Facebook Ads 101: What is Persona Targeting

With over two billion monthly active users, Facebook advertising is a great addition to your marketing mix. There are many different ways to reach people on Facebook but one of the most simple and effective methods is persona targeting.

Whether you own a new sushi restaurant and are trying to build awareness or wedding planner looking to expand your client base, persona targeting is a great way to find new customers!

What is Persona Targeting?

Persona targeting allows marketers to create and deliver ads on Facebook that will reach a defined group of people based on their demographics, interests, and behaviors. These groups of people, or “audiences” can can be created through Facebook Ads Manager and can also be saved for future Facebook ad campaigns.

Let’s dive a little deeper into each one of these categories.

facebook persona targeting infographic

Demographics

Demographic targeting includes age, gender, relationship status, education level, parental status, household composition, language and much more.

Let’s say you own a daycare and are looking to increase enrollment. If you know that your typical customer is a parent with a child under the age of five, Facebook demographic targeting allows you to reach those specific people. Not only can you narrow it down to parents, but you can also get as granular as parents to children of a specific age range. For this school, you probably don’t want to target parents of high school kids so this targeting capability is perfect for finding your ideal customer.

Interests

Interest targeting allows you to reach people interested in a subject related to your product or services. These people might not already like your page or business but have shown interest in products or services similar to what you offer. Much of this data is user entered (for example, the content you add to your personal “intro” section on your Facebook profile) or based on pages they’ve liked or interacted with.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of interests to choose from in Facebook making this a viable targeting option for nearly any business. If you’re a Greek restaurant owner, you can choose interests as broad as Mediterranean food down to something as specific as baklava or falafel!

Behaviors

Unlike interest targeting which allows you to reach people based on what they’re interested in, Behavior targeting allows you to reach people based on their purchasing behaviors, digital activity, travel habits, and more.

Some of the current targeting options are going away with Facebook removing Partner Categories after the recent Cambridge Analytica data breach, but not everything is going away so there is no need to panic or stay away from behavior targets. There is still plenty of useful data to help businesses find their ideal audience.

Behavior targeting can still help vets find pet owners, travel agencies find frequent travelers, and nonprofits find people who donate to causes online.

Who Can’t Use Persona Targeting?

Pretty much nobody.

Unless your ideal customer can only be found through advanced targeting, like remarketing, business of all industries, shapes, sizes, and budgets can benefit from one of these categories.

The key to a successful Facebook campaign involves getting the right message in front of the right people at the right time. Utilizing persona targeting can help you get more results, more customers, and a better return on your ad spend!