Facebook ad targeting options are the parameters advertisers set during the campaign creation process to determine who to show their ads to. Their targeting options are robust, including everything from demographics to behavior and lifestyle. Targeting is required for every ad, and choosing the right options gets your ad in front of your ideal customers.
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Top 7 Facebook Ad Targeting Options
There are a large number of targeting options with Facebook ads that help businesses get their ad in front of the right people so their ads can be the most effective. To make Facebook’s targeting options easier to understand, we’ve narrowed it down to the top seven categories—from the foundational options to the most sophisticated.
Overview of Top 7 Facebook Targeting Options
Targeting Option
What it Does
Demographics – Defines basic user information such as age, gender, education, workplace, relationship, language, and location.
Interests – Target users who have identified specific interests from personal finance to bodybuilding.
Life Events – Ads can be targeting recent life events like anniversaries or starting a new job.
Lifestyle & Financial – This option targets users living a certain lifestyle, including travel frequency and event attendance.
Connections – This targeting option creates an audience using friends of your Facebook fans.
Behaviors – Targets users who have recently taken specific action advertisers select from a list.
Retargeting – Targets users who have previously clicked on an ad or visited your website.
1. Demographics
Demographics targeting is the heart of Facebook ad targeting, as it allows advertisers to define who an audience is. Demographics can answer how old your audience is, where they went to school, what they do for work, where they live, and more. Every Facebook advertiser, outside of those using the Facebook Pixel to create custom audiences, should use a combination of demographics targeting in conjunction with other targeting options.
Demographics that can be targeted with Facebook ads are:
Age – Target users within a specific age range or by generation.
Language – Choose the language your target audience speaks.
Gender – Male, female, or all.
Relationship – Gender users are interested in and relationship status.
Education – Education level, field of study, school attended, etc.
Work – Industry, job title, employer, and office type.
Location – Everyone in a specific location, people who have recently been to a specific location, or people traveling in a specific location.
Example of Demographics Targeting
A local flower shop is looking to promote their overnight flower delivery service for Valentine’s Day. They want to reach men in relationships who are between 35 and 50 years old who live within a five-mile radius. They choose an ad schedule so their ad displays only 12 to 48 hours before Valentine’s Day to capture those last-minute orders for their overnight delivery service.
How to Target Demographics
From your Facebook Manager account, begin the new campaign creation process by clicking the “+ Campaign” button from your manager account home screen. After choosing your ad’s Facebook marketing objective, you will be prompted to select your audience. From this screen, the top section will be where you input basic audience demographics, such as location, age, gender, and more.
Demographics on Facebook Ads Manager – facebook ad targeting
How to Target by Demographics on Facebook Ads Manager
2. Interests
Facebook targeting by interests hones in on an audience by comparing your targeting selection to things they like, such as sports and hobbies. Interest targeting allows advertisers to show their ads to those who would likely be within their ideal audience. Most businesses will want to include interest targeting in their Facebook ads because it better qualifies audiences, driving Facebook advertising success.
Facebook interests advertisers can target are:
Business & Industry – Design, Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Real Estate, etc.
Entertainment – Movies, Music, TV, etc.
Family & Relationships – Family, Parenthood, Dating, etc.
Fitness & Wellness – Bodybuilding, Dieting, Nutrition, Running, Yoga, etc.
Food & Drinks – Alcoholic Beverages, Cooking, Food, Restaurants, etc.
Hobbies & Activities – Arts & Events, Current Events, Pets, Politics, Travel, etc.
Fashion & Design – Beauty, Clothing, Fashion Accessories, Shopping, etc.
Sports & Outdoors – Outdoor Recreation, Sports, etc.
Technology – Computers, Consumer Electronics, etc.
To use these targeting options successfully, you will need to get a really good understanding of who your target audience is. If you’re not quite sure how to decipher precisely who they are, check out our article How to Create Customer Profiles. There you will find all the information and steps needed to create customer profiles that you can then use to set ad targeting options to match.
