The success of any marketing campaign depends on how precisely you target your audience with your ads or any other form of communications. When we see the possibility of targeting on various platforms, Facebook Ads targeting options come out revolutionary.

Just think, You have cake shop and someone gives you the option of the target to the people in your location who have birthday or anniversary next week. Yes! Facebook can give you this level of precise targeting option. In my knowledge, no other media is giving this level of targeting option right now.

Many people are using Facebook Media but not utilizing its complete targeting features. Probably many don’t even know to which extent they can target their audience on Facebook.  Right targeting always leads better ROI because one hand it reduces Ad wastage and other hand improve the result and lessen the cost also.

So I compiled the complete Facebook Ads Targeting options in this post. Go through it carefully and think which option will suit best for you to target your audience.

Demographic

In Demographic option, facebook gives you detailed options of targeting. You can target Location, Age, Language, Gender, Relationship, Education, Work etc. You can cross filter the target and create a niche demography for your campaigns.

Location

No platform in the world gives such detailed location targeting. You can target countries, cities, zip codes, radius etc. Lets assume you have a retail shop and your capacity to serve within 10 miles. Facebook says its ok. You can give your ads limited to this surrounding only. Whoa!

Here below you can see a whole range of Location targeting option, which Facebook offers.

Countries, Country/Region, City, Zip/Postal Code, Market Areas

Everyone in this location

People recently in this location

People Traveling to this location

Note: You can drop a pin on Map to target also

Age

From 13 years old to 65+

Language

Language is one of the best segment and filters as well. Facebook gives you a full range of options to target.

Gender

Your product is for Women then you don’t require to waste your ad money by targeting all. Facebook gives you the option to target separately. If your buyers are men and women then you can run the same campaign on both targets separately and monitor which one is giving you a better result. So in gender category below mentioned three options are available now. I wanted to see transgender option too. Hope Facebook is listening to me.

All

Men

Women

Relationship

Relationship category is one of the core target options on Facebook. I assure you Facebook has competency in this option. Relationship data is highly dynamic and Facebook updates it on real time.

Interested In

Men

Women

Men and Women

Not Specified

Relationship Status

Single

In a relationship

Married

Engaged

Complicated

Open Relationship

Domestic Partnership

Separated

Divorced

Widow

Unspecified

Education

Like other platforms, Facebook gives you Education targeting. Here following options are available.

In High School

High School Grade

In college

Some College

College Grade

Associate Degree

Professional Degree

Master Degree

Doctorate Degree

Unspecified

Field of Study

Schools

Undergrad Years

Work

Who says Facebook is not for B2B. It is completely wrong. They give a whole range of options to target. Go through the following options. You will realize that B2B can also have benefits of Facebook Media.

Employer

Job Title

Financial

Here facebook gives you the option of Finacial filter, you can choose according to your offerings.

Income

Net Worth

Liquid Asset

Total Value

Industries

You can target varieties of Industries also.

PS: Facebook Industries based targeting is not as precise as Linkedin is giving but creatively using it with multiple filters can give you a better result in a very lesser cost in comparison of Linkedin.

Administrative

Architecture and Engineering

Art, Entertainment , and Media

Business and Financial Operations

Cleaning and Maintenance

Community and Social Services

Computer and Mathematics

Construction and Extraction

Education and Library

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

Food Preparation and Services

Government Employees

Healthcare and Medical

IT and Technical

Installation and Repair

Legal

Life, Physical and Social Science

Management

Military

Nurses

Personal Care

Production

Protective Service

Retail

Sales

Temporary and Seasonal

Transportation and Moving

Veterans

Office Type

Home Office

Small Business

Small Office

Home

In Home category, you can target to all residing types. I can’t even explain all in a single post. I just let you compell to imagine that if you have real estate business. You have to run the campaign and you have to reach your prospects, then see carefully following options & think whom you will include and whom you will exclude in your targeting.

