Why advertisers should target personas, not segments, on Facebook

Brian Honigman is a marketing consultant, a professional speaker and a freelance writer. This article originally appeared on the Adknowledge blog.

It’s a misconception among advertisers and media buyers alike that they should be targeting different audience segments when using the advanced targeting features available from the Facebook platform.

In actuality, it’s important to target the various personas of your audience online, as opposed to generic segments. By targeting these personas, your ads are more likely to convert since they are more aligned with the interests of the Facebook user in the funnel.

Use data from your analytics to understand what types of personas are typically active on your company’s website. By doing this research, your team will be able to create ads to match the interests and behaviors of the different personas active on your site.

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For example, if shoppers on your site typically use coupons, promo codes and discounts, this might mean they are bargain hunters and only shop when there’s some sort of deal.

Since your team has this data at your disposal from the past actions of shoppers, it’s important to cater to this persona by making the Facebook ads focused on a discount, deal or promotion, as seen below.

The copy used in this Facebook ad highlights one thing: if the user clicks the ad, she’ll be able to make use of some type of deal. This deal-centric ad appeals to the bargain hunter, and therefore, increases the likelihood that she’ll convert.

The same Facebook ad could exist with a different call-to-action and creative to match a different persona, as seen below.

“With Facebook, you have the opportunity to truly customize the ad experience for your customers,” said Mladen Raickovic, the general manager of AdParlor, Adknowledge’s social product. “This is a promise often made in many digital channels, but rarely delivered upon.”

Then create ads that are catered to other personas of customers visiting your website, whether these personas are those who often buy presents for others, shop based on trends, have loyalty to specific brands of products, focus heavily on health products, etc.

Instead of re-targeting every visitor from your website with the same ads, match the creative and copy used in each ad with different personas based on what they did on your website previously. In some cases, use video as the focus of your ads or other ad units that better match the interests of certain audience personas.

The ad above features the same link and imagery as the previous ad, but the copy appeals to a persona who focuses on shopping according to the major trends in fashion as opposed to the latest deals.

How does your team typically target their Facebook ads effectively? What strategies tend to work with your Facebook advertising? What strategies would you like to learn more about to jumpstart your Facebook ads to be more effective? Share your thoughts below.