Meta Interest Based Targeting

Businesses are always searching for a positive ROI, some choose to cut down on advertising while others look for effective advertising methods.

I’m going to show you an effectiveFacebook Ad targeting method that is often used the wrong way and if used correctly, it will yield great returns.

In this article, I’ll be listing some common misconceptions that I still hear from people who work in the digital marketing field. This will then be followed by some powerful tips that I use to get outstanding results for my clients!

What is Meta's interest-based targeting?

It is reaching users on Facebook that share a particular interest in a certain subject. It could be liking a page, post or your search intent.

You can actually see a list of the interests that advertisers target you in their Ad campaigns by clicking on Facebook Ad Preferences

Common Myths about Meta interest-based targeting

Myth #1

Interests are determined by the pages that I like on Facebook.

Myth #2

Interests are the ones I chose when creating my Facebook account.

Myth #3

You can only pick them from the drop-down menu in the targeting section.

Fact check:

Interests are determined based on your activity on Facebook, such as your engagement with certain Pages and ads. So, if you are interested in a new topic, expect it to show in your ad preferences.What we is meant by your activity on Facebook, is what content are you consuming, what did you like or click on, what videos did you watch fully versus the ones you exited after 2 seconds.

Understanding how the interest targeting works is the first step, now let’s look at the second one.

Generic vs. Niche targeting

Probably the most debatable topic in online marketing communities. Just copy the title and see for yourself the number of YouTube videos and blog posts you’ll find on the topic with contradicting opinions.

Let’s take this example to compare the2 targeting methods:

Let's say that you run an Ecommerce shop that resells Nike basketball Shoes in USA.

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Generic Targeting: An advertiser uses a broad interest to target a wide audience size.

Example: Demographic = USA | Interest = Nike,Inc à 30 million people

Pros: Works well for large brand awareness campaigns | Cheaper CPC (Cost per click) | Higher engagement.

Cons: Attracts likes but no real engagement| Low ROI | Wrong data on your audience.

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Niche targeting: An advertiser uses amore specific interest to better reach his target audience.

Example: Demographic = USA | Interest = Nike Basketball à 2.7 million people

Pros: Website Traffic & ConversionsCampaigns | Higher Conversion Rate | High Engagement

Cons: High CPC | High Cost of Conversions |Ad set dries out quickly.

Now that we compared between both methods, here are 5 tips that you should implement when creating your next campaign.

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Tips for creating a successful Meta Ads Campaign

#1 Make it about the customer

Ask yourself: Who is my ideal customer? What does my ideal customer like and enjoys? Where does he spend his time? What is he\she searching for on Facebook?

These types of questions allow you to build a proper understanding of your target audience’s online behavior.

#2 A deeper understanding using Audience Insights

Now that you’ve built a basic understanding of your customer, let’s see what the Data says.

Visit the Audience Insights page

Now you have many data points to touch on. Important data to look at: what pages do they like, where do they live, what languages they speak, what devices are they using, what is their relationship status and many more…

#3 Interest Layering – Narrowing the audience

Now you should have a very deep understanding of your target audience. Let’s start building a campaign.

1. For the sake of the demonstration, let’s use website traffic as our objective.
2. Use the data you gathered on your ideal customer in your audience section (Gender, age, location & language).
3. Start with your main interest (Example: Nike Basketball).
4. What other brands\activities is your ideal customer also interested in. (Example: The North Face).

Important Note: When narrowing down the audience, make sure to click on narrow audience and then enter your interest. The mistake of using two interests together in the same box won’t make it possible for Facebook to know which interest is doing better asFacebook will optimize it randomly. Which leads us to the second point.

#4 Split Testing

The point is to break down each of your interests to single ad sets, so that you can monitor the exact performance of each interest.

For example, you might split a $1000 budget into 10 $5 a day ad sets. After monitoring it for a couple of days. Duplicate the high performing ad sets and stop the low performing ones. 

#5 Tailoring Ad creative to Interests

The smartest campaigns are the ones that talk directly to the customer. To make your customer feel that he belongs to this brand, tailor the ad to his interests. Example: if you are selling earphones for athletes, tailor each ad creative to a certain sport. So, the campaign structure would look something like this:

Campaign -> Ad Set -> Ad

Conversions -> Runners Ad set ->tired of your earphones falling off when talking your morning run? Check out these new earphones made for high performing athletes.

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