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 โ 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 โ demographics, interests, behaviors, engagement patterns โ 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 โ 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 โ 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 1โ2% 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 โ 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.