Common Mistakes of Lookalike Modeling
Success in lookalike modeling still depends on the marketer using it. Avoid these common mistakes to save time, money, and resources.
1. Limiting control over audience selection
The effectiveness of your lookalike audience depends on the factors you incorporate into the platform. If you only focus on age and gender similarities, you may miss other influential factors that shape your customers’ behavior, like occupation and income.
2. Only using lookalike modeling once
Regularly use lookalike modeling to accommodate the evolving behavior of your seed audiences. Constant utilization of a lookalike audience builder enhances your customer understanding, enabling you to refine your targeting for greater accuracy based on new insights.
3. Relying on lookalike audiences too much
While a lookalike audience builder is a powerful tool, it shouldn’t be relied upon as the sole solution for seeking customers.
Targeting APIs offer versatility and allow you to find different audience targeting techniques, such as affinity segments and utilizing data from your customer dashboard. By leveraging targeting APIs, you can reach and connect with your desired audience using multiple strategies.
4. Being too general
The more specific you are with the lookalike audience you want, the better your results will be. For instance, suppose you sell high-end jewelry. While you can create a lookalike audience based on similar interests, targeting people from a broad income range may be inefficient.
It’s best to be as niche as possible without shrinking your seed audience by too much. The ideal size depends on your platform and how large you want your lookalike audience to be. In general, Facebook recommends 100 people as your seed audience to allow lookalike audience builders to understand what you’re looking for.
5. Neglecting the sales funnel stages
While on paper, two customers may be similar, but they may be both at different stages of the sales funnel. One may already be prepared to tap Check Out on their orders, while another could still consider and compare their options with your competitors. Identifying which stage you want to create your lookalike audiences after will help you find the right ones.