What Is a Lookalike Audience on Facebook?

You give Meta a group of people you value, such as buyers or high-value leads, and Meta goes looking for others who share their characteristics. That group is the source, and the new people form the lookalike. People already in the source are left out of the lookalike, so it only contains new reach. Meta also notes that source quality matters: a source made from your best customers may do better, depending on your goals, than one holding every customer.

What do I need before I create one?

Meta lists these requirements:

Requirement	Detail from Meta
Source size	At least 100 people; Meta generally recommends 1,000 to 5,000
Lookalikes per source	Up to 500
Source types	Custom audiences, Pages, the Meta Pixel or apps; saved audiences can’t be a source
Permission for a custom audience source	Admin or advertiser on the ad account
Permission for a Page or Pixel source	Admin on that Page or Pixel

How do I create a lookalike audience?

1. Open Audiences, or use the audience section while creating an ad set in Ads Manager.
2. Select Create audience, then Lookalike audience.
3. Choose an existing source or create a new one.
4. Choose the audience size and how many lookalike audiences you want, using the percentage slider.
5. Select Create audience and wait for the status to change.

Meta has changed one step: you no longer pick a location when creating a lookalike. Meta now uses the ad set’s location settings to find similar people, so new lookalikes don’t show an estimated size in Audiences. You see the estimate when you add the lookalike to an ad set. Existing lookalikes aren’t affected.

How long does it take to be ready?

The status shows “Populating” while Meta matches people, which can take up to 3 days. You can run ads straight away, but the audience size grows as it populates. “Audience not created” can mean the source was too small. “Ready” means you can use it.

What is Advantage+ lookalike?

Advantage+ lookalike, previously called lookalike expansion, lets Meta deliver to people outside the percentage you chose when that is likely to improve performance. Meta uses your source custom audience as a guide while assessing performance. It is switched on automatically for new, duplicated and draft campaigns and ad sets that use lookalikes built from mobile app, website or customer list custom audiences.

FAQ

What percentage should I choose?

In Meta’s Leads Center flow, you select a range from 1% to 10%, which Meta describes as the combined population of your selected ad set locations, and a 1% lookalike holds the people most similar to your source. Meta’s guidance is that the right size depends on your goals: smaller is closer, larger is broader.

Can I put several lookalikes in one ad set?

Yes. Meta lets you use multiple lookalike audiences in a single ad set. When you do, the ad set targets people who are in any of the lookalikes you selected, not only people who appear in all of them, so adding more lookalikes widens the pool rather than narrowing it.

Can I use lookalikes for housing, job or finance ads?

Only in a limited way. Meta says lookalike audiences are limited or unavailable for some ads about financial products and services, employment or housing. For special ad category campaigns covered by those rules in the US, Canada and listed European countries, Advantage+ lookalike is also unavailable.