What Is Lookalike Audience?
A Lookalike Audience is a Meta audience of users who resemble a seed audience, usually your best customers, high-LTV subscribers, or high-intent leads. You choose a size from 1% (most similar, smallest) to 10% (loosest match, largest) of a target country.
Worked setup
Upload your top 10% of customers by 12-month LTV (2,500 people). Create a 1% Lookalike in Bangladesh (~1.6M users) as your prospecting audience. Layer a 1% Lookalike of cart abandoners as a warmer prospecting audience. Test 1 to 3%, 3 to 5%, and 5 to 10% tiers separately, bigger tiers cost less but convert less.
Benchmarks
- Seed size sweet spot: 2,000 to 50,000 users. Bigger isn't better.
- 1% Lookalike: highest quality, smallest reach.
- 10% Lookalike: broadest reach, weakest signal, often barely different from open targeting.
- In Advantage+ era, well-seeded 1 to 3% Lookalikes still beat broad on new accounts.
Meta's 2023 audience effectiveness report shows 1% Lookalikes outperform interest-based audiences by 20-35% on CPA in ecommerce, but 3-10% Lookalikes converge with broad targeting as Advantage+ audience matures.
Why it matters
Lookalikes let Meta find people who resemble your best buyers without you knowing who they are. On accounts with strong first-party data and CAPI feeding LTV signals, Lookalikes remain a top-3 audience type even in the Advantage+ era.
Common mistakes
- 1.Seeding with a list of everyone who ever bought, includes low-quality one-time buyers, dilutes the pattern.
- 2.Testing 1% and 10% in the same ad set. Different beasts; separate them.
- 3.Ignoring Lookalikes because 'Advantage+ handles it.' Test both; don't assume.
Put Lookalike Audience to work
Free calculators
Related services
FAQs about Lookalike Audience
What's the best Lookalike percentage?
1% for accuracy; 3 to 5% for scale; 10% only for very small markets or upper-funnel. Test them separately.
What's the best seed to use?
The narrowest high-quality signal you have. Top 10 to 25% of customers by LTV beats 'all customers.' Beats 'website visitors' by a wide margin.
Do Lookalikes still matter with Advantage+ Shopping?
Less than before, but yes, especially on newer accounts. Advantage+ can rediscover your best pattern, but a well-seeded Lookalike often outperforms for 4 to 8 weeks.
Related terms
Meta audience built from your customer, pixel, or engagement data.
Source list (customers, leads) used to build lookalikes.
Meta's AI-driven campaign setup that automates targeting and placements.
Total gross profit a customer generates across their relationship.
First-party targeting from company lists, contact lists or site visits.
Google audience built from your hashed first-party email/phone list.
Users who already know your brand, site visitors, email list, engagers.