Example of Targeting Facebook Interests
A local bar is collaborating with a matchmaker service to host a weekly 3k run for singles that finishes at the bar. They want to increase their event attendance and decide to target users who have shown an interest in dating, alcoholic beverages, fitness, and running in addition to targeting other options such as those within a five-mile radius and whose relationship status on Facebook is single.
How to Target Interests
From your Facebook Manager account, begin the new campaign creation process by clicking the “+ Campaign” button from your manager account home screen. After choosing your ad’s marketing objective, you will be prompted to select your audience. From this screen, scroll down to where it says “Detailed Targeting” (as illustrated below). Click “Browse” from the right-hand side of the detailed targeting text box to expand options or input your interests in the text box.
Targeting Option on Facebook Ads Manager – facebook ad targeting
Detailed Targeting Option on Facebook Ads Manager
Detailed Targeting Options – facebook ad targeting
Select Interests from Detailed Targeting Options
Facebook Interests Advertisers – facebook ad targeting
List of Facebook Interests Advertisers Can Target
3. Life Events
Targeting life events is a really unique opportunity for businesses to advertise at exactly the right moment. Timing is half the battle for many businesses, and life events ensure your ad is displayed with the perfect timing. Businesses with event-based products and services, as well as those offering event-based promotions, are a great fit for targeting life events because they reach your audience at the time when they most need your product or services.
Life events Facebook advertisers can target are:
Birthdays – Upcoming or Recent Birthdays
Relationships – Anniversary, Engagement, Marriage, etc.
Family – Expecting a Baby, New Pet, Loss of a Loved One, etc.
Professional – Started School, Recent Graduate, New Job, etc.
Home & Living – Recently Moved, New Home Purchase, etc.
Example of Facebook Targeting Life Events
A home furnishings store is using Facebook to advertise their products. They have found that people often buy new furniture when they move, buy a new home, are expecting a baby, and/or start a new job. They create two campaigns: one for those who have recently moved or started a new job with images of living room furniture, and one with nursery furniture for those expecting a baby.
How to Target Life Events
From your Facebook Manager account, begin the new campaign creation process by clicking the “+ Campaign” button from your manager account home screen. After choosing your ad’s marketing objective, you will be prompted to select your audience. From this screen, scroll down to where it says “Detailed Targeting.” Click “Browse” on the right, then select “Demographics” from the drop-down menu. Then find and select “Life Events” in the list of options.
Target by Life Events in Facebook Ads Manager – facebook ad targeting
How to Target by Life Events in Facebook Ads Manager
Target Life Events on Facebook Ads – facebook ad targeting
Target Life Events on Facebook Ads
Life Events Advertisers Can Target on Facebook – facebook ad targeting
Life Events Advertisers Can Target on Facebook
4. Lifestyle & Financial
Lifestyle and financial targeting lets advertisers target audiences who have certain amounts of wealth or live a certain way. This is a particularly useful targeting option for businesses in the luxury sector, offering high-end products or services because it can help pre-qualify users, rather than showing ads to people who may be interested but lack the ability to afford your product or service.
Lifestyle and financial targeting options on Facebook include:
Income – Target an annual income range.
Net Worth – Liquid Assets and Total Net Worth.
Travel – Frequent Travelers, Business Travelers, Commuters, Cruisers, etc.
Seasonal & Events – Baseball, College Football, Professional Football, etc.
Expats – Users who live outside their home country.
Residential Profiles – Length of Residence, New Mover, Recent Home Buyer, etc.
Example of Facebook Ad Targeting by Lifestyle & Financial
A professional home watch company is looking to expand their client list, and while they know there is a market, many people who need their service aren’t necessarily looking for it. By using Facebook ads, they can place their ad in front of those who are a good fit for their service, driving awareness and consideration. They target users with incomes in the top 10 percent of their ZIP code and who are frequently business and international travelers.
