featured by another curator.

Platforms such as Flipboard, Paper.li and ScoopIt, already have large online communities with users eager to explore and discover new interesting content.

10. Use Paid Advertising to Boost the Article

Paid advertising is always an available option for article promotion, regardless of the platform you want to focus on. Whether you are seeking promotion via, Facebook or Twitter Ads, promoted content on LinkedIn, etc. paid advertising boosts traffic and increases the reach of your article much faster than using any alternative, free methods.

Each promotional strategy has positive and negative aspects, each with a specific way to achieve desired results. As an author, you need to explore all available options, and find those that are most beneficial to you in terms of traffic and lead generation. Give your content the best possible chance to reach as many readers as possible! After all, this is what blogging is all about – inspiring others, sharing knowledge and making a difference.

Don’t worry if, for example, you haven’t seen valuable results from repurposing content. Even though this technique may work for some publishers, find the technique that works best for you!

Perhaps you find that social media activity works for you or maybe contacting influencers has shown great results in the past. Focus your energy on the options that bring you the best results. Time is valuable and it’s important to find the most effective option that works best for you!

Final Thoughts

In the end, it’s quality that matters most!

Search engines and social media filter out ineffective content, therefore it’s of the utmost importance to publish high-caliber blogs.

Make sure that the article you’re promoting is worthy, as this has a significant impact on the outcome of the promotional activity. Also, make sure you optimize your blog in order to keep visitors interested in your content and maximize your lead generation.

We all know that article promotion is very important part of blogging, so we’d love to hear from you about your results.

Which promotional method would you add to this list? Talk to us and share your ideas!

While you’re at it, please share on social media to help get the word out!

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