Increase Advertising Success with Facebook Custom Audiences

You already know that Facebook is a great way to promote your Montessori school, to connect with currently enrolled students and families, as well as prospective new ones.

But, do you know about Custom Audiences for Facebook advertising?

As Hootsuite notes, “Facebook Custom Audiences are one of – if not the most – essential tools for successful Facebook advertising campaigns.”

We happen to agree, and we want to give you some tips on increasing your Facebook advertising success through Custom Audiences.

So, let’s start with the basics.

What are Facebook Custom Audiences?

One of the best ways to grow your school is to market to people with whom you already have a relationship – like those who visited your website or liked your Facebook page.

Thousands of people who fit the criteria of your target audience spend time on Facebook every day.

If you’re not targeting ads toward them with a Custom Audience, you’re missing valuable opportunities to connect with families in your local community who are looking for your school.

You can begin creating a Custom Audience with an email list you already have from visitors to your website and people who like your Facebook page. Or, you can create a specific audience based on location, age, gender, and interests.

Once you define one or more of your target audiences, you can expand your advertising reach to a Lookalike Audience.

What is a Lookalike Audience?

Lookalike Audiences are lists of people who are not yet digitally engaged with your school on Facebook or your website, but who are similar to your target audiences.

So, for example, if your target audience includes men and women between the ages of 25 and 45 who have interests in Montessori education and parenting, and live within a 10-mile radius of your community, then Facebook creates a Lookalike Audience of people who are similar to those already connected with your school.

This expands your advertising efforts by reaching beyond your established audience and finding new people who are a good match for your school.

Why are Custom Audiences essential to marketing your Montessori school?

Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences provide direction for your advertising efforts and allow you to get your message in front of your ideal audience.

When it comes to advertising, that’s so important, because these are the people who are more likely to take action – like scheduling a tour, filling out a form on your website, or calling you for more information.

This approach to advertising is a more effective, more bang-for-your-buck way to spend advertising dollars. Instead of investing in more “generic” ads that canvas a broad spectrum of Facebook users, you can create more specifical ads since you are essentially picking and choosing who sees them.

How do you set up a Custom Audience in Facebook?

Facebook makes it simple to create Custom Audiences to match the goal of your individual ads.  You can import a list of email addresses or phone numbers from your existing contacts. You create your Custom Audience using the Audiences Tab in Facebook Ads Manager.

Once the criteria is set, you can create a Lookalike Audience based on your Custom Audience, to help your ads reach even more people who are similar to your original list.

Additionally, if you have the Facebook pixel on your website, you can create Lookalike Audiences based on people who’ve visited specific pages on your site.

For instance, if you track traffic to your “Academics” page or your “Schedule a Tour” page, you can retarget Facebook ads to those site visitors who stopped by, but didn’t take action the first time.

We understand there’s a lot to learn to make the most of your Facebook ad campaigns.

And learning how to create the most effective Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences takes a little practice.

We encourage you to experiment with demographics and the criteria you select so you can see what works well and what gives you less than wonderful results.

As always, we’re here to help guide your efforts and ultimately, increase your school’s enrollment. If you haven’t signed up yet, become a member of our free community of professional Montessorians. And, if you’d like us to manage your Facebook ad campaigns so you can focus on the day-to-day operations of Montessori school, we’d love to talk.