How to Target Lifestyle & Financial
From your Facebook Manager account, begin the new campaign creation process by clicking the “+ Campaign” button from your manager account home screen. After choosing your ad’s marketing objective, you will be prompted to select your audience. From this screen, scroll down to where it says “Detailed Targeting.” Click “Browse” on the right, then select “Demographics” from the drop-down menu. Select “Financial” in the list of options, then make your selection.
Demographics Targeting – facebook ad targeting
Select Demographics Targeting from Detailed Targeting
Financial Targeting – facebook ad targeting
Select Financial Targeting from Demographics Targeting
Select Income-Level to Target on Facebook – facebook ad targeting
Select Income Level to Target on Facebook
5. Connections
Connections targeting lets advertisers target ads to friends of friends/customers/event attendees on Facebook. Social circles often have a large degree of shared interests, so by targeting people who may have not heard of you, but are friends of those who have, you are reaching people who will likely be interested in your business. Connections targeting is particularly useful for advertising events such as concerts to services such as dance classes.
The different ways to use connections targeting are:
Facebook Page Visitors – Include or exclude those who have visited or liked your page.
App Users – Include or exclude app users, or target friends of your app users.
Events – Include or exclude people attending your event or people who are friends of those who are going to your event.
Example of Targeting Connections
An art gallery is hosting their annual charity auction and is looking to increase event attendance. By targeting ads to users who are friends of people attending their event, they are able to reach people within the same social circles who are the most likely to attend the event as well. Also, to avoid showing ads for the event to people who are already planning on attending, they exclude those users.
How to Target Connections
From your Facebook Manager account, begin the new campaign creation process by clicking the “+ Campaign” button from your manager account home screen. After choosing your ad’s marketing objective, you will be prompted to select your audience. From this screen, scroll down to where it says “Connections,” then click the “Add a Connection Type” to open the menu of connection options. Choose the option that fits your target audience.
How to Target Facebook Ads Using Connections – facebook ad targeting
How to Target Facebook Ads Using Connections
6. Behaviors
Behavior targeting is targeting audiences based on their actions. Rather than who they are or what they’re interested in, behaviors are common actions they take from donating to charities to frequently buying clothing online. By knowing their common user behaviors, advertisers can gauge the likelihood of the audience taking a specific action. Behavior targeting is a great option for businesses that have a deep understanding of who their ideal customer is and their actions.
Facebook advertisers can target the following behaviors:
Automotive – New Vehicle Buyers, New Vehicle Owners, Used Vehicle Buyers, etc.
Business-to-Business – Industry, Company Size, etc.
Charitable Donations – All Donations, Animal Welfare, Environmental & Wildlife, Children’s Causes, etc.
Digital Activities – Operating System Used, Event Creators, Facebook Page Admins, etc.
Mobile Device User – All, Smartphones, Tablets, All Mobile Devices by OS, etc.
Purchase Behavior – Business Purchases, Clothing, Food & Drink, Home & Garden, etc.
Example of Targeting by User Behavior
A new car wash is looking to advertise their monthly membership options. They know that people with new cars are most likely to frequent car washes, so they target their ad’s audience by users who recently purchased a new vehicle, in addition to by other factors such as location, to target those within a close proximity. Without targeting user behavior, they wouldn’t be able to show ads specifically to car owners, never mind new car owners.
How to Target Behavior
From your Facebook Manager account, begin the new campaign creation process by clicking the “+ Campaign” button from your manager account home screen. After choosing your ad’s marketing objective, you will be prompted to select your audience. From this screen, scroll down to where it says “Connections,” then click the “Add a Connection Type” to open the menu of connection options. Choose the option that fits your target audience.
