How lookalike audiences work
- You provide a source audience, for example a customer list or the people who bought on your website.
- The platform analyzes what those people have in common.
- It builds a new audience of similar users, usually in a country or region you choose, and you target your ads at them.
Where you can use them
- Meta (Facebook and Instagram): lookalike audiences from 1% (most similar) to 10% of a country’s users.
- LinkedIn: predictive audiences based on your data.
- TikTok and other platforms: similar audience tools.
- Google Ads: similar audiences were retired in 2023 and replaced by optimized targeting and audience expansion.
Tips
The better the source, the better the lookalike: use your best customers, not everyone who ever visited. Many platforms now find similar people automatically with broad targeting, so test lookalikes against broad audiences and keep what performs.