Target Custom Audiences on Facebook

Facebook ads remain one of the most effective, and specifically cost effective, ways to advertise your church or campus ministry. With just a small investment, you can reach hundreds if not thousands of potentially interested people.

Facebook is such a powerful advertising platform because our profiles are full of the kinds of information you need to specifically target ads. Location, age, gender, interests—it’s all there!

So, for example, if you have a young women’s group starting, you can target women aged 20-35 within the specific zip codes around your church and know that’s the kind of person who will see your ad.

In the video above, Jonathan Howe, the Director of Strategic Initiatives at LifeWay (and past podcast guest), shares a screencast walking you through how to create targeted custom audiences. He specifically shows you how to target people like those in the zip codes around your church or the friends of people who like your church’s page.

To just expand a little on what’s in the video, zip code is just one of multiple options for location-based targeting. Perhaps even more helpful is the ability to target a specific address with a radius as small as 1 mile. I could easily see a college ministry using this to specifically target students who live or spend most of the day on campus. Want to reach faculty and staff? Use the same location but bump the age range up.

Check out the video above and try creating some custom audiences. I would love to hear if you have any creative ideas related to audience building or if any groups you create are particularly effective!