I’ve detailed in my blog posts and YouTube videos about how you can find your customers by targeting your ideal Facebook audience with PPC.

Some Facebook audiences are brilliant to target for generating leads, building brand awareness, and whatever your marketing goals may be. There are a lot of reasons why Facebook ads are a prime marketing agent for many companies. But beware that there are bad Facebook audiences to target with Facebook ads. 

Knowing the difference between who’s a good audience and who’s a bad Facebook audience is the difference between a killer ad campaign and one that’s flopped.

What Makes a Difficult Facebook Audience?

Facebook ads aren’t for everyone. Some companies thrive with a solid Facebook marketing campaigns while others would be better off spending their ad dollars elsewhere.

So how do you know if Facebook ads are right for you? It depends on who your target audience is and how they shop and search online.

Are your potential customers shopping around for the best bargains, researching brands, or are they in a hurry and need a solution fast?

When you think about how to target your audience, you need to think about how they search and shop online.  

When Your Audience Needs A Quick Fix

Sometimes people need a quick fix, and they’re more likely to do an internet search on Google or Bing than head to Facebook for the solution. As an example, if you crack the screen on your cell phone, are you going to look on Facebook for how to fix it? Probably not.

You’re probably going to want to hop online and search for “cell phone repair services.”

In this case, a cell phone repair company wanting to advertise would be successful with Google AdWords when Facebook would likely fall short.

With Facebook, a cell phone service repair company would have to show many users ads for their cell phone repair services over a long period of time, hoping that if your phone gets damaged, you’ll remember you saw an ad for their company.

People are more likely to do an online search for a cell phone repair company, so targeting with Google AdWords makes much more sense.

When the Audience isn’t on Facebook

Facebook offers a huge range of demographic and behavioral targeting, but even with all the myriad ways you can target your audience, sometimes your chosen audience just isn’t accessible on Facebook.

For example, you can target Facebook users by whether they’re homeowners, so it makes sense to think that you could target people who have pools, right?

The problem is that while you can target homeowners by square footage, home value, and a number of other features, targeting people who have pools isn’t an option. The audience for pool services simply doesn’t exist on Facebook because there’s no way to target them. Sometimes the audience you want to target isn’t there on Facebook.

When Your Audience Needs Your Services Infrequently

If you have a service that isn’t something people need on a regular basis, Google AdWords will probably trump Facebook ads for you.

For example, people who need flood or fire restoration services.

Although you can target homeowners as mentioned above, you’d have to run a lot of Facebook ads to homeowners who may never have a fire or flood and need restoration services. Audiences need these services infrequently (if at all), so targeting an audience on Facebook who needs restoration services isn’t feasible.

When Your Audience Has an Emergency

Facebook is usually not the first place people go if they have an emergency situation that needs attended to immediately.

For example, if a Cincinnati home owner’s pipes just burst and water is flowing into their basement, their first stop isn’t going to be on Facebook (unless they want to complain to their friends about it.) They’re going to go to Google or Bing and search for “plumber in Cincinnati.”

The same is true for certain other home repair services like HVAC. Broken water heater? Faulty wiring?

These audiences are probably going to search on Google to find a solution, so this is where an AdWords campaign can be profitable. As I’ve written before, AdWords Ads are incredibly effective for plumbers, electricians and other home service professionals

When Google AdWords is Better

Some audiences just aren’t great to target on Facebook, but it doesn’t mean you have to give PPC a pass. There are still powerful options for generating leads and boosting revenue with Google AdWords and Bing ads.

When audiences don’t need your services regularly, have an emergency, or if the audience just isn’t accessible on Facebook, Google AdWords and Bing Ads can be the most effective way you reach your audience.

Knowing how your audience is shopping online or searching for your services is key to knowing how to find your audience.

B2B Audiences: “It’s Complicated”

With targeting B2B audiences on Facebook, it’s kind of like the Facebook relationship status, “It’s Complicated.”

B2B marketing with Facebook ads can be very successful, but it’s a more complicated discussion. B2B is best approached on a case-by-case basis.

Since B2B often has a longer sales cycle, targeting audiences on Facebook isn’t always profitable.

But based on the industry, B2B can be effective. For example, I have a client specializing in consulting for software packages who is killing it with Facebook ads.

They’ve done really well with Facebook ads because they’ve been able to target their audience on Facebook based on user job titles and who’s shown an interest in specific software. The audience is able to be specifically targeted, making it an effective use of their ad dollars.

To better understand effective audience targeting, let’s review some examples of good Facebook audiences to target.

Good Audiences to Target on Facebook

Facebook is brilliant at targeting people based on what they call “life events.” Facebook is great for showing target audiences your ads for things that would apply for certain life events they’re experiencing. Some examples of life events are:

• Getting married – For example, bridal boutiques can target brides-to-be with ads for wedding dresses.
• Buying a new home – banks can create targeted ads for mortgages to those shopping for a new house
• Moving – moving companies, storage facilities, shipping services and more can target their ads based on people who have indicated their moving
• Becoming a new parent – new parents need a host of items and services for a new baby, so companies from baby clothes to diaper services to baby furniture find it profitable to target this audience.

Better Audience Targeting with PPC

Although some audiences are just plain bad to target on Facebook, it doesn’t mean you have to give PPC a pass. There are still powerful options for generating leads and boosting revenue with Google AdWords and Bing ads.

Have you found your audience on Facebook? Share your experiences in the comments below.

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