Meta says a lookalike audience could lower your cost per quality lead

What happened

Jon Loomer, who writes about Meta advertising, spotted a message while setting up a Leads campaign. According to Jon Loomer, it reads: "You could get 11% lower cost per quality lead by using a lookalike. Choose a list of converted customers or lookalike to find a new audience with similar characteristics."

He says he only sees this message when creating a Leads campaign, so it is not a change across every kind of Meta campaign. It stands out because, as he has documented, Meta has played down audience suggestions over the years. It started by removing language about prioritising your suggestions before going broader, and has also made the suggestion options far less prominent in the Audiences section.

There used to be a big button asking for suggestions. For Sales campaigns, he says, the options are now barely noticeable.

What it means for you

A lookalike is built from a list of people who have already converted, and Meta uses it to find a new audience with similar characteristics. Loomer's suggestion is to build that list from qualified leads.

The 11% figure is Meta's own wording in its own ad tool. It is not a promise, and the source does not say what it would mean for any particular account. Loomer is cautious too. He says it is hard to prove whether audience suggestions make any difference, and that where he has been able to prove it, Meta has repeatedly ignored the suggestions.

Still, he says that if you are running into lead quality issues, this is one of many things you can try. His suggested route is to create a custom audience of qualified leads, turn it into a lookalike audience, use that as your audience suggestion, and see if it helps.

He warns that it can't hurt, as long as you don't create multiple ad sets by audience suggestion. At that point you are just creating unnecessary opportunities for auction overlap.

The practical reading: if the enquiries you get are poor, try one suggestion rather than building several ad sets by audience suggestion.

Where MarketRead fits

MarketRead runs your ads every day: losers are paused on evidence, winners are given more budget in safe steps, and tired ads are replaced.