Ad Targeting Options

In the last segment, you understood the need to amplify social media content, and some of the major ad targeting options you can use to
reach your prospective audience. This segment will give you a better understanding of the popular targeting parameters provided by the

major social media platforms.

 
Facebook and Instagram Targeting options:

The Facebook network provides different targeting options by classifying them under a user's Demographics, Interests, Behaviours, and

Connections. The popular options under each of these categories are listed in the below table.
 

Age, Gender, Language, Ethnicity

Relationship interests and status

Location (staying at, been at, travelling to, etc.)

Demographics
Education (field of study, school, graduating year, etc.)
Work (employer, industry, job title, income range, etc.)

Life events (newly married, recently moved, away from hometown, etc.)

Entertainment (movies, music, games, etc.)

Business and Industry (agriculture, aviation, banking, engineering,

marketing, etc.)
Interests
Fitness and wellness

Hobbies (art, cooking, music, pets, travel, etc.)

Shopping and Fashion (clothing, accessories, shoes, etc.)

Travel (frequent travellers, business travellers, vacationers, international

travellers, etc.)
Behaviours Mobile device used (iPhone X, iPhone SE, Samsung Galaxy S6, tablets,

etc.)

Purchase behaviour (fashion products, pet products, baby products, etc.)

Facebook page (fans of your page, friends of fans)

Connections App (users of your app, friends of users)

Events (people who responded to an event)

This infographic has collated all the available targeting options on Facebook.

Core, Custom, and Lookalike Audiences on Facebook:

A mix and match of several targeting parameters from the above table will help you reach out to different sets of audiences who fall under

these different criteria. For example, Facebook makes it possible for you to create awareness for your brand among iPhone users between
the age of 26 and 30, living in Greater Kailash, but originally from South India, married, possessing an engineering degree, working with a
media company, and have travelled abroad in the past 6 months. An audience created using such combinations of targeting parameters on

Facebook or Instagram is generally called a Core audience.

Facebook also allows marketers to reach out to very specific audiences, through a unique feature known as Custom audiences. This feature

is generally used to reach out to people who have already interacted with your brand, i.e., users who are at the consideration and purchase

stages.

1. This could be your customers or prospects, whose contact details (email IDs, phone numbers, or Facebook IDs) are available with

you. Such a contact list can be uploaded to the Ads manager, and ads can be directly targeted at them.

Even otherwise, if you have procured a contact list from somewhere, you can directly reach out to them by creating a custom audience

on Facebook.

2. People who visited your website or mobile app and took some particular action (eg. leave without making a purchase, view a

particular page for more than 20 seconds, etc.) can also be targeted with ads, even though you do not have their personal information.

A tracking code called ‘Pixel’ enables you to track their actions, and generate custom audiences accordingly.

Another innovative targeting feature on the Facebook network is a Lookalike audience. This feature lets you upload a list of users (i.e.,

create a custom audience), and target other users who have similar characteristics (demographics, interests, behaviour, etc.) as that of theirs.

For example, using a lookalike audience using your customer data will help you reach out to people who are most likely to be interested in

your product or service. This is most effective in creating awareness for your products among a new audience.

Snapchat provides options that are very similar to the options available on Facebook. You can read about them here.

Twitter and LinkedIn targeting options:

TWITTER targeting options LINKEDIN targeting options

Twitter provides a plethora of targeting options, LinkedIn provides several targeting options

quite similar to that of Facebook, spread based on the professional experience of its

across Demographics, Behaviour, and Interests of users. Some of LinkedIn’s powerful targeting

its users. Some additional targeting options options (in addition to basic demographics)

Twitter provides are: include:

Keyword targeting to reach users who Company name and industry

have tweeted or searched for specific Company size

keywords. Company connections - 1st degree

Follower targeting to reach users who connections of employees of a target

‘follow’ certain Twitter profiles (eg. you company

may want to reach out to followers of Company page followers

Shashi Tharoor, to sell the Grammarly app). Job titles and functions

Tailored Audience targeting, which is Job seniority and years of experience

similar to Facebook’s custom audience Education - schools, degrees, skills

feature. It allows marketers to upload email endorsed for, etc.

 IDs or Twitter IDs to reach out to those LinkedIn Groups which users are part

specific audiences. of.

You can read more about Twitter targeting options here and the updates on Twitter ad marketing here.

A comprehensive list of LinkedIn targeting options is detailed in this link.

 
YouTube is also a platform that has become quite popular among marketers who wish to communicate with users using video formats.

There are several targeting options that YouTube provides such as user demographics, interests and topics, keyword targeting, and so on. A

comprehensive list of YouTube targeting options is available on this page.

Tiktok provides very similar ad targeting options like demographics and interests. However, Tiktok also provides extensive device

targeting. You can choose from any of  the following options:

Connection types (Wifi, 2G, 3G, 4G)

OS (iOS, Android)

Operating System Version

Device Price (ranging from 0-$1000+)

Device Carrier