What is a Lookalike Audience?

A lookalike audience is an advanced targeting tool offered by social media advertising platforms that helps you reach new people who share similar characteristics, behaviors, and interests with your existing customers or followers. Using machine learning algorithms, these platforms analyze your source audience to identify patterns and find new users who exhibit similar traits.

This targeting method expands your reach beyond retargeting while maintaining relevance, essentially finding people who "look like" your best customers but haven't connected with your brand yet.

How lookalike audiences work

To create one, you usually upload a source audience (like your email list or website visitors) and the platform finds similar users. The creation process typically involves:

1. Source audience selection: Uploading customer data (like an email list) or selecting an existing audience (website visitors, page followers)
2. Algorithmic analysis: The platform identifies common characteristics among your source audience
3. New audience creation: The system finds new users who share those traits
4. Audience size selection: Choosing between smaller audiences (more similar to your source) or larger audiences (broader reach)