What is a Lookalike Audience? How It Works and How to Build One
Also known as: lookalike, similar audience
Short answer
A Lookalike Audience is a new audience the ad platform builds by finding people whose behaviour resembles a list you supplied. Give it a list of your 500 best buyers and it goes looking for others like them.
The simple way to think about it
You show a scout photographs of your hundred best customers and say "find me a thousand more like these". The Lookalike is that scout.
The quality of the result is set by the photographs you hand over. Wrong photographs, wrong search.
Seed lists, weakest to strongest
| Seed list | Result quality |
|---|---|
| All website visitors | Weakest, imitates browsers |
| All inbound leads | Middling, mixed with unserious leads |
| Buyers | Good |
| High-value buyers | Better |
| Repeat buyers | Best for long-term growth |
How to build a good Lookalike
- Choose a seed of people who paid, not people who merely visited.
- Make sure the seed is large enough, above a thousand people where possible.
- Refresh the seed regularly, so resemblance is computed from current customers.
- Exclude the seed from the campaign, so you do not pay for people who already bought.
- Test one percentage at a time, so you learn what worked.
How this connects to conversion tracking
The best seed is built from real conversions, including sales that close on WhatsApp or in a physical shop. If those conversions never reach the ad platform, the only list available is website visitors, and your Lookalike will only imitate people who like to browse.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the minimum size to build a Lookalike?
- Most platforms need around 100 matched people, and results improve greatly with 1,000 to 5,000. Too small a list means resemblance is computed from an unrepresentative sample.
- Is a 1% or a 5% Lookalike better?
- 1% resembles most closely but is the smallest audience, so cost rises quickly. 5% to 10% is broader and cheaper but looser. Start at 1% to 3%, then widen if volume falls short.
- Why is my Lookalike not producing?
- Almost always because the seed list is weak. A Lookalike of all website visitors imitates people who only browse. A Lookalike of high-value buyers imitates people who pay. Fix the seed, not the percentage.
Related terms
Konektor guides
Your ad numbers are only as accurate as the data behind them
Konektor captures the Click ID and sends conversions that close on WhatsApp, over the phone, or in a shop back to the ad platform.