What is behavioural targeting advertising? Top tips for Facebook

If you own a business or work in marketing one, advertising online is probably something you’ve considered even if you don’t do it already! There are so many ways of advertising out there that it can seem overwhelming. Every social media platform offers ads, alongside search engines, websites- literally everywhere! As a result, you may not know which one to choose. They all seem to promise to deliver the best results, but how can you be sure that they’re really going to be a success?

Today, we’ll be looking at the idea of behavioural targeting advertising. Ever feel like you’re blindly throwing adverts out there, hoping they reach the right audience, with very hit or miss results? Then this is the type of advertising that you may need! It works almost like magic, making sure that your online adverts on platforms such as Facebook are seen by the people who actually care about what your business can offer them. Read on to find out more about it, and for some behavioural targeting Facebook tips– it’s particularly effective on that platform!

What is behavioural targeting advertising?

Target the groups that are actually interested in your business

In simple terms, this form of advertising uses online data to show your adverts to the people who will truly be interested in what you have to offer. Everywhere we go on the web, we leave behind bits of data. You’ve probably seen sites asking you about cookies (no, not the delicious kind). They’re a good example of this sort of data. The site will collect information about what you’ve done while visiting, including what you click on, how long you stay on particular pages, what you buy online, and so on. While they may sound a bit scary, they’re completely safe and legal and can be really useful in a whole number of ways!

Cookies are collected and then used to build up a profile of the web user. Over time, this profile becomes more and more detailed, about their interests and online shopping habits. These profiles can then be collated into groups. Each consumer can be in more than one group, of course. For example, a group might be made up of people aged 25-40, who are interested in home improvements. A DIY store could then target their advertising to this group for better results! And, it works well for consumers too. They feel like the ads they see are actually relevant to them, and not just useless spam on their social media feeds.

The benefits of this type of advertising

As consumers are seeing ads that they feel are relevant to them, you as an advertiser are sure to reap the rewards! This includes an increased click-through rate on your ads (which should lead to an upturn in sales and better conversion rates), and a better experience for consumers. In fact, a study has shown that a massive 71% of them prefer personalised adverts! So, if you’re not running targetted campaigns, you really are missing out on a wealth of consumers who are actually interested in what you’re selling.

Behavioural targeting Facebook tips

So, we’ve mentioned previously that this type of advertising works particularly well on Facebook. This social media platform is an online advertising giant. So many companies use them for advertising, and with great results. And, one of the reasons why they’re so popular for advertising is down to just how easy it is to do behavioural targeting advertising! Even automatically, Facebook will show your ads to people it thinks will find them relevant. But, it also has a whole host of other options to choose from, to make it even more personal. So, want to know how to make the best of this advertising technique on Facebook? Here are some of our top tips!

Pay attention to core audiences

When it comes to targeted advertising, Facebook offers three ways you can target your ideal customers. These are core audiences, custom audiences, and lookalike audiences. Core audiences are possibly the most important for you to pay attention to. They’re in essence the groups you’ll probably be thinking of targeting, and you can choose based on a number of factors. These are location, demographics (including age, gender, education, and more), interests, behaviour, and connections to your Facebook page. The great thing about this is you can make it as broad or narrow as you want, to really hone in on your target audience, or try and reach others as well! So, once you know exactly who you’re marketing to, get looking at core audiences and get some ads out there!

Don’t forget custom audiences!

Next up, if you want to take things further, it’s definitely worthwhile to look at custom audiences. But what are custom audiences? Simply, they’re people who have already shown some sort of interest in your business! This could be liking your Facebook page, visiting your website, or being a life-long loyal customer. In some way, they have interacted with you before. So, how is targeting this audience going to help your advertising? Well, the more someone is exposed to your brand, the more aware of it they become, and the more likely they are to make that jump and purchase something! That’s got to be the end goal for any advertising, right? If you’re finding that people are interacting with you but not always buying, this could be a great option for you to look into.

And lookalike audiences!

Finally, Facebook offers you the opportunity to target lookalike audiences with its behavioural targeting Facebook tools. Ads that use this as their target audience are designed to reach people who are similar to your existing customers. So, once you’ve built up a profile of what they look like, Facebook can feed your ad to those who have similar interests, helping you to widen your customer base! While this may seem a little more complicated than the other options, it could definitely reap some rewards, especially if you have a niche customer base.

Never ignore insights

Our next tip when it comes to behavioural targeting advertising on Facebook (or, any platform!) is that you should never ignore the insights. Facebook will provide insights on your ads to you, so you can see how well they are performing. This is such useful information. It should be your number one priority to check it as often as possible, and actually act on what you find! It will tell you how well your ad is performing with your target group. If it’s not doing as well as you hoped, you can adjust your messaging to better suit them, and see what difference it makes.

Don’t be afraid of trial and error

Following on from this, trial and error is your best friend when it comes to any kind of advertising, especially if you’re new to it! If your ad isn’t working quite right, then don’t be afraid to try something new, and analyse the results of that to see what’s working and what’s not. Crafting the perfect ad that delivers the results you want takes time, even when using targeting. Though this definitely helps you along, the ad still needs to be high quality, with the right messaging, for your target customers to buy from it!

Play around with your targeting

So, you have your target audience in mind, and you’re using advertising to reach them. But how could you reach even more people who are interested in your business on Facebook? Why not widen your search a bit?! You’ve probably thought about the obvious categories such as age, location, and general interests. You may even have delved a bit deeper, looking at education or job roles. But, Facebook offers so many options for tailoring your ads, why not make the most of them! The options are endless, from those who are interested in charitable donations and what organisations they donate to, to how often someone travels and for what purpose. Every single organisation can find the right niche group on Facebook, so have a good look around and see just who you might be able to target!

When using behavioural targeting Facebook is definitely the platform you should consider. They make it relatively easy to target the right audiences and see what’s working for you when it comes to the ads. Plus, plenty of the tips we’ve mentioned here can be carried across to other platforms if you’re looking at doing this sort of advertising there, too! We think that it’s probably the number one method of advertising effectively online, and your business just can’t afford to miss out on the goldmine that it could potentially be!

If you’re in need of more behavioural targeting Facebook tips, then why not book in for one of our free Social Clinics? We can help you get to grips with all things social media, and learn how to market your business better! Click here to book your session today.