How to create lookalike audiences on Facebook and Google Ads

Lookalike audiences (on Facebook and Instagram Ads) or similar audiences (on Google Ads) allow you to use an existing contact list in order to target new audiences with similar characteristics on the ad platforms. 

This can help you improve your cost-per-click, increase your ROI, and get higher sales. Today, we’ll look at how you can create a lookalike audience on Facebook Ads (and Instagram) and a similar audience on Google Ads. We’ll do that by using Omnsiend’s Facebook and Google Ads sync.

This is an implementation-level article.

To learn about the strategy and other tactics you can use, read our article on combining email marketing with Google, Facebook and Instagram ads.

How to create a lookalike audience in Facebook Ads

First let’s look at how to sync your Omnisend segments with Facebook Ads.

It’s easy on Omnisend. Next to the segment, simply click on sync under the Facebook logo:

First, go to your Business Manager. Select Audiences on the left menu:

Click on Create Audience > Lookalike Audience

Select your lookalike source (a customer segment from your ESP like Omnisend).

Select audience location.

Select audience size. You can choose the percentage of the lookalike audience you want to target (1% being the most similar audience to your customers, and 10% being the broadest). 

We recommend testing different percentages to see which one works for you the best. You should try to keep your audience fairly broad, as you may end up with a very narrow audience and not get the results you expect (you will be able to see the audience size by adjusting the percentages). 

Once all the information is selected, click Create Audience.

You will see the new lookalike audience created in the Audience section.

When creating a new campaign, under the Audience section select Create new audience -> Lookalike audience, and select your newly created audience from the list.

You should now have a lookalike audience created from your Omnisend (or other ESP) segment.

How to create a similar audience in Google Ads

Similar to Facebook, uploading your audience to Google Ads is pretty easy with Omnisend once you’ve created your segment. Simply click on Sync below the Google icon.

Once your custom audience is uploaded to Google Ads, it will automatically create a similar audience. 

You will find it under Tools and settings in the upper right-hand corner. Go to Shared Library > Audience manager > Segments > Your data segments.

And that’s it! You now have a similar audience created from your Omnisend (or other ESP) segment.