WANT TO EXPAND ADVERTISING REACH?

Written on 01/29/20 11:39 AM

Have you ever struggled with figuring out how to expand your advertising reach to people, but you’re unsure of what interests/behaviors to target? Instead of trying to decide if adding a particular TV show to the targeting list will help, try the Interest Expansion tool to take advantage of the Facebook algorithm.

Detailed targeting allows advertisers to choose interests or behaviors on top of demographic targeting. For instance, detailed targeting for dog food would likely be something like:

Men and Women

Ages 21 – 60

Living in the United States

Interested in dogs, dog food, or dog toys

With Interest Expansion, however, you can allow the Facebook algorithm to reach more people than just those specified in your detailed targeting.

If Interest Expansion is enabled, a portion of the budget will be tested to find additional people who may get more and/or cheaper results. Budget will be shifted to the audience that is getting more results at a lower cost. So in our above example, interest expansion would find people who might not fall under the interests you specified, but are likely interested in what you have to offer. It allows advertisers to expand their reach to find more potential customers.

The downside? Facebook doesn’t tell you what interests are being tested or produce results. It’s unclear whether that feature will ever become available.

To enable interest expansion, go to your ad set → Audiences → Detailed Targeting. In that section, check the box labeled “Expand detailed targeting criteria when it may increase conversion at a lower cost per conversion.”