As social media use has become increasingly prevalent over the past decade, businesses have been looking for ways to leverage this new channel to reach more customers. In comparison to the old “spray and pray” approach of traditional advertising, businesses can use social media data and user personas to reach a larger audience by understanding the needs and wants of their target market and giving the perfect message to people that will be most receptive to it. By understanding what motivates their target market, businesses can create content that appeals to them and speaks to their interests.
Facebook and Instagram’s awareness campaigns can help any businesses reach millions of potential customers with a budget that most businesses have available. By tapping into Facebook and Instagram’s vast user base, companies can reach many potential customers at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.
It’s so easy to set up one of these campaigns that often businesses jump in without doing the amount of preparation that would make their campaigns reach their highest potential. You should always begin by creating buyer personas that reflect the needs and wants of your target market. These buyer personas are a great way to understand what motivates buyers in your market. Then, by using the Meta Audience Insights tool, you can customize your campaign to capture their attention.
Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are valuable for understanding your target audience and how to reach them best. By understanding your target user, you can more effectively create content that resonates with them. Additionally, using social media data to understand user behavior better can help you identify patterns and trends to broaden your reach.
Buyer personas are fictional characters developed to be representative of your potential buyers or customers. These characters should represent a wide range of demographic characteristics to ensure that you completely understand all the types of people you are trying to engage.
But how do you know the characteristics of your ideal target audience? Don’t just guess. Meta’s Audience Insights tool is here to help.
Audience Insights Tool
Meta’s Audience Insights tool helps businesses effectively understand what groups and demographics will respond best to their message.. The tool provides businesses with valuable insights into their target audiences, including information on demographics, interests, and buying habits. This information informs the development of ad targeting strategies more likely to resonate with potential customers and convert them into paying customers.
If you are a business that relies on Facebook or Instagram ads or social media posts to promote your product or service, Meta’s Audience Insights tool lets you see beyond user profile photos so you can make informed decisions on how to reach them. You can better understand user behavior, preferences, and activity with their user data to build brand awareness and increase engagement. In addition, you can use these insights to develop user groups for future targeting.
Using Meta’s Audience Insights Tool
When you click Audience Insights (located in the “Analyze and Report” section), you’ll see a pop-up asking you to choose an audience. You will need to select to target either everyone on the platform or just people connected to your page.
If your goal is to broaden your audience by investigating user trends across Facebook, you should start with everyone on Facebook and filter down from there. Or, to learn more about people who have already expressed interest in your business, you can begin with people who have already liked your business page or previously interacted with your content.
Applying Meta’s Audience Insights Filters
The Audience Insights tool gives you access to an incredible amount of data, so how do you get to what’s most valuable? By using their filters, you can work to target the right audience.
When you select “Create Audience,” you will see a series of filters divided into five main categories. The first four categories will be the ones you use the most.
- Location
- Age and gender
- Interests
- Connections
The Audience Insights tool also offers some advanced filter options, such as:
- Occupation
- Educational Level
- Life Events
- Relationship Status
The advanced filters sound great, but you should use them sparingly. Because these filters can be so granular and specific, applying too many or the wrong kinds can limit your target audience so much that you stymie your chance of success.
Analyzing Meta Audience Insights
Once you’ve generated some data, you need to analyze it. The collected data is collected into four categories, organized as tabs across the top of your screen: Demographics, Page Likes, Location, and Activity.
Demographics
The Demographics tab is where you go to get insight into metrics like relationship status, geographic location, age, and gender. Remember that you should continuously refine and update your buyer personas as you better understand your market. Demographics data is useful for refining your buyer personas to ensure that your targeting schema stays on point.
Page Likes
Under the Page Likes tab, you can see how your audience interacts with other pages. Why is this important? Because it shows you what your audience actually cares about and the types of content they are most likely to interact with.
Location
The Location tab helps you identify the geographic areas worth investing in, with user data sorted by city, country, and even predominant language. For example, if you are marketing a bicycle, you may be surprised to discover that some cities will yield better results than others. This could be because some cities are more accessible to bikes or the population enjoys outdoor activities.
Activity
The Activity tab will help you build on the insights you uncovered in the Page Likes tab by showing exactly how your audience chooses to engage with other Facebook pages or campaigns. With this knowledge, you can determine if you need to focus more on original video content or advertising time-limited promotions. You will also see whether your audience is more likely to access social media via smartphones or computers.
Launching your Brand Awareness Campaign
Once you have developed your buyer personas and used Meta’s Audience Insights to define your target market, you are ready to create a “Brand Awareness” campaign. With the correct parameters, you can often reach half a million people or more for each $1,000 of ad spend. If your campaign fails to reach your goals, you can use the data again to refine you campaign until it is as efficient as possible and.
Audience Insights are not just for one-time use. To ensure that your campaigns are most effective, you must include Audience Insights as part of your ongoing marketing strategy.
