A lookalike audience asks Meta to find people similar to a group you provide, such as your customers or website visitors.
Good source audiences
- Customers who bought (the best source).
- High-value customers; identify them with our lifetime value calculator.
- Leads who became customers.
- People who completed a purchase or lead event on your website.
A source of a few hundred to a few thousand people usually works better than a tiny list.
Lookalike size
A 1% lookalike in India is the closest match but still a very large audience. Larger percentages are broader and less similar.
Uploading customer lists
- Upload only data you have permission to use for advertising.
- Format phone numbers with country code (91); clean them with our phone number cleaner.
- Meta hashes the data before matching.
Lookalikes vs broad targeting
Meta’s automation has become good at finding buyers with broad targeting when tracking is strong. Lookalikes are often used as a suggestion rather than a strict limit. Test both.
Local businesses
If you serve a small area, the lookalike will be limited by your location settings. Combine with location targeting.
Read custom audiences.
Want the full picture? This article is part of Meta ads: the complete guide, our in-depth guide with everything in one place.
