Lookalike audiences are one of Meta Ads' most powerful targeting tools. They allow you to find new customers who share characteristics with your existing customers, essentially letting Meta's algorithm do the hard work of finding your best potential new customers across millions of users.
What Is a Lookalike Audience?
A lookalike audience is a targeting option in Meta Ads that identifies users who are statistically similar to a source audience you define. You tell Meta: "Find me people who look like these customers." Meta then analyzes hundreds of data points about your source audience, demographics, interests, behaviors, engagement patterns, and finds other users who match that profile.
What Makes a Good Source Audience?
The quality of your lookalike audience depends entirely on the quality of your source audience. The best source audiences are:
- Your existing customers (upload a list of phone numbers or emails)
- People who completed a valuable action on your website (purchased, submitted a form, clicked WhatsApp)
- Your highest-value customers specifically, not all customers equally
A source audience needs at least 100 people to create a lookalike, but 1,000+ people produces significantly better results because Meta has more data to work with.
Lookalike Audience Sizes
When creating a lookalike audience, you choose a percentage, typically from 1% to 10% of the population in your target country. A 1% lookalike is the most similar to your source audience but reaches fewer people. A 10% lookalike is larger but less precisely matched.
For Saudi Arabia, a 1% lookalike of Saudi Arabia's Facebook/Instagram population represents the most closely matched potential customers. Starting at 1β2% and expanding if you need more reach is usually the right approach.
How to Use Lookalike Audiences Effectively
Lookalike audiences work best when combined with your strongest creative, since you're targeting cold audiences who don't know your brand yet, the creative needs to quickly communicate your value proposition and generate interest.
A common and effective campaign structure for Saudi businesses is:
- Lookalike audience campaigns to find new customers
- Retargeting campaigns to convert people who showed interest but didn't act
- Customer loyalty campaigns to re-engage existing customers
This three-layer approach maintains a constant flow of new interest, follow-up, and retention. For more on retargeting, see What Is Retargeting and How Does It Work? And for the complete Meta Ads foundation, read How Facebook and Instagram Ads Work.