Targeting a Lookalike Audience on Facebook has been around for a while now. The simple way to do this was upload an email, phone number or user ID list into Facebook and they would then create your lookalike audience on the backend. This was, of course, a clever way to target users with similar profiles to your customers. There are some even better ways to target and acquire new customers using Facebook Lookalike Audiences.
Website Custom Audiences (WCA) in Facebook allow you to create an audience from visitors to your website — or even a single page — for retargeting on Facebook. By placing a small piece of code on your site, you're able to target your website visitor(s) once they visit Facebook. This becomes a powerful retargeting tool because someone may visit your website during work hours and not purchase. However, later that day, when they are relaxing and more free to make a purchase, they would visit Facebook and be presented with your advertisement. There are even more specific and clever ways to make this work for your retail products.
You can create a lookalike audience based on visitors to a specific product or category page. By creating a WCA for each product or category page on your website, you're able to retarget those visitors. Adding the powerful retargeting feature of Lookalike Audiences you can reach similar visitors to your website on Facebook.
Another way to reaching new customers is to create a lookalike audience from people who have liked your page(s). This can be useful to expand your audience without an existing list or historical data coming from your website. It's a quick and easy way to find similar people who have already expressed an interest in your brand. And it's now also possible to target their friends. Placing a product advertisement in front of similar users who have liked your brand is a more efficient way than a legacy "spray and pray" approach.
One of the more interesting types of Facebook Lookalike Audiences is one created based on users of a retailer's native mobile app. This can be a particularly powerful way to reach new customers on mobile devices, given the rise in increased purchasing happening through smartphones and tablets.