Home Type

Apartment

Condo

Multi-Family Home

Single

Square Footage

Year Home Built

Home Value

Property Size

Home Ownership

First-Time Home buyer

Home Owners

Renters

Household Composition

Family Based Hose Hold

Grandparents

Housemate-based Households

New Parents

New Teen Drivers

Veteran In Home

Working Women

Young & Hip

Young Adult in Home

Ethnic Affinity

Probably this option is still limited to the US only. Politicians are using it fullest.

African American

Asian American

Asian

European

Hispanic

Generation

Here generation based targeting options are available. If due to any reason you are facing confusion in Age group targeting. Here you can apply generation based filter instead age group.

Baby Boomers

Generation X

Millennials

Parents

You are running a school and want parents should know that how awesome your school is. So they can take a decision to send their kids to your school. Think about this situation and then decide how awesome this targeting option is.

All Parents

New Parents

Parent With Toddlers

Parents with preschoolers

Parents with easy School – Age Children

Parents with Preteens

Parents with Teenagers

Parents with Adult Children

Moms

Big City Moms

Corporate Moms

Fit Mom

Green Moms

Moms of Grade School Kids

Moms of High School Kids

Moms of PreSchool Kids

New Mom

Soccer Moms

Stay-at-home Moms

Trendy Moms

Life Events

Certain types of businesses or campaigns are based on selling to people experiencing certain major life events. Funeral homes, for example, obviously want to connect with people who are planning a funeral, terminally ill, or lost/losing a loved one. Moving services want to get in front of you if you’ve just purchased a new house or apartment. Wedding photographers target people who are engaged.

Facebook has pretty much every conceivable life event targeting option since we tend to post these to our timelines.

Anniversary with in 30 Days

Away From Family

Away from Home Town

Long Distance Relationship

New Job

New Relationship

Newly Engaged (3 Month, 6 Months, 1 Year)

Recently Moved

Upcoming Birthday

Friends of Any Mentioned Live Events Category

Politics

If you are a politician, political party, political commentators, a particular thought of school writer etc. then you badly need these options.

Liberal

Moderate

Conservative

Very Liberal

Self-Reported

Very Conservative

Likely to engage in politics: Conservative, Liberal

Interest

You like to press ‘Like’ button and facebook likes to collect those data. On the basis of that data, Facebook has created the wide list of Interest base targeting option.

Interests are one of the best Facebook ads targeting options as they allow you to target people specifically interested in a subject related to your product. For example, you could target people interested in your competitors or your broader market segment, or magazines and blogs covering your market.

PS: Here I am mentioning only major ones.

Business & Industry

Advertising

Agriculture

Aviation

Banking

Construction

Design

Economics

Engineering

Entrepreneurship

Healthcare

Higher Education

Management

Marketing

Nursing

Online

Personal Finance

Real Estate

Retail

Sales

Science

Small Business

Entertainment

Games

Live Events

Movies

Music

Reading

TV

Family & Relationship

Family

Fatherhood

Motherhood

Friendship

Dating

Marriage

Parenting

Fitness & Wellness

Bodybuilding

Dieting

Gyms

Meditation

Nutrition

Physical Exercise

Physical Fitness

Running

Weight Training

Yoga

Zumba

Food & Drink

Alcoholic Beverage

Beverage

Cooking

Cuisine

Food

Restaurants

Hobbies & Activities

Art & Music

Current Events

Home & Garden

Pets

Politics & Social Issue

Travel

Vehicles

Shopping & Fashion

Beauty

Clothing

Fashion Accessories

Shopping

Toys

Sports & Outdoors

Outdoor Recreation

Sports

Technology

Computers

Consumer Electronics

Behaviours

The amount of targetable behaviors available is in the hundreds, Here I have listed all larger one. This is simply endless.  I am just recommending you a must read an article of Jon Loomer to understand it completely.

Unlike Precise Interests, behaviors allow you to target people by purchase history, intent, and more. This data is gathered by Facebook analyzing many factors and also using external data sets. They are not always useful, but when they are they work great! As an example, you can target people currently traveling or planning their next trip … priceless if you’re in the hotel or event booking market. Check them out and see if they can work for your business.

