The same advert can succeed or fail depending on who sees it. A good social media marketer knows how to describe the right people to the platform, and when to let the platform's system find them instead. This is the heart of the week 7 theme, advanced ad targeting.
Kinds of audience
Ad platforms such as Meta and TikTok offer similar building blocks.
- Location. Countries, regions, cities, or an area around a point on the map. You can usually choose people who live there, or people recently there. A chop bar in Tamale only needs people nearby; an online shea butter shop that delivers nationwide can go wider.
- Age and language. Useful when the product truly suits an age group or a language, but avoid narrowing for no reason.
- Interests and behaviours. The platform groups people by the pages, topics and activities they engage with, such as natural skincare, football or small business.
- Custom audiences. People who already know the business: those who engaged with the page or Instagram account, watched a video, messaged the business, or visited the website. Some platforms also let you upload a customer list, but only use contact details people agreed to share for this purpose, and follow Ghana's Data Protection Act.
- Lookalike audiences. The platform finds new people who resemble a custom audience, such as people similar to past buyers.