Facebook Ads and demographic targeting ideas

The demographic targeting options available to you on Facebook are really only limited to your imagination. No mucking around this week, let’s explore some possibilities…

If you sell Rolex watches, would you be interested in advertising to people who were males aged over 40 who told you they “like” expensive, luxury cars?

I know I would.

This first screenshot shows there are 9,800 people who match that exact profile who live in Australia and have Facebook accounts:

Okay, so the numbers aren’t huge, but when it comes to advertising online or offline, I’ve never (ever) cared for sheer size of audiences, I’ve always focused on the intent or interests of people. It makes for a much better experience for both advertisers and the folks you’re marketing to (hopefully).

What if you happened to be a large telco and you discovered that there were quite a few people on Facebook who told you they were dissatisfied with their current provider?

I’ve no idea on the legalities of advertising to those people; consult your lawyer for advice.

Then there’s the challenge of trying to target “families” in Facebook. It’s been difficult with the targeting options in Facebook to advertise to people who have kids.

It’s reasonably easy to overcome the problem by searching for people who tell you they like spending time with their kids and variations thereof. In this example you can reach all women aged over 18 who have kids on Facebook.

But what about if you wanted reach single mothers because you offer a product or service which will make their life just that little bit easier?

Then there are the people that “like” professions. When people tell you that they “like” a profession, it generally means that’s what they do for a living. Recruiting agencies; knock yourself out. Here’s an example of the audience size you can advertise to who are engineers.

So, use your imagination when you’re advertising on Facebook, especially when you’re trying to match your products or services to people who might be interested in what it is you have to offer. The smaller and more targeted the audiences the better! It’ll help your online sales.

For more Online Sales expert advice, click here.

Chris Thomas heads up Reseo, a search engine optimisation  company which specialises in creating and maintaining Google AdWords campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation campaigns for a range of corporate clients.