How Many People Do I Need to Create a Lookalike Audience on Facebook?

Creating a lookalike audience on Facebook can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your advertising efforts by targeting users with similar attributes to your existing audience. To do this, you need to have a custom audience of at least 100 people. Here’s a detailed guide on how to create a lookalike audience and some tips to optimize your strategy.

The Basic Requirement: 100 People for a Custom Audience

While the minimum requirement to create a lookalike audience is based on a custom audience with at least 100 people, it is always advisable to have more data. The larger your custom audience, the more accurate and diverse your lookalike audience will be, as Facebook will have a wider pool of data to draw from.

Steps to Create a Lookalike Audience

Define Your Custom Audience: First, you need to create a custom audience on Facebook. This can be based on website traffic, app events, interests, and more. If you don't have 100 people, consider creating a custom audience that includes visits to all product pages or pages on your website.

Access the Audiences Tool: Use the Audiences tool in Ads Manager. This is where you will create your lookalike audience.

Choose the Custom Audience: In the dialog box, select the custom audience you want to base your lookalike audience on. This will provide Facebook with the starting point for finding similar users.

Select Target Countries: Identify the countries you want to target for your lookalike audience. This can be done by entering the specific countries or choosing a global audience.

Choose the Audience Size: Based on the size of your custom audience, choose the appropriate audience size for your lookalike. For a custom audience based on website traffic, a 1% lookalike audience size works well. In the U.S., this size can be around 2 million people, while in the UK, it is often around 400,000 people.

Click Create Audience: Once you have selected all the necessary parameters, click 'Create Audience'. Your lookalike audience is now ready to use.

Optimizing Your Lookalike Audience

While a minimum of 100 people is required to create a lookalike audience, the larger your custom audience, the better. Facebook will be able to generate more accurate and diverse lookalike audiences as it has a larger data pool to work with. It's also worth noting that Facebook’s algorithm changes regularly. Regular testing is essential to ensure that you are reaching the most relevant audience. This might involve creating different lookalike audiences and comparing their performance to determine which works best for your campaign.

Final Note

While the minimum requirement is 100 people, it is highly recommended to have a larger custom audience for more accurate results. Facebook’s algorithms continue to evolve, so it’s important to stay updated and test different lookalike audiences to optimize your marketing efforts.