Learn how to find the right audience for your eCommerce social media ad targeting campaigns with this comprehensive guide.

As an eCommerce business today, you have multiple ways to market yourself and what you offer, including social media advertising, content marketing, influencer marketing, paid advertising, and more. However, social media advertising is no longer what it used to be - from the various targeting options available to businesses, the post-cookie world has resulted in a steady increase in customer acquisition costs across all channels. 

So no matter how powerful your ad copy or offer is, unless you get your targeting right, you’re losing out. 

In this post, we’re going to cover different types of audience targeting that you can use on social media, as well as how to find your target audience and use the right targeting options to reach them.

But first, let's understand what eCommerce social media ad targeting is.

What is social media ad targeting for eCommerce? 

eCommerce social media ad targeting involves identifying and targeting your ads to specific people on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This allows you to create highly tailored ad campaigns that are more likely to be seen and engaged with by your target audience.

You can target your ads by age, gender, location, interests, past purchase history, etc. You can also target people who have interacted with your brand in the past, such as people who have visited your website or liked your Facebook page.

This approach ensures that your promotional content reaches the most relevant and potential customers, maximizing engagement, conversion rates, and ROI.

Recommended read: 10 Best Advertising Tools For eCommerce Businesses (2023)

How to find the right audience for your eCommerce social media ad targeting? 

Finding the right target audience for your ecommerce social media ads is important for the success of your advertising campaigns. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you identify and reach your target audience effectively:

1. Market research and creating buyer persona

Market research involves gathering information about your industry, competitors, and potential customers. You can use this information to understand what your target audience is looking for, what appeals to them, and how they behave. By understanding your target audience, you can tailor your social media content and advertising to reach them better.

The buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customers. It is based on real data and market research, encompassing demographic information (age, gender, location), psychographic information (interests, values, lifestyles), challenges, goals, and buying behaviors. 

Creating buyer personas allows you to humanize your target audience and understand their needs and motivations. You can use this information to create more relevant and compelling social media content that resonates with your target audience.

Both market research and buyer personas are essential for eCommerce businesses that want to connect with their audience on a deeper level. By understanding your target audience and their needs, you can create more effective social media campaigns that drive sales.

2. Using social media analytics 

Social media analytics can help you find the ideal audience for your eCommerce social media ad targeting by providing insights into your existing audience's characteristics and preferences. 

You can use these insights to segment your audience and create tailored content and messaging that resonates with specific demographics. 

Social media analytics can also reveal trends, behaviors, and interests to help you identify potential customer segments that align with your business offering. This data-driven approach can enhance the efficiency of your advertising campaigns by allocating resources to the most promising audience segments. 

Last but not least, you can use social media analytics to track the results of your eCommerce business's social media campaigns. This can help you see what campaigns are performing well and make necessary adjustments to improve the results.

3. Using lookalike audiences 

Lookalike audiences are a powerful tool that eCommerce businesses can use to find the perfect audience for social media ad targeting. This process analyzes your existing customers' demographics, interests, and online behavior to identify people likely to be interested in your products or services.

To create Lookalike Audiences, you need to provide Facebook with a list of your existing customers or website visitors. The more data you provide, the more accurate your lookalike audience will be.

Once you have created your Lookalike Audiences, you can use it for social media ad targeting in various ways. You can target your ads to people in specific geographic locations, age groups, or interests. You can also target your ads to people who have already shown an interest in your products or services by clicking on your website or engaging with your social media content.

Now reach your target audience and drive more sales using Lookalike Audiences. Give it a try if you’re not already using it!

4. Using interest and behavioral targeting

eCommerce businesses can use interest and behavioral targeting to make their social media ad targeting more effective. This strategy involves personalized advertising based on a user's interests and online activity.

To identify specific interests related to your product or industry, you can research and compile a list of relevant interests. This could include hobbies, related products, or industry-specific topics. 

Once you have a list of relevant interests, you can create ad groups targeting users who have expressed those interests on social media platforms. This ensures that your ads are delivered to an audience likely interested in your products or services.

Behavioral targeting focuses on users' online actions, such as previous purchases, website visits, or interactions with similar brands. This allows you to reach users who have shown intent or interest in products similar to your own.

By providing relevant content to a precisely defined audience, you can maximize the effectiveness of your social media ad targeting and achieve better results.

5. Make use of AI-powered social storefronts 

Brands are now selling through storefronts on social media or by leading the social traffic to their website. While the former limits customer data collection to only the social media platform, the latter is not designed to capture multiple consumer intent and interests, and then there’s also the cookie apocalypse. 

This is where setting up AI-powered social storefronts using SimplicityDX comes into play. Designed to offer an entire online storefront on social media itself, it gives you the ability to capture data like visitor interest and intent - no matter which product promoted in your social media content captured their interest. 

You can then use these insights to create a continual commerce journey on the storefront, displaying related products to increase the chances of conversions. 

6. Conduct customer surveys  

Conducting customer surveys can help you gain valuable insights into your target audience for your eCommerce business. You can use these insights to improve your social media ad targeting and achieve marketing goals.

Here are some specific questions you can ask during a customer survey to help you find the right audience for your social media ad targeting:

• What are your interests?
• What are your pain points?
• What social media platforms do you use?
• What kind of content do you like to see on social media?
• How do you make purchasing decisions?
• What are your thoughts on our company's social media presence?

The survey results will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of your ideal audience, allowing you to refine your social media ad targeting. With this information, you can create more tailored and relevant ad campaigns that resonate with your potential customers' specific needs and desires.

Additionally, customer surveys can help you identify unique selling points and pain points, which you can use to craft compelling ad messages that effectively address the audience's concerns.

7. A/B Testing 

A/B testing is a great strategy for your eCommerce business to find the right social media ad-targeting audience. It allows you to test different ad variations to see which works best for your target audience.

For example, you can experiment with different demographic parameters, interests, behaviors, and geographic locations. You can also test different ad copy, headlines, images, and calls to action. By systematically varying these elements, you can identify which audience attributes, and ad elements combinations deliver the best results.

This iterative approach allows you to fine-tune your targeting, ensuring that your ads reach those most likely interested in your products. 

For example, you could create two different ad variations: one with a headline that focuses on the benefits of the product and one with a headline that focuses on the target audience's pain points. Then, you could run these two ad variations to see which performs better in click-through rate, conversion rate, and cost per acquisition.

Boost the effectiveness of your social media ads targeting with SimplicityDX 

Ensure your social media ad targeting is effective to stand out in today's competitive eCommerce landscape. You can maximize your conversions and engagement by reaching the right people with the right message. But even the most precise targeting strategies must be complemented by the ability to cater to diverse interests and intents.

That's where SimplicityDX comes in. Our AI-powered platform helps you improve the performance of your social media ad campaigns, by creating contextual landings for social media shoppers. This helps reduce the drop-offs that typically occur when buyers have to switch from social media platforms to the brand site, or the bounce that happens when a landing page is not tailored to match their intent. And that leads to higher conversions on campaigns! 

Looking for ways to get the most out of your social media ad campaigns? 

It’s time to set up an AI-powered social storefront with SimplicityDX. 

Book a demo now!