Lookalike Audience: A Comprehensive Guide to Mobile Marketing
Introduction
Lookalike Audiences are an advanced feature used in digital advertising to reach new users who share common characteristics with an existing audience. In mobile marketing, they help optimize acquisition and engagement campaigns by targeting users with a high potential interest in an app or service.
What is it?
Definition
A lookalike audience is a group of users identified by advertising platforms as having behaviors or attributes similar to those of a source audience. This source audience is typically made up of existing customers or engaged users, allowing advertisers to serve ads to a highly relevant audience that is more likely to respond positively.
Example: A fitness app wants to acquire new users. It creates a lookalike audience based on its premium subscribers who regularly use the app and engage with workouts. The ad platform analyzes these profiles and identifies other individuals who share similar interests and behaviors (fitness activities, wellness app usage, engagement with online fitness content). The app can then serve ads to a more relevant audience, increasing conversions.
How Does It Work?
Advertising platforms such as Meta Ads, Google Ads or TikTok Ads analyze the behaviors and characteristics of users in the source audience. Using artificial intelligence and data analysis, they identify new users with similar profiles and display corresponding ads. This technique is based on multiple criteria, including interests, browsing history, content engagement, and interactions with ads.
What Are Lookalike Audiences Used For?
Acquiring New Users/Customers
Lookalike audiences are primarily used to expand a user base by attracting profiles similar to those who have already interacted positively with a brand. This approach increases app installs, subscriptions, or purchases without having to start audience targeting from scratch.
Driving Qualified Traffic and Engagement
Instead of displaying ads to a broad and potentially uninterested audience, lookalike audiences help target users who are more likely to engage with the app or service. This improves conversion rates and optimizes the return on advertising spend.
Testing and Entering New Markets
When launching an app in a new market or country, lookalike audiences can help identify and target relevant users. By leveraging data from an existing market, it becomes easier to find and engage potential new users.
Why Are Lookalike Audiences Important in App Marketing?
Mobile marketing relies on acquiring and retaining users. Lookalike audiences help to:
- Reduce acquisition costs by avoiding random audience targeting.
- Maximize engagement rates by delivering ads to users already interested in similar products or services.
- Continuously optimize campaigns by refining segmentation criteria and excluding underperforming audiences.
How to Create Lookalike Audiences?
Key Criteria for Building Lookalike Audiences
Creating an effective lookalike audience requires defining a relevant source audience. Common criteria include:
- Users who made an in-app purchase – a solid base for finding others likely to buy.
- Active users over a specific period – targeting users who recently engaged with the app.
- Users who completed a specific action – sign-ups, key feature usage, content sharing, etc.
- Loyal and VIP customers – high-value users help identify similar high-potential audiences.
- CRM data – leveraging internal data to create customized audiences based on company-specific criteria.
Checklist for Success:
- Use a high-quality source audience: A base of at least 1,000 users is recommended for effective lookalike targeting.
- Segment the source audience clearly: Identify the most profitable or engaged users to maximize targeting efficiency.
- Test different similarity levels: Start with a 1% similarity lookalike for precise targeting, then gradually expand.
- Exclude already targeted audiences: Prevent overlap with existing campaigns to maximize reach and effectiveness.
How to Leverage these Audiences?
- Create tailored ads: Adapt visuals and messaging to the expectations of new audiences to maximize engagement.
- Optimize bidding strategies: Adjust budget and bidding strategies based on lookalike audience performance.
- Test multiple source audiences: Use different sources (buyers, engaged users, website visitors) to compare effectiveness.
- Continuously analyze and refine: Monitor performance and adjust targeting criteria to improve ROI.
Examples of Similar Audience Strategies in App Marketing
- E-commerce: A fashion brand can target lookalike audiences similar to frequent buyers to drive more conversions.
- Gaming: A mobile game developer can use lookalike audiences based on its most engaged players to attract high-retention users.
- Fintech: A banking app can leverage data from its premium customers to identify prospects with similar financial profiles.
Key Concepts to Know
- Source Audience: The initial group of users used to generate a lookalike audience.
- Similarity Percentage (1%-10%): The lower the percentage, the closer the lookalike audience matches the source audience.
- Audience Exclusion: Ensures already targeted users are not duplicated in new campaigns.
- Dynamic Segmentation: Automatically updates audiences based on performance and new data collection.
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Conclusion
Lookalike audiences are a powerful tool for optimizing user acquisition and engagement in app marketing. By implementing effective segmentation and rigorous performance analysis, they help maximize advertising results while minimizing acquisition costs.
