Using call tracking data, learn how to create lookalike audiences on Facebook and Google
Numerous individuals who have never heard of your company are currently browsing the internet in markets all around the world. Tell you something you don’t already know. But here’s the thing: A lot of those people would be prone to making purchases from you if you sent them pertinent marketing communications. So how can you get in touch with these potential, high-intent clients? For your campaigns, one tactic is to create lookalike audiences.
This blog post explains how using call tracking data to create lookalike audiences for Facebook and Google ads can broaden your audience and boost conversion rates.
What Exactly Are Similar Audiences?
Using a segmentation tool called lookalike audiences, you can locate people whose interests and demographics are similar to those of your most valued clients. Your marketing efforts can be scaled, your audience can be increased, and you can locate more users who convert well.
Several audiences that are similar
Some of the most popular kinds of lookalike audiences used by marketers nowadays are listed below:
- Lookalike audience for website engagement: An audience based on users who become customers on your website.
- Key online content lookalike: An audience based on users who interacted with particular pages on your website, such as the page for one of your best-selling products.
- App activity lookalike: An audience that is similar to those who have used your app to do a particular action.
- Facebook page engagement lookalike: An audience that is similar to those who have interacted with your Facebook page.
- Lookalike audience based on viewers of your videos who have previously engaged with them.
- The most valuable clients in your customer relationship management system are used to create a lookalike audience.
- Phone call conversion lookalike: An audience modeled after callers who made phone-based purchases from you.
How Do I Create Audiences That Look Like Each Other?
Using information from your current consumers or a “seed crowd,” lookalike audiences can be produced. Anyone who has previously shopped with or gotten in touch with your business might be considered a member of this seed audience. Lookalike audiences that are likewise likely to be interested in your products and services and end up becoming high-value consumers are created using characteristics of the seed audience, such as location, demographics, and purchase history.
Your most important clients are likely the subject of a sizable amount of data that you currently have and are always adding to. Your marketing efforts can reach a wider audience thanks to this information, which can also help you identify your best potential new clients and make efficient use of your advertising budget.
How Much Time Does It Take to Build a Lookalike Audience?
Facebook: After submitting your criteria, it may take Facebook 6–24 hours to construct your lookalike audience. As long as you continue to aggressively target advertising to your audience, they will update every 3 to 7 days going forward. You don’t have to wait for your lookalike audience to update before using it, either.
Google: Your list may not be created for up to 72 hours after you’ve built your Similar Audience in Google. You can begin sending advertisements to your new audience once it’s finished.
A Rich Source of Audience Targeting Data Is Call Tracking Software
If your business does a large portion of its sales over the phone, you’ll discover that the clients who make purchases online may differ significantly from those who do so over the phone. Purchases of greater value and complexity typically take place over the phone, when the buyer can ask particular inquiries. The point being that you can be missing your highest-value clients if you’re solely creating lookalikes using digital seed audiences. Building audiences that will generate the most value for you can be made easier by incorporating data from your call tracking platform.
Here are some specifics for getting started with creating lookalike audiences utilizing call tracking data on Facebook and Google, two important management tools for digital marketing campaigns.
Making Facebook Lookalike Audiences
- Go to the “Create Audience” function in the “Audiences” section of Facebook Ads Manager and choose “Lookalike Audiences” from the drop-down menu.
- Choose the nations or regions you want to target when creating your “source audience.” You’ll also pick your sources for creating your lookalike audience, such as website traffic.
- The size of your source audience should be specified. Although Facebook advises a source audience with “1,000 to 50,000 of your greatest customers based on lifetime value,” it should have at least 100 participants.
- Once you’ve specified your criteria, Facebook will examine the source audience you’ve chosen to find commonalities among its constituents (for example, shared interests). After that, Facebook will identify potential targets for you who are similar to the members of your source audience.
With Facebook Ads Manager, you can establish a single source audience from which you can generate up to 500 lookalike audiences. Additionally, you can combine various customer and/or lookalike audiences to more precisely target your audience. There are therefore several opportunities for experimenting.
Visit this page in the Facebook Ads Help Center for more information on building lookalike audiences, including advice for organizing your customer data.
Construction of Related Audiences Using Google Ads
Similar to Facebook’s lookalike audiences, Google Advertisements’ Similar Audiences targeting tool enables advertisers to reach a wider audience by displaying ads to people who share traits with their top-performing clients. By combining similar audiences with Display Network retargeting, Google claims that marketers can experience 41% more conversions.
Remarketing lists are essential for developing and deploying similar audiences, which is why Google advises doing so before launching similar audiences. For Google Ads to generate a list of potential customers for your campaign, you must first set up a seed list (remarketing list). Similar audiences can be created using a variety of remarketing lists, including those created using data from Google Analytics, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, apps, website visits, and more. (As will be discussed further in this piece, “more” includes your call conversion data.)
How to construct comparable audiences with Google Ads
The Display Network, the Search Network, YouTube, Gmail, Customer Match, and apps all offer similar audience targeting options. The steps for creating comparable audiences in Google Ads for your display campaigns are as follows:
- In the navigation bar of your Google Ads account, select “Display campaigns” (or click on the name of the specific campaign that you want to add targeting to).
- Go to the page menu and select “Audiences.”
- To access the “Edit audiences” section, click the pencil icon, and then click “Select an ad group” (or the pencil icon that’s right next to it).
- The “All audiences” box will appear; select “Remarketing” and then your list type.
- To choose a list, click the box next to its name.
- Click “Save” next to the list names.
On this page in Google Ads Help, you can find these instructions as well as those for Search campaigns.
Based on elements including whether the seed list has a minimum of 100 visitors and the kinds of websites the visitors have seen over the past 30 days, Google Ads will automatically determine which of your remarketing lists qualify for producing similar audiences. By searching through millions of apps and websites on the Display Network, Google Ads discovers similar audiences. Using machine learning, it will update similar audience lists in real time; the lists can change dynamically in response to shifting markets and trends.
In order to create Custom Segments for display advertising and target prospects based on their interests and behaviors, Google additionally integrates customer affinity and customer intent. When developing bespoke intent audiences, marketers can create highly specific or general characteristics with this audience expansion tool.
Case Study: Rogers Communications’ Use of Call Tracking Data to Create High-Converting Lookalike Audiences
With more than 10.8 million members, Rogers, which was founded in 1960, is Canada’s largest telecom provider. The goal of Rogers is to offer the best media, home, and wireless services to Canadians and their companies. The phone call is an essential component of the trip for Rogers’ consumers because telecommunications plans are complicated transactions.
Their online approach
The majority of Rogers’ conversions come from Google sponsored search advertisements, but they also use a number of different ad kinds throughout across the sales funnel. For customers who aren’t yet ready to buy, they deliver display ads, paid search ads on Bing, and Facebook ads to inform prospects and raise brand awareness. They may track each ad placement that finally results in a phone call conversion using Invoca. They were able to optimize their media spending as a result and attract more clients at a cheaper cost.