Facebook Ads - Targeting Friends of People Who Like Your Page

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

Hi,

I'm trying to set up a local FB Ad campaign and would like to set the target audience to friends of people who like the organization's FB Page. I know this used to be an option, but I'm not seeing it, now. I'm only seeing, people who like the page, people like the people who like the page, or excluding people who like the page.

Does anyone know if targeting friends of people who like a FB Page is still an option. If so, where do I find it?

Thanks!

- Kurt

 

[ErinJones]

Hi Kurt!

I just checked a few of my ad campaigns to verify where this option was in the interest of giving you clear instructions, and this popped up. I am going to reach out and see what I can find out, but it looks like the closest option is now a lookalike audience.

 

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

Hi Kurt!

I just checked a few of my ad campaigns to verify where this option was in the interest of giving you clear instructions, and this popped up. I am going to reach out and see what I can find out, but it looks like the closest option is now a lookalike audience.

Thanks Erin.

Sadly, that's what it's looking like to me as well. If that's the case, though, I wonder if anyone has figured out a work around. I'll let you know if I find anything. Please do the same.

Thanks again!
Kurt

 

[dgrunited]

Hi,

I'm trying to set up a local FB Ad campaign and would like to set the target audience to friends of people who like the organization's FB Page. I know this used to be an option, but I'm not seeing it, now. I'm only seeing, people who like the page, people like the people who like the page, or excluding people who like the page.

Does anyone know if targeting friends of people who like a FB Page is still an option. If so, where do I find it?

Thanks!

- Kurt

Are there specific reasons why you'd like to target "friends of friends"? If the reasons are clear, there could be a way to narrow down the "lookalike audience" to something close (but not perfectly matching) "friends of friends".

 

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

Hi dgrunited,

Are there specific reasons why you'd like to target "friends of friends"? If the reasons are clear, there could be a way to narrow down the "lookalike audience" to something close (but not perfectly matching) "friends of friends".

Yes. I think the connection to the organization is a significant benefit. For someone to see that they know someone who already likes the organization provides social validation, gives them someone they know who they can talk to about the organization, and gives them someone they can visit the organization with. These all make it much more likely that they will engage the organization.

Kurt

 

[dgrunited]

Hi dgrunited,



Yes. I think the connection to the organization is a significant benefit. For someone to see that they know someone who already likes the organization provides social validation, gives them someone they know who they can talk to about the organization, and gives them someone they can visit the organization with. These all make it much more likely that they will engage the organization.

Kurt

I'm not sure what all this means, but you'll have to translate your explanation into something that FB understands.

How do you do that? It's simple if you know what you are looking for.

In the Ad Set, set the Lookalike Audience as your audience. Then, in Detailed Targeting, use the Include People Who Match & Exclude People Who Match to narrow your audience down to your preferred segment based on your explanation above. After that, save this new audience with a new name. The final step is to do an Audience Overlap Test between this new audience & your original Lookalike Audience. If the overlap is "too high", it means that you are still not clear on what you are looking for.

This will get you closer (but not perfectly matching) your preferred audience.

Hope it helps.

 

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

To clarify, the "friends of people who like the organization's FB Page" showed the ads to the FB friends of people who already like the organization's FB Page. So, everyone who sees the ad, already has a friend who likes the organization, thus a connection to that organization. That friend is someone they can talk to about the organization. Facebook shows (or at least used to show) when one of your friends liked a page. I'm not sure if they still do this.