Facebook represents a huge opportunity for marketers. With 2.27 billion active monthly users, the platform gives you the chance to cast a very wide net with your campaigns.

Of course, not all of those users will be interested in your products or services. That’s why it’s important to learn how you can target specific types of people on Facebook. This skill is part of what makes Facebook advertising firms so successful at running campaigns.

Keep these tips in mind to maximize your return-on-investment.

Understanding Facebook Audiences

Facebook isn’t just valuable for marketers due to its large user base. It’s also helpful because it allows you to create custom audiences before launching a social media campaign. Doing so ensures your marketing content reaches those who are most likely to find it relevant.

Basic factors you may include in a custom audience range from age to gender, location, and other related details. You can even create an audience of users with similar interests.

For example, perhaps you’re marketing a winter sports apparel brand. With Facebook, it’s possible to design a custom audience of users who have listed “skiing” or “snowboarding” (or any similar terms) as major interests. You’ll simply get more from your investment if you pursue users who are most likely to consider your products to be valuable.

However, you can also apply key Facebook marketing tricks to reach potential customers who’ve already expressed interest in your brand.

Using the Pixel

The Pixel is a “widget” you can install on your site to collect information about visitors; this information can then be used to improve your custom audiences.

Perhaps someone goes to your site to view information about a product. If that person doesn’t make a purchase, the Pixel allows you to create a custom audience of such visitors to re-engage with them later via your marketing campaign. It also tracks conversion rates to boost the effectiveness of Facebook’s own ad delivery. The more conversions the Pixel tracks, the more data Facebook has to ensure your future ads reach users who are likely to make a purchase or take a similar action.

To install the Pixel, you simply go to your Ads Manager, select All Tools, then select Pixels. Facebook will guide you through the process of creating the Pixel. Once you’ve generated the code, copy and paste it into your website’s header. Facebook will then give you the option to track certain “Events” via the Pixel. For instance, if you want to reach customers who may be interested in a certain product, an Event could be a person visiting a page that includes details about that product.

Facebook also lets marketers adjust the Events for their current Pixels. To do so, access your Events Manager page via your Facebook Business account, select Pixels, and complete the setup process to add new Events. You’ll then be prompted to copy and paste the new code onto your page again.

Tips like these are key to getting the most out of Facebook marketing. Again, although the platform has billions of users, it’s obvious that only some of them will turn into valuable customers. These points will help you target those users with your campaigns.

Today’s guest post for the startup page was written by:

Rae Steinbach who is a graduate of Tufts University with a combined International Relations and Chinese degree. After spending time living and working abroad in China, she returned to NYC to pursue her career and continue curating quality content. Rae is passionate about travel, food, and writing (of course).