Automotive

Motorcycle

Owners

Purchase Type

New Vehicle Buyers (Near Market)

New Vehicles Shoppers (In mArket, Max in Market)

Used Vehicle Buyers (In Market)

Business To Business

Seniority

Company Size

Industry

Charitable Donations

All Charitable Donations

Animal Welfare

Art & Culture

Cancer Cause

Children’s Cause

Environment & Wildlife

Health

Political

Religious

Veterans

World Relief

Digital Activities

Operation System Used

Canvas Gaming

Console Gamers

Event Creators

Facebook Payments

Facebook Page Admin

Internet Browser Used

Operating System Used

Photo Uploaders

Primary Email Domain

Small Business Owners

Technology Adopters

Unity Plugins

Expats

Multiple Countries

Finacial

Banking

Spending Method

Investments

Job Role

Corporate Executive

Financial Professionals

Farmers

Media

Radio

Television

Mobile Device User

All Mobile Devices By Brand

All Mobile Devices By OS

All Mobile Device

Feature Phone

Network Connection

New Smartphone & Tablet Owners

Smartphone & Tablet Owners

Smartphone Owners

Smartphone & Tablets

Tablet Owners

Purchase Behavior

Business Purchase

Buyer profiles

Clothing

Food & Drink

Health & Beauty

Home & Garden

Household Products

Kids Products

Pet Products

Purchase habits

Purchase Types

Sport & Outdoors

Store Types

Subscription Services

Technology

Travel

All frequent Travelers

Business Travelers

Casino Vacation

Commuters

Cruises

Currently Traveling

Family Vacation

Frequent International Travelers

Personal Travelers

Returned from trip (1  Week, 2 Week Ago)

Timeshares

Used Travel App (2 Weeks, 1 Month)

Residential Profile

Length of Residence

Recent Home Buyer

Likely To Move

New Mover

Recent Home Buyer

Recent Mortage Borrower

Seasonal & Events

Baseball

College Football

Cricket

Fall Football

Professional Football

Rugby

Connections

The Connections option can be very powerful for your Facebook ad targeting, especially if your business has a strong Facebook following already. It allows you to target people who are fans, friends of fans, or not fans of your Page, app, or event.

People who like your page

Friends of people who like your page

Exclude people who like your page

People who used your App

Friends of People who used your App

Exclude People who used your App

People Who are going to Your Event

Friends of the People who are going to your event

Remarketing

Remarketing is one of my favorite topics. I have written several posts earlier around it. Facebook Remarketing is known as the lowest hanging fruit for advertisers because it allows you to show your ads to the user who have already visited your website or clicked on of their products/services or shared phone number or email ID with you. Here four types of Remarketing options you got by Facebook. These are very powerful.

People who visited your website

Custom List of Email

Custom List of Phone Numbers

Custom List of Facebook User-ID

Look A Like Audience

OMG ! Facebook does not stop to remarketing only. It goes one step further and giving you options to create “Look A Like Audience” from your remarketing list. Facebook understands persona of your remarketing list and fetches out audience who has the similar persona. Google Adwords is also giving similar option but Facebook has better data, so FB’s “Look A Like Audience” list quality is better than Google Adwords list.

In Conclusion, I can tell you these much wide options are the completely revolution in ad placement. It is liberation from wasting ads, It’s up to you to choose the audience you want to reach. You can choose from one or a combination of targeting options that suit your business’s needs, Facebook is helping you to reach the people you care about.

Please write your feedback in the comment column.

• About
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Anand

I am Passionate "Digital Marketing practitioner". I have the fair amount of experience in the traditional way of marketing & Brand building too.

Since 5 years I am self-learning this tech-based online marketing practice and ideas.

The purpose of this blog to share and receive the information and ideas to my community.

Prior to take formal education in Marketing Management. I studied History and Indian culture.

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