Select Behaviors From the Detailed Targeting Options – facebook ad targeting
Select Behaviors from the Detailed Targeting Options
List of Behavior Targeting Options – facebook ad targeting
List of Behavior Targeting Options on Facebook Ads Manager
7. Retarget Ads
Facebook retargeting lets advertisers direct ads to warm audiences or those who already know of your business through recent website visits, to those who have watched previous videos of your product on Facebook. Retargeting proves to be a very effective way of building customer bases, as warm audiences are more likely to convert than cold audiences. Businesses who have the time and expertise to run retargeting ads strategically should take advantage of them.
Retargeting does require the use of the Facebook Pixel. The Facebook Pixel is a piece of JavaScript code that is embedded on an advertiser’s website to track users who visit their site. Creating and installing the Facebook Pixel is free and easier than it sounds. Learn how to get yours up and running in our article on using the Facebook Pixel.
Ways to use retargeting ads on Facebook:
Site Visitors – Users who have been on your site.
Email Lists – Retarget using existing email lists.
Phone Numbers – Retarget using your contacts’ phone numbers.
Facebook User IDs – Retarget using Facebook User IDs.
Video Views – Retarget ads to users who have viewed a percentage of your video.
Living Social – facebook ad targeting
”How often do you buy a product or service that you’ve never heard of? Hardly ever. You’re much more likely to click on an ad from a business that you already have some knowledge about. That’s why I’m a huge fan of retargeting campaigns using the Facebook Pixel. By ensuring that you show relevant messages, creatives and offers to your prospective customers as they progress through the marketing funnel, you can drastically improve your conversion rates.”
– Riana Young, Digital Marketing Manager, Living Social
Example of Retargeting Facebook Ads
A children’s summer camp uses Facebook ads to reach parents of school-aged children. They find that about 20 percent of users who submit their email to request more information register their child for camp the following summer. Using the 80 percent that have not converted, they retarget ads on Facebook to remind them of their camp and to help sell them on reasons to send their child, as well as provide any promotional discounts.
How to Create Retargeting Campaigns
Retargeting ads on Facebook is more complex than standard ads. Not only does retargeting require the use of the Facebook Pixel, but it also demands additional know-how and more precision when it comes to matching ads to specific users, or audiences. Create a retargeting campaign by creating a custom audience using your website data from your Facebook Pixel and then building a new campaign using that custom audience as your audience source.
If you would like to go a step further and target people who haven’t yet interacted with your brand but are similar to your most engaged or high-performing custom audience, consider creating and advertising to a Facebook lookalike audience. To do so, read our guide on how to create Facebook lookalike audiences.
How Facebook Ad Targeting Works
Facebook ad targeting is how advertisers tell Facebook who to show their ads to. Facebook ads have more audience targeting options than paid search platforms such as Google Ads, which offsets the difference between search and social in that Facebook users are not actively searching for your product or service. To combat this, and to ensure ads are shown to the right people, Facebook gives advertisers a way to precisely choose who their ads are shown to.
For Facebook ads to be effective, they need to reach the right people, and to reach the right people, advertisers use targeting. The group of people you tell Facebook to display your ad to is called your audience. Businesses simultaneously use a mix of targeting options to create an audience that reflects their ideal customer. This helps place ads to people who will likely be interested in your business, and in return, drive more sales.
For example, a college counseling and exam prep business could target parents of teens who are sophomores and juniors in high school. They could go farther to target those who have shown an interest in colleges through university Facebook page likes or by targeting those who have recently visited specified campuses. This prevents their ad from showing to irrelevant users, such as those who have young children or are recent college graduates.
Who Facebook Targeting Is Right For
Every Facebook advertiser is required to use ad targeting. The difference lies within the extent to which it is used and how strategically targeting is used. Many Facebook advertisers aren’t aware of the number of different ways they can use Facebook ad targeting, leaving many with the most basic targeting that doesn’t necessarily do a great job of honing in on your ideal customer.
Another mistake many businesses make with Facebook advertising is using one audience across all of their campaigns. Sure, the average business has an overall standard ideal customer. The problem is this fails to match ads to specific campaign audiences. Remember that since each campaign is a bit different, you will want to make sure the audience for each campaign is a bit different too.
If you need help identifying your targeted audiences, contact Hibu. You’ll get a one-on-one consultation to help you identify your business goals and create and test targeted ads that put you in front of the people who are right for your business.
Example of How a Business Can Use Facebook Ad Targeting
Let’s say a Brooklyn cafe is using Facebook ads to attract new business. Initially, they think they don’t really have a target audience as they see all sorts of people of all ages, from locals to travelers, passing through. Rather than targeting users only based on their location, they begin breaking their campaigns out further to the following:
Campaign 1: Local Commuters
They want to attract local commuters—those who grab a morning coffee on the go—as competing coffee shops tend to have long wait times, leading many commuters to choose coffee chains. To capture these people, they target audiences by location, interests, and even workplace, while excluding students and setting an ad schedule of 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Using ads that highlight their fast morning service, they create a campaign that speaks to the needs of commuters.
Campaign 2: Lunch Crowd
Many people aren’t aware that the cafe offers a lunch menu, so to attract more than just coffee drinkers, they create a campaign to advertise their lunch offerings. They start by targeting those who have checked-in to local competing lunch spots and those within a walkable radius who have shown an interest in organic food on Facebook. Now, local users perusing their Facebook around 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. who fit this criteria will see this ad denoting their great lunch menu.
Campaign 3: University Students
They know local university students want a cafe where they can leisurely get a coffee and work on their laptops or convene with friends. Looking to keep the cafe full until they close at 5 p.m., they target students who currently attend the nearby university who have indicated an interest in coffee and cafes. Using this target audience, they created an ad that shows in the afternoons, promoting their free Wi-Fi, interior conducive to studying, and their student discount.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is It Possible to Target Business Owners on Facebook?
Yes, and there are a number of different ways to target business owners on Facebook. The main ways are to target by job title and business Facebook page admins. Alternatively, target users with interests in business and entrepreneurship and by the behavior of those who frequently make business purchases.
Do I Need the Facebook Pixel?
If you want to retarget ads on Facebook, then yes, you will need the Facebook Pixel. The Pixel is how advertisers get additional user information that is used to create custom retargeting audiences. Learn more about the Facebook Pixel in our article, the Facebook Pixel: What It Is & How to Use It.
What Is the Facebook Pixel Helper?
The Facebook Pixel Helper is a Google Chrome plug-in that monitors and serves as a troubleshooting tool for the Facebook Pixel. If you have the Facebook Pixel, it’s worth getting the free plug-in because it makes maintaining the pixel easier. Get it now by visiting our article How to Install & Use the Facebook Pixel Helper.
How Much Does Facebook Ads Cost?
The average CPC on Facebook is around $0.30 per click. However, it varies widely and can be over $2 per click, depending on a number of factors from competition and audience to ad quality and maximum bid. Get detailed Facebook cost information, including industry averages and cost estimates, in our article Facebook Advertising Cost.
How Do I Create and Launch a Facebook Video Ad?
Video ads are easier than many businesses assume, and they are a very effective ad type. Not only are video ads better at attracting (and holding) a user’s attention, video ads also provide more analytics and insights advertisers can use to retarget ads. We’ve laid out everything you need to know about video ads in our article, How to Design, Create & Launch Effective Facebook Video Ads.
Bottom Line: Facebook Ad Targeting
Advertisers on Facebook have a world of opportunity when it comes to targeting ads to reach both target audiences and advertising goals. Every business should think strategically about how they can utilize the plethora of targeting options to successfully reach their customers.
If you want to avoid the trial-and-error of testing targeting options on your own, try hiring Lyfe Marketing. As a Facebook ad agency, it can help you reach the right customers, generate more clicks, and drive more leads with targeted ad campaigns. Get a free proposal and learn more today.