The number one question people ask: “what’s the ideal Facebook audience size”?
Without a doubt, setting up the audience when creating your Facebook ads is what drives the most success behind your Facebook campaign.
The right audience can make or break the return on ad spend and in certain cases, it can also make or break the eCommerce business.
Unfortunately, many online retailers believe that it’s the size of the audience that matters the most. And this is not true.
The audience size on Facebook is very important but what matters the most is the ability to find your ideal audience as fast as possible so that you maximize your conversion rates and your purchase ROAS (return on ad spend) – and here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set this up inside the Facebook ads manager.
Table of Contents
- Go From Broad To Specific Audiences
- Not Every Audience Size Is Equal
- Facebook Audience Size Does Matter
- Facebook Ads Audience Set Up Hierarchy
- Testing Your Facebook Ads Audience Is A Must
The following takes you step-by-step through the 5 things you must know when finding and creating your ideal audience inside your Facebook ads manager.
1. Go From Broad To Specific Audiences
To find your ideal Facebook audience size, the perfect customer who is ready to pull out their wallet and buy products from your store, you need to understand the process of chunking first. Think of chunking kind of like going from something broad to something specific and the other way around.
For example, a car is an example of a vehicle which is an example of a type of transport. In this case, transport is the higher chunk (it’s more general). And the car is the lower chunk (it’s more specific). And then you can go even further and specify what type of car, what model, what color, etc. I call this process chunking.
In the same way, we need to look for our ideal audience when creating Facebook ads inside our Facebook ads manager.
For example, if you’re selling ‘canvas prints‘ then ‘home decor‘ would be a higher chunk and a ‘canvas print with puppies‘ would be a super low chunk.
The secret to finding the perfect audience on Facebook is in creating an audience that’s not too broad. To make sure people are interested in what you’re offering. But also not too specific. Because then the facebook audience size will be too small. Which will make it expensive and you will soon reach a cap there. It’s a balancing act between smaller audiences and larger audiences.
Pro-Tip: Keep it simple. Only test ONE interest in ONE ad set, it will be the fastest way to find out what’s working. And eliminate what’s not and help you achieve your ideal ROAS much faster.
2. Not Every Audience Size Is Equal
The second thing is that you’ve got to start thinking of who these people are, your perfect customers. What’s their history and how likely are they to buy your product?
The smaller your advertising budget, the more careful you’ve got to be to follow a systematic approach. So you don’t gamble your money away.
The one option I always appreciate inside the Facebook ads audience set-up is the ‘engaged shoppers’ option inside your Facebook ads manager.
Selecting the ‘engaged shoppers’ option allows you to target only people with a history of clicking on Facebook ads. And completing the exact step the Facebook ads were optimized for. That’s typically your ideal audience. As you don’t want to waste your money on people who like your products but are never going to buy.
3. Facebook Audience Size Does Matter
So finally we’re talking about the audience size on Facebook. For conversion campaigns in eCommerce, you don’t want to go too broad as it won’t be accurate and also not too specific as it won’t be able to perform for you. So somewhere in the middle is something to aim for.
But yes, the question is – what’s in the middle when it comes to the audience size on Facebook?
While the ideal audience size varies from business to business and budget to budget. The general rule of thumb is not to go below 1M in audience size and not above 10M, this is particularly when you’re first starting out. Remember that Facebook ads work on an algorithm that’s continuously learning, so you need to give that algorithm space to find similar people inside the pool you’ve suggested. But also not give that algorithm too much space as it won’t know where to spend your Facebook ads budget. It will actually get confused. If you’d like to see how this looks inside the Facebook ads manager, just have a look here.
4. Facebook Ads Audience Set Up Hierarchy
I’ve seen some online retailers get so focused on the ideal Facebook audience size that they forget about the quality first. Remember, your first mission is to find the ideal audience and hence someone who is interested in what you’re selling. Therefore, worry about the location and demographics as the last priority when setting up your audience on Facebook.
The most successful conversion campaigns I’ve seen focus on the audience interests first and how they’re relevant to the products on offer. Then the countries where they want to target this audience. And only then worried about selecting any specific locations or demographics.
Frankly, nine times out of ten, I personally don’t even bother selecting any specific locations. Or even demographics for my Facebook ads and just go for the interests and countries.
5. Testing Your Facebook Ads Audience Is A Must
Remember, that unless you’re using a systematic approach, you might be gambling your money away. So my tip is to always test everything you do. And the same goes when it comes to Facebook ads audiences. Just because you select one interest that might be relevant, it doesn’t mean that your Facebook ads will skyrocket and you’ll get a great return on ad spend.
In fact, placing all of your eggs in one basket and therefore putting your whole budget onto one audience on Facebook is not something I would recommend doing. Ideally, you want to have at least five to seven audiences set up in parallel to one another.
I suggest you make them similar in size and yet different in terms of the interests they are targeting. This will be the fastest way to successfully launch your ideal Facebook ads audience.
If you’d like to know more about this topic or would like me to walk you through this process step by step inside the Facebook ads manager, just watch this short video on how to set up your audience size on Facebook.
– Silvia Myers aka Traffic Ninja
PS: Comment below if you have any more questions or thoughts on this. I’d love to help.
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