Lookalike audience

What is a lookalike audience?

A lookalike audience is created in Meta Ads Manager (Facebook/Instagram) by uploading a source list—typically your existing customers or website visitors. Meta’s algorithm analyzes common traits among these people (demographics, interests, behavior) and finds new users who are similar to them but aren’t yet familiar with your brand.

How to create a lookalike audience

1. Select a source: Upload a customer list (emails), use Facebook Pixel data(website visitors, buyers), or select a custom audience.
2. Select a country/region: Specify which countries the new audience should come from.
3. Select size: From 1% (most similar to the source audience, narrowest audience) to 10% (broader, less similar). 1–3% is typically most effective for conversions.
4. Use in campaign: Add it as a target audience in your ad campaigns.

Which sources provide the best lookalikes?

• Buyers (best): A list of customers who have actually made a purchase. The algorithm identifies more potential buyers.
• High-value customers: Customers with a high order value or many repeat purchases. Provides lookalikes with higher expected value.
• Add-to-Cart: Visitors who have shown intent to buy but didn’t complete the purchase. Still a strong signal.
• All Visitors: The broadest source, but the least specific. Better than no data, but weaker than buyers.
• Newsletter subscribers: Engaged users who have shown interest in your brand.

Lookalike Size and Effectiveness

• 1% lookalike: The people who most closely resemble your source audience. Small audience, high relevance, typically the best conversion rate.
• 1–3% lookalike: Good balance between reach and relevance. Usually the best choice for most online stores.
• 3–5% lookalike: Broader reach, but lower relevance. Good for TOF campaigns.
• 5–10% lookalike: Very broad. Primarily used for awareness campaigns or in countries with small populations.

Tips for Better Lookalike Audiences

• Quality over quantity: A list of 500 high-quality buyers yields better lookalikes than 10,000 random visitors.
• Update regularly: Customer behavior changes. Update your source audience at regular intervals.
• Test multiple sources: Run lookalike campaigns based on buyers, high-value customers, and “add to cart” users simultaneously to see what works best.
• Combine with interest targeting: Layer lookalikes with relevant interests for even tighter targeting.
• Exclude existing customers: Create a custom audience of existing customers and exclude them so you only reach new people.

Lookalike Audiences and Shoporama

To use lookalike audiences with your Shoporama online store, you must have the Facebook Pixel installed (supported directly in Shoporama) and, optionally, the Conversions API (CAPI) for better data quality. The Pixel automatically collects data about visitors and buyers, which you can use to create custom audiences and, consequently, lookalike audiences in Meta Ads Manager.