A Lookalike Audience targets a new group of people whose characteristics align with your existing customer base. This audience is created using a custom audience as its source, allowing your ads to reach people who are similar to your current customers. This article provides a detailed guide on how to create Lookalike Audiences and use them during campaign creation in Ad Manager.

Locating the Lookalike Audience Option #

When creating your campaign, switch to the Ad Set tab. You can create Lookalike Audiences by scrolling down to Audience Controls. Click the dropdown to “Create new or select lookalike audience”; the first option available is “Create a Lookalike Audience.”

Creating a Lookalike Audience #

When you click the Create a Lookalike Audience button, a modal dialog opens, guiding you through the process of defining the audience.

Data Source #

Select one of the following as the source for your Lookalike Audience:

• Page: The dropdown displays all the pages integrated with Ad Manager, from which you can select one.
• Custom Audiences: The dropdown lists all the custom audiences within Ad Manager, allowing you to select one.

Audience Name #

Assign a name to your audience for easy identification.

Geographic Location #

Choose a country where you want to find people similar to your source audience. Note that only countries are supported at this time; cities, neighborhoods, and provinces are not available for selection.

Audience Size #

Define the audience size within a range of 0-10%. A 0-1% range includes individuals who closely match your source audience, while increasing the percentage broadens the audience.

Create Audience #

After entering all the necessary details, click Create Audience. The newly created Lookalike Audience appears in the dropdown but may not be ready for immediate use.

Understanding Audience States #

• Ready: The audience is fully created, meets all Facebook specifications, and is ready for use in any campaign.
• Populating: The audience is still being created, a process that takes between six and 24 hours. Once complete, the status changes to Ready, and the audience refreshes every 3-7 days while active.
• Audience Not Created: This indicates that the source audience was too small to create a Lookalike Audience. You may need to create a new source audience.

Once your Lookalike Audience is successfully created and ready, it appears in the Lookalike Audience dropdown list, available for use in your campaigns.

Frequently Asked Questions #

What is a Lookalike Audience? #

A Lookalike Audience is a new group of people whose characteristics align with an existing source audience, letting your ads reach people similar to your current customers.

Where do I create a Lookalike Audience? #

During campaign creation, switch to the Ad Set tab, scroll to Audience Controls, open the audience dropdown, and choose “Create a Lookalike Audience.”

What can I use as the source for a Lookalike Audience? #

You can use either a Page integrated with Ad Manager or one of your existing Custom Audiences as the data source.

How large can a Lookalike Audience be? #

You can define the audience size within a 0-10% range. A 0-1% range most closely matches your source audience, and increasing the percentage broadens reach.

Why isn’t my Lookalike Audience ready right away? #

A new audience may be in the Populating state, which takes between six and 24 hours to complete before its status changes to Ready. It then refreshes every 3-7 days while active.

What does “Audience Not Created” mean? #

It means the source audience was too small to generate a Lookalike Audience. You will likely need to create a larger source audience and try again.