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Using Facebook Interest Targeting

In part 3 of our 5 part mini-series on Core Audience Targeting, we have a piece dedicated entirely to Facebook’s Interest Targeting Capabilities.

If you’re yet to, please read watch the previous two post in this series: 

If you have already, then let’s get stuck in.

What Is Interest Targeting?

So Interest Targeting is where Facebook’s powerful Ad platform comes into its own.

Interest Targeting is how you’re able to find your ideal target audience based on their passions and the type of content that they engage with on and off Facebook. 

Facebook stores this continuously updated data at an individual user level based on the Pages we follow on, the articles, videos and content we engage with, and the links/ads we click.

All this is explicit and implicit information we provide Facebook with each time we log on.

Now, when it comes to specifying the interests you want to target within your Core Audience, you have two options:

Option 1: Browse Through Interests

You can browse the range of Interest categories that Facebook has already collated and select those best suited to your target audience. These include;

  • Business & Industry Interests
  • Entertainment Interests
  • Family & Relationship Interests
  • Fitness & Wellness Interests
  • Food & Drink Interests
  • Hobbies
  • Activities and Events
  • Shopping
  • Fashion
  • Sports
  • Technology

Within each of these categories lie more detailed child categories.

For example, if I was looking to target those interested in becoming a member of a gym, I could target the ‘gym’ interest grouping. This ‘Child 

Category’ is found under the Fitness and Wellness ‘Parent Category’.

Option 2: Specify Interests

Rather than browsing the existing interest categories, Facebook has curated, you can specify your own by typing interests you’d like Facebook to target.

These can be anything from activities, celebrities, magazines, Facebook pages, whatever articulation of an audience’s passion point you can imagine.

If you’re opting for this option, make sure you’re making the most of Facebook’s suggested Interests. These will appear once you’ve selected one or two interest options as Facebook offers other interest targeting options closely aligned to those already set.

The Key To Success: Be Specific

Whichever option you choose, the key is to ensure that you’re focusing in on the specific interest areas that are unique to your target audience; the areas that they are MOST passionately involved.

For example, say I was selling a new set of golf balls specifically designed to help weekend golfers improve their handicap. I could target “Golf” as an interest category; however, this would be too broad, ranging from pros to armchair enthusiasts.

Similarly, I could target “Tiger Woods” however this would also be too broad, encompassing those who are more mainstream fans of the sport or his celebrity. Instead, far more focused options would be to target information sources that this audience would go to for tips to improve their game, such as YouTube Tutorials or Magazines.

Remember when it comes to Interest Targeting, it’s not so much about where your Target Audience COULD be but finding the interests and identifiers that ONLY they would be part of or would be most passionately involved.

Stay Tuned!

In the next post, we’ll build on both Demographic and Interest targeting to show how you can add Behavioural Targeting to refine your audience.

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