This is something I’ve been wondering for a while…
I know that some advertisers still swear by lookalikes, but I wonder if this is mostly out of habit and routine. We’ve been using them for years, and they’re something we’ve kept in our advertising toolbox. But maybe we don’t need it anymore.
In most cases, the reasons we’d use lookalike audiences are satisfied by different methods. For years, they’ve been a priority option for targeting cold audiences who are likely to perform the action we want.
Lookalikes Defined
Lookalike audiences, by definition, allow you to reachReach measures the number of Accounts Center Accounts (formerly users) that saw your ads at least once. You can have one account reached with multiple impressions. More people similar to those who are closest to you (website visitors, email list, customers, engagement with social accounts) while expanding the audienceThis is the group of people who can potentially see your ads. You help influence this by adjusting age, gender, location, detailed targeting (interests and behaviors), custom audiences, and more. More into the millions.
They served an important purpose. Before they were available, we were left guessing with interests and behaviors. The creation of a lookalike audienceLookalike audiences allow advertisers to reach people who are similar to an audience of people already close to you. Lookalike audiences are based on custom Audiences, which tend to include your current customers or people who have engaged with your business. More helped automate that process.
Advantage+ AudienceMeta's AI-powered targeting option. Meta will attempt to find your audience for you based on pixel activity, conversion history, and ad engagement. You can also provide targeting suggestions that Meta will initially prioritize before going broader. More
But Advantage+ Audience kinda does this by default. Even if you don’t provide audience suggestions, Meta will prioritize conversion history, pixel data, and engagement with your ads. Aren’t these the things we’d build a lookalike audience around?
Even if you don’t trust Advantage+ Audience to work without suggestions, you could provide a custom audience of those closest to you as a starting point before going broader. Isn’t that essentially what a lookalike audience does?
Advantage Custom AudienceWhen turned on, Meta has the ability to expand targeting beyond your selected custom audience. The location, age, gender, and exclusions that you input will continue to be used as hard constraints. More
Even if you don’t buy into Advantage+ Audience, you could do something similar with original audiences. Select one or multiple important custom audiences and turn on Advantage Custom Audience to expand beyond that group.
Time to Reassess?
I get that lookalikes are technically a bit more specific, in theory. You could find people similar to your paying customers, for example. I wonder if advertisers simply don’t trust the newer options as much as the tried and true lookalikes.
I’m just not convinced that lookalikes are any better than these other methods. I’ve mostly abandoned them completely as a result.
Are lookalike audiences outdated? What do you think?
