What is a Lookalike Audience?

A lookalike audience is an advertising audience made up of new people who closely resemble your best existing customers. The platform analyses the characteristics of your source audience and finds similar profiles among hundreds of millions of users.

How do you create a lookalike audience?

The basis is a high-quality source audience: a custom audience of your best customers, website visitors via the Meta Pixel or people who have made a purchase. Meta then finds people with similar demographic and behavioural characteristics in a region you choose.

Setting the lookalike percentage

When you create it, you choose a percentage from 1 to 10 per cent. A 1% lookalike is the most similar to your source audience (smaller but more precise); a 10% lookalike is broader (more reach, less similar). Start with 1 to 3 per cent for the highest quality.

Lookalike versus interest targeting

Interest targeting selects people based on the interests users have indicated; lookalike targeting uses behavioural data from your actual customers. Lookalikes are usually more effective because they are based on real customer patterns.

How large should my source audience be?

Meta recommends at least 1,000 people in the source audience for a reliable lookalike. More source data leads to better results.

How often should I refresh my source audience?

Ideally every 30 to 90 days, so the most recent customer data is included. More at developers.google